Spatially-balanced Landbird Surveys Within the Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve During the 2011 Breeding Season

Carlisle, Jay; Ware, Heidi; Stenger, Jack

Annual Report on landbird surveys conducted across the Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve in south-central Idaho during late May and June 2011. The Idaho Bird Observatory conducted spatially-balanced landbird surveys across the Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve in south-central Idaho during late May and June 2011. Specifically, we conducted surveys at 30, 1km-x-1km grids with 16 survey points in each grid. We distributed effort such that 24 grids were placed in areas not dominated by lava flows and six grids were in lava flows. We followed the spatially-balanced sampling design and the survey protocol of the Integrated Monitoring of Bird Conservation Regions program such that our data are comparable to data collected throughout the region. We detected a total 6,093 individuals of 70 different species on counts during the 2011 breeding season. The 10 most frequently detected species were: Western Meadowlark (n = 1,569), Horned Lark (1,414), Brewer’s Sparrow (834), Rock Wren (356), Grasshopper Sparrow (236), Mourning Dove (196), Vesper Sparrow (189), Brown-headed Cowbird (168), Sage Thrasher (158), and Common Raven (153). Importantly, we detected 18 species listed by the BLM, IDFG, and/or USFWS as species of concern during 2011 surveys, including Greater Sage-grouse; Sage Thrasher; and Brewer’s, Grasshopper, Black-throated, and Sage sparrows. Though many species were detected in both lava and non-lava strata, most species differed in both relative abundance and occupancy patterns between strata. In particular, Rock Wren, Mourning Dove, and Brown-headed Cowbird were detected at much higher rates on lava whereas Western Meadowlark, Horned Lark, Brewer’s Sparrow, Grasshopper Sparrow, Vesper Sparrow, and Sage Thrasher were much more frequent away from lava.