Pilot Study Results

I previously blogged about the pilot study plans, find out here http://juliaschallenges.blogspot.com/2014/01/pilot-study.html

I conducted the pilot study in the Mariental District of Namibia on a 15km powerline section, totaling to 175 powerline poles, of which 12 had nests on them. Most of these twelve poles had more than one nest on them. The result of the pilot study indicated high site fidelity of the sociable weaver to its nesting: the colonies came back to their exact nesting pole after I continuously removed their nests twice a week for six weeks. I only observed one pole out of the 12 nested poles (8.33%) to be a new nest which did not exist before the beginning of the study, which could possibly mean that adjacent colonies diverged, or that a new colony of the species settled in. Neither of the two possibilities are unexpected since the study took place during the species’ breeding period, September to May, and the birds are therefore expected to construct more nests than at other times. The photo below shows vegetation along the pilot study site. Trees are only found around farm houses and none are a natural or suitable nesting choice for the sociable weaver.