North Coast and Cascades Network landbird monitoring: Report for the 2012 field season

Holmgren, Amanda; Wilkerson, Robert; Siegel, Rodney; Kuntz, Robert

In 2012 the North Coast and Cascades Network (NCCN) continued to implement the Network’s landbird monitoring protocol, in partnership with The Institute for Bird Populations. The protocol was partially implemented (with data collected from the annual panel only) as part of protocol development (2005-2006), and has subsequently been implemented fully (including data collection on the annual panel as well as the five alternating panels) for the past six years (2007-2012). In 2012 we conducted 1,026 point counts at point count survey stations located along 68 transects in the NCCN, including Mount Rainier National Park (MORA), North Cascades National Park Complex (NOCA), and Olympic National Park (OLYM). We detected 148 bird species in the three large parks, 88 of which were detected during one or more point counts. For 57 species (all species detected at least 25 times on annual-panel transects between 2005 and 2012), we present the total number of detections on annual-panel transects in each park during the 2005-2012 field seasons. We caution, however, that these detection totals have not been adjusted for differences in survey effort or potential differences in detectability of birds between years; such adjustments will be made in conjunction with our periodic trend analyses. At Lewis and Clark National Historical Park (LEWI), we conducted 71 point counts, including 37 at Cape Disappointment, 29 at Fort Clatsop, and five at Sunset Beach. Our field crew detected 72 species while in the park, 63 of which were detected during point counts. We present the number of detections, and the number of points with detections, for each species detected during point counts at LEWI. After an overall decrease in the number of birds detected in the large parks in 2011, 2012 yielded the highest number of detections on annual-panel transects since the start of the monitoring project. The number of bird detections increased at all three large parks, largely due to the increase in pine siskin and red crossbill detections. In 2012 there were 999 pine siskin detections on annual-panel transects, compared to 121 in 2011. In 2008, the year with the greatest number of pine siskin detections prior to 2012, there were 962 pine siskin detections on annual-panel transects, indicating similar irruptions in 2008 and 2012. Red crossbill numbers also substantially increased, from 90 detections on annual-panel transects in 2011 to 503 in 2012. In 2008, also the year with the greatest number of red crossbill detections prior to 2012, there were 303 detections on the annual panel. While pine siskin and red crossbill numbers clearly ticked upward in 2012, it should also be noted that we conducted more point counts on both annual and alternating-panel transects across the large parks than in any previous year, which likely affected the number of birds we detected. Our next periodic trend analyses will explicitly account for annual variation in survey effort.

North Coast and Cascades Network landbird monitoring: Report for the 2012 field season

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