2019 Nesting season summary

2019 was not a new record year, but remains among the top productive years with 589 chicks reaching day 13. Snakes seemed to have come out later than usual and some swapping happened among adults.

We have had lots of surprises this year, including a male that we had already captured but couldn't tell until we recaptured him because he had magically lost one of his color bands, but the best and most surprising part about him was that he had also lost his tail since the first capture (see photo taken June 19. Good news, when we resighted him July 10, his tail had started to grow back.

Below is a summary of the seasons in numbers.

First egg date:

2019: March 25

2018: March 22

2017: March 23

2016: March 18

2015: March 28

Last Fledging date:

2019: Sept. 3

2018: Aug. 29

2017: Sept. 7

2016: Sept. 18

2015: Sept. 2

Number of chicks banded (day13):

2019: 589

2018: 571

2017: 697

2016: 531

2015: 424

Number of clutches produced with chicks reared to day13:

2019: 141

2018: 143

2017: 167

2016: 131

2015: 107

Number of boxes in which chicks were produced:

2019: 82

2018: 94

2017: 128

2016: 84

2015: 107

Number of recaptured birds:

2019: 41 birds who were born in 2018 + 75 birds who were already adults in 2018

2018: 52 birds who were born in 2017 + 57 birds who were already adults in 2017

2017: 45 birds who were born in 2016 + 67 birds who were already adults in 2016

2016: 27 birds who were born in 2015 + 62 birds who were already adults in 2015

2015: 36 birds who were born in 2014 + 50 birds who were already adults in 2014

Number of new adults:

2019: 56

2018: 73

2017: 75

2016: 53

2015: 43