There may also be some ambiguity about which kinds of failures are
meant to be included among the "failed breeders". The phrase does
seem to cover individuals who fail in the midst of breeding (losing
their eggs or unfledged young to predation or accident), but what
about those who fail earlier in the attempt (being eliminated in the
competitions to secure desirable patches of ground or obtain mates),
or those who just fail to breed (join the northward migration, but
don't make it all the way to the breeding grounds, or do get there
but then make little or no attempt to reproduce)? With several kinds
of failures occurring at different points in the breeding calendar,
there might be several waves of early south-bounders to confound the
picture.
-Geo
--
Cayugabirds-L List Info:
http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME
http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES
http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm
ARCHIVES:
1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html
2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds
3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html
Please submit your observations to eBird:
http://ebird.org/content/ebird/
--
