I found five kestrel eggs in a nest box 49 days after egg-laying began. In the Observation record, I entered 5 as the number of kestrel eggs present, and I wrote in the Notes field that the nest has failed. Will it be obvious to AKP researchers that this nest failed? Is there, or should there be, a better way to indicate nest failure?
Julian
Hi Julian -
We took a look at the observation you referenced above. Because you also submitted an observation from 49 days prior when the nest was initiated, our data analysis tools will identify this as a nest failure, since this is well beyond the typical incubation period.
If an initial observation HADN'T been entered, the only way to indicate the nest failure would have been to record it in the "notes" field as you did. However, without at least two submitted observations—the minimum required by our protocol—the nesting attempt would likely have been excluded from any data analysis.
Thanks for checking on this, and for your participation in the project!
Matthew
AKP Staff