Nesting energetics ref.

[John Bois <jbois@umd5.umd.edu>]

An important paper: Meijer, T. and R. Drent. 1999 Re-examination of the
capital and income dichotomy in breeding birds. Ibis 141:399-414.

This paper finds that the bigger the egg-layer, the more expensive are the
eggs it lays.  I know we (including me) have often made the opposite, more
intuitive, claim, viz., dinosaurs, because they were so big and their eggs
so small in comparison, they could lay oodles of really cheap eggs.  Some
argued that non-avian dinosaurs could easily re-nest after nest destruction
because of this.  The authors cite data measuring basal metabolic rates,
daily energy expenditure, and the amount of energy and protein it takes to
make an egg.
In terms of both protein and energy, large species must invest a greater
portion of their daily energy requirement in order to make an egg.  This is
due, in part, to their relatively low BMR, i.e., their bodies run at such a
slow metabolic rate that the manufacture of eggs represents a much larger
increase in energy expenditure than for small birds.
Crocs don't renest.  Arctic geese in general don't renest (but that could be
to beat the ice).  Gotta check ratites.  Still, this seems like an
allometric relationship you can sink your teeth into.

However, (to briefly revisit a recent discussion) because they can store
more energy, big layers can bring this energy with them to the nesting
grounds.  This is at least true for many geese.  In this way they can
oviposit and incubate in inhospitable areas before the predators get there,
take advantage of sudden summer productivity, and work their way back to
their regular foraging area when the babies fledge.  Indeed, according to
the paper, for Snow Geese nest success correlates the best with early time
of arrival.
>From other sources, arctic geese colonization is mainly effective against
jaegers and glaucous
gulls.  They don't do well against foxes (a nice tail is that between 1900
and1930 fur hunters stocked many arctic islands with foxes.  This completely
disrupted breeding in these places).  Non-avian dinosaurs, it seems to me,
would be in much the same boat, i.e., they must protect their large
investment in eggs against predators.  Some may have specialized in active
defense, others in migration, still others in concealment in, for example,
wetlands.  But for non-aviators, migrations would not be as migratory--it's
easier to fly large distances than to walk them.  Relative to geese, at
least, non-avian dinosaurs were less able to separate themselves from their
routine predators.  The fur hunter story begs the following question: if the
arctic were well stocked with predators, why not just stay at home, lose
your wings, and become non-avian dinosaurs.  The answer is: you would be
eaten.  So then, become very big to better defend your nest against the
hometown bullies.