Different methods have been used as proxies e g , nest success to assess productivity duckling production across a suite of hypotheses ranging from nest predator control buxton 2010, chodachek and…

Different methods have been used as proxies e g , nest success to assess productivity duckling production across a suite of hypotheses ranging from nest predator control buxton 2010, chodachek and chamberlain 2006, garrettson and rohwer 2001, pieron and rohwer 2010, stephens ET AL 2005 to renewable energy development heckett ET AL 2013 ultimately, many field studies are interested in assessment of production of ducklings in the past, direct brood counts were used, but have been abandoned due to issues with detectability alternatively, the monitoring of nest success has been used extensively to measure variation in one component of production however, the ultimate measure of production is the product of several vital rates, of which nest success is only one from this list amundson ET AL 2013, hoekman ET AL 2002, johnson ET AL 1992 additionally, monitoring nest success in traditional ways does have impacts such as higher nest abandonment rates bushaw ET AL 2021, garrettson ET AL 2010, olson 2011 there is a need to develop new, faster, and less invasive techniques to determine the ultimate measure of production, which is the number of ducklings produced to the age of fledging, rather than a single component of production lastly, the use of drones to accomplish data collection of production would yield rapid results compared to traditional methods of monitoring duck production this rapid assessment would allow for broader assessments of duckling production and potential sources of variation across time and the landscape