Monitoring passerine birds in the Central Alaska Monitoring Network: 2013 - 2014 annual progress report for the Central Alaska Vital Signs Monitoring Program
Mcintyre CL, Schmidt J, Roed M, Reppert JC, Paulson MD. 2015. Monitoring passerine birds in the Central Alaska Monitoring Network: 2013 - 2014 annual progress report for the Central Alaska Vital Signs Monitoring Program. Natural Resource Data Series. NPS/CAKN/NRDS—2015/964. National Park Service. Fort Collins, Colorado
Passerine birds are one of the components of the National Park Service (NPS) Vital Signs Monitoring Program in the Central Alaska Network Monitoring Program (CAKN). Objectives of the CAKN passerine monitoring program include estimating the abundance of passerine birds and detecting trends in their abundance and presence over time. To meet the monitoring objectives of the CAKN passerine monitoring program, we implemented a monitoring design using temporal repeat surveys and occupancy modeling. Stage I includes conducting a series of repeat bird surveys on roadside bird survey routes. Stage II includes conducting a series of repeat bird surveys on selected minigrids and in other off-road areas. In 2013 and 2014, we continued with Stage I of the CAKN passerine monitoring program by conducting repeat sampling on the established roadside survey routes along the Denali Park Road in Denali National Park and Preserve (Denali), the McCarthy Road in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve (Wrangell-St. Elias), and the Nabesna Road in Wrangell-St. Elias. The roadside bird surveys routes are similar to those conducted for the North American Breeding Bird Survey (BBS). The surveys started within ½ hour of sunrise and took five to six hours to complete. Each roadside route had 50 sampling points placed approximately 800 m apart. At each roadside sampling point, we conducted a 3-minute point count and recorded all birds heard from the point and all birds seen within ~400m (¼ mile) of the point. Additionally, we recorded how we detected each bird (e.g., singing, calling, displaying, winnowing, drumming, etc.) and in which 1- minute interval we detected it. At each sampling point, we also recorded a series of environmental variables including weather conditions, background noise, insect presence levels and the number of motorized vehicles passing by the point during the survey. Biologists who were proficient at identifying all birds expected to occur in the area by both visual and aural cues conducted the roadside surveys. The survey crews sampled points on five roadside survey routes between 18 April 2013 and 15 June 2013 and on six roadside survey routes between 17 April 2014 and 25 June 2014. We detected 90 species on the roadside routes in 2013 and 84 species in 2014. Species richness per route ranged from 45 to 51 in 2013 and from 31 to 55 in 2014. Most detections (78% in 2013 and 75% in 2014) were of members of three families, Turdidae (Thrushes), Parulidae (Warblers), and Emberizidae (Sparrows). White-crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia leucophrys) was the most commonly detected species on the point counts (n=1451, 17.5% of all detections in 2013 and n= 1,617, 17.4% of all detections in 2014). In 2015, we will continue to conduct roadside surveys in CAKN. We will not implement sampling at off-road sites until biologists working with the NPS Arctic Monitoring Network complete their work on developing more efficient ways to sample at off-road sites.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Mcintyre, C.; Schmidt, J; Roed, M.; Reppert, J.; Paulson, M.
- Date of Issue
- 2015-08
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Units
- CAKN , NRSS
- Keywords
- Alder flycatcher, American Pipit, American Robin, American Three-toed Woodpecker, American Tree Sparrow, American Wigeon, Arctic Warbler, Bald Eagle, Barrow's Goldeneye, Belted Kingfisher, Birds, black-backed woodpecker, Black-billed Magpie, Black-capped Chickadee, Blackpoll Warbler, Bohemian Waxwing, Bonaparte's Gull, Boreal Chickadee, bufflehead, CAKN, Canada Goose, Central Alaska Network, Chipping Sparrow, Common Loon, Common Raven, DENA, Denali National Park, Fox sparrow, Golden Eagle, Golden-crowned Kinglet, Gray Jay, Gray-cheeked Thrush, great horned owl, green-winged teal, Gyrfalcon, Hairy Woodpecker, Hammond's Flycatcher, Harlequin Duck, Hermit Thrush, Herring Gull, Horned Lark, Inventory, Lapland Longspur, Lesser Yellowlegs, Long-tailed Jaeger, Mallard, Merlin, Mew Gull, Monitoring, Northern Flicker, Northern Harrier, Northern Hawk Owl, northern pintail, Northern Shoveler, Northern Shrike, Northern waterthrush, Northern Wheatear, Olive-sided Flycatcher, Orange-crowned Warbler, Osprey, Passerine, Red-Tailed Hawk, Rock Ptarmigan, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Savannah Sparrow, Scaup sp, Short-Eared Owl, Snow Bunting, Snow Goose, Solitary Sandpiper, sora, spruce grouse, Surfbird, swainson's thrush, Tennessee Warbler, tree swallow, trumpeter swan, Tundra Swan, Varied thrush, violet-green swallow, wandering tattler, Western Wood-pewee, Whimbrel, Willow Ptarmigan, Wilson's Snipe, Wilson's warbler, Wrangell-St.Elias, WRST, Yellow warbler, yellow-rumped warbler
- Subjects
- Ecological Framework: Biological Integrity | Focal Species or Communities | Birds