RENESTING INTERVALS IN SPRAGUE PIPIT, ANTHUS-SPRAGUEII

Many bird species will attempt to raise more than one clutch in a give n breeding season. For grassland songbirds, the interval between nesti ng attempts is usually measured indirectly because individual birds ar e difficult to track once a nest has failed or their chicks have fledg ed. Here we report observations of renesting by Sprague's Pipits (Anth us spragueii) carrying radio transmitters. As part of a larger study o f pipit nesting ecology, we monitored activity patterns of radio-tagge d adult females in 1994 and 1995. Three birds started replacement nest s 10-15 days after losing a clutch, and one started a second nest 21 d ays after successfully fledging chicks. Such long intervals between ne sting attempts support the impression that the frequency of renesting in pipits is relatively low.