North Coast and Cascades Network landbird monitoring: Report for the 2013 field season.
Holmgren AL , Wilkerson RL, Siegel RB, Happe PJ. 2014. North Coast and Cascades Network landbird monitoring: Report for the 2013 field season.. Natural Resource Data Series. NPS/NCCN/NRDS—2014/691. National Park Service. Fort Collins, Colorado
In 2013 the North Coast and Cascades Network (NCCN) continued to implement its 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 since been implemented fully (including data collection on the annual panel as well as all of the 5 alternating panels) for the past 7 years (2007-2013). In 2013 we conducted 1,064 point counts at survey stations along 68 transects in NCCN's large, wilderness parks (Mount Rainier National Park, North Cascades National Park Complex, and Olympic National Park). We detected 137 bird species in the three large parks, 92 of which were detected during one or more point counts. For 57 species (all species detected at least 30 times on annual-panel transects between 2005-2013), we present total number of detections on annual-panel transects in each park during the 2005-2013 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 our periodic trend analyses (e.g., Saracco et al., in press). At San Juan Island National Historical Park (SAJH), we conducted 54 point counts, including 38 at American Camp and 16 at English Camp. Our field crew detected 84 species while in the park, 68 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 SAJH. After 2012, which yielded the highest number of bird detections on annual-panel transects in the three large parks since the start of the monitoring project, detections were down slightly across all three parks in 2013. This was largely due to a substantial drop in pine siskin and red crossbill detections from 2012. While pine siskin detection numbers were still higher than during 5 of the 8 years we have been monitoring, detections on annual-panel transects decreased from 999 in 2012 to 403 in 2013. Red crossbill numbers also substantially decreased, falling from 503 detections on annual-panel transects in 2012 to 107 in 2013. Interestingly, red crossbill detections rose at SAJH, from 3 detections in 2011 (our most recent previous survey) to 148 detections in 2013. Despite the decrease in overall number of birds detected, many species were detected in slightly or moderately greater numbers than in previous years. While many of these upticks in numbers of birds counted may reflect real population increases in 2013, it should be noted that we conducted more point counts across the large parks than in previous years, which would affect the number of birds detected. The project’s next periodic trend analyses will explicitly account for annual variation in survey effort.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Holmgren, Amanda; Wilkerson, Robert; Siegel, Rodney; Happe, Patricia
- Date of Issue
- 2014-08
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Units
- MORA , NOCA , NRSS , OLYM , SAJH
- Keywords
- Abundance, alternating panel, American Camp, annual panel, annual report, Avian, Biology, Bird, dark-eyed junco, Density, Detectability, Distribution, English Camp, Eurasian collared-dove, Golden-crowned Kinglet, landbird monitoring, MacGillivray’s warbler, Marbled Murrelet, Monitoring, Mount Rainier National Park, North Cascades National Park Complex, North Coast and Cascades Network, nothern spotted owl, Observation, Olympic National Park, Pacific wren, pine siski, Point Count, Presence, red crossbill, San Juan Island National Historical Park, Transect, Trend, Varied thrush
- Subjects
- Ecological Framework: Biological Integrity | Focal Species or Communities | Birds