To facilitate and promote consistency in data collection and the interpretation of nest results, MWDI provides forms to establish project site box profiles and to monitor & analyze results.

Nest Box Profile Form
The Nest Box Profile Form spreadsheet provide a way to develop a numbering sequence, by area and by the basic box facts:

• Nest box condition

• Predator guard type and condition

• Box placement category

• Habitat information

The form also includes many other qualitative items such as access issues (hip boots, chest wader, boat, ladder requirements, tide issues - by box as needed, projected repair scenario, predator issues, distance between boxes and other things to watch for.

The box placement category "Visibly Isolated" is somewhat subjective but it does provide an important piece of information on which nest results often hinge. If a box is visibly isolated, i.e. well hidden, it may relate to future nest dumping and/or usability factors.

Nest Inspection Form
The Nest Box Field Inspection Form and the Example of Nest Inspection Detailed Analysis should be relatively self-explanatory.

Note: For one-time or final nest inspections, certain information is not needed. However, information about nest type (Normal or Dump) and Nest Cover (None, Nest Material, Down) are very important diagnostics to record as final and chronological nest progress indicators.

For example, nest abandonment analysis is facilitated if nest progression is known and the number of eggs left behind or how they look when destroyed is described. Consider the following examples:

• If down is left in a bowl-like shape not covering all eggs (with duck poop on them), this is very telling! It means the hen was scared off the nest and never returned.

• A normal nest (15 eggs or less) with down covering all eggs, but abandoned, is an indicator that the hen may have been killed while away from the nest, as everything left behind was in good order.

• A nest with down and all eggs hatched or with membranes strongly suggests snake predation, as the hen got to the incubation stage (e.g.. the down covering) but the snake ate them all and left.

• A dump nest with no egg covering strongly suggests nest strife as an abandonment reason, especially if several eggs are cracked and/or yolk is spread around the box.

• A nest with 1-3 eggs and no cover strongly suggest a "drop" nest, one which the hen(s) never intended to incubate but perhaps wanted to hedge their productivity risk by leaving an egg or two for another hen to take over.

Please download Field Inspection and Nest Box Profile forms from the links below. These forms are provided in Microsoft Excel format and are set up to be printed at 11" x 8 1/2" (letter - landscape).