What are Season Summaries for Nest Box Projects?
- Season Summary sheets report sets of important nesting statistics describing the combined reproductive success of the Tree Swallows at your project in a given year. Click link above to see an example and also see example below.
- Summaries usually also include in their remarks a narrative or list of situations or events that occurred that season which may have influenced nesting and should be recorded for future reference.
- Obviously, Season Summaries for nest box projects are compiled after the season is completed and all pertinent data has been collected.
- The information entered on the Season Summary comes from the season’s Control Sheet for tracking nesting attempts and also from other field notes you’ve taken.
Nesting Season Summaries should contain most of the following fields:
Boxes and Nesting Attempts:
- Number of Boxes available
- Number of Boxes Used
- Percent of Boxes Used
- Number of Nesting Attempts (boxes may have more than one)
Eggs:
- First egg date at the project
- Number laid
- Average clutch size
- Clutch Range (from lowest number to highest number of eggs
- Clutch Mode (most common number of eggs)
Nestlings:
- Total number of eggs that hatched
- Percent of eggs laid that hatched
- Causes of egg mortality (takeovers, thrown out, broken, unknown)
- Average brood size (young per nest at hatch)
- Brood Range at hatch (from lowest to highest number of young)
- Brood Mode at hatch (most common number of young)
- Number of living nestlings on day 12
- Average brood at day 12
- Brood Range at day 12
- Brood Mode at day 12
Fledging:
- Number of nestlings that fledged
- Percent of eggs laid that fledged
- Percent of nestlings hatched that fledged
- Causes of nestling mortality when known
Weather Factors:
- Brief summary of weather trends during nesting, and how they could have impacted the reproductive performance of the Tree Swallows.
Other/Remarks:
- Whatever else you want to add regarding the season. This could be unusual events or behaviors, different things you tried to improve the project, issues you explored or dealt with, etc.
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Home: Tree Swallow Nest Box Projects
Creating Tree Swallow Nest Box Projects
Spring Return
Nesting Season Behavior
Song and Calls
Nest Site Claiming
Pair Formation
Nest Building
Bird Flight
Mating and Paternity
Diary of One Season at Salmon Creek
Monitoring Nest Boxes and Keeping Records
Making Box Checks Keeping Box Records Control Sheets Season Summaries Print Sheets
Banding Your Tree Swallows Banding Adults Banding Nestlings
Tree Swallows in Research Research Bibliography Glossary of Terms