North Coast and Cascades Network landbird monitoring: Report for the 2015 field season
Holmgren AL , Wilkerson RL, Siegel RB, Ransom JI. 2016. North Coast and Cascades Network landbird monitoring: Report for the 2015 field season. Natural Resource Report. NPS/NCCN/NRR—2016/1241. National Park Service. Fort Collins, Colorado
In 2015 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 all of the five alternating panels) for the past nine years (2007–2015). In 2015 we conducted 1,103 point counts at point count survey stations located along 67 transects in the large wilderness parks of the NCCN, including Mount Rainier National Park (MORA), North Cascades National Park Complex (NOCA), and Olympic National Park (OLYM). We detected 153 bird species and one hybrid in the three large parks, 104 of which were detected during one or more point counts. For 57 species (all species detected at least 47 times on annual-panel transects between 2005 and 2015), we present the total number of detections on annual-panel transects in each park during the 2005–2015 field seasons. We caution, however, that these detection totals have not been adjusted for differences in survey effort, observer effects, or potential differences in detectability of birds between years; such adjustments will be made in conjunction with our periodic trend analyses (e.g., Saracco et al. 2014). We also conducted 54 point counts at San Juan Island National Historical Park (SAJH) in 2015, including 38 at American Camp and 16 at English Camp. Our field crew detected 89 bird species while in the park, 72 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. The 2015 season yielded the highest number of bird detections on annual-panel transects in the three large parks since the start of the monitoring project, about 2,700 (21%) more than the previous high count in 2014. Part of this increase was due to a spike in red crossbill and evening grosbeak detections, both species being at an all-time high across annual-panel transects since the start of the monitoring project. There were many other species detected in slightly or moderately greater numbers in the three large parks in 2015 than in previous years. While many of these upticks in numbers of birds counted may reflect real population increases in 2015, it should also be noted that we conducted more point counts across the large parks than in all previous years except for 2014 (Appendix A), which likely accounts for at least a portion of the increased detections.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Holmgren, Amanda; Wilkerson, Robert; Siegel, Rodney; Ransom, Jason
- Date of Issue
- 2016-06
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Units
- MORA , NOCA , NRSS , OLYM , SAJH
- Keywords
- Abundance, alternating panel, American Camp, American robin, annual panel, annual report, Avian, Biology, Bird, Cassin’s finch, chipping sparrow, dark-eyed junco, Density, Detectability, Distribution, English Camp, Eurasian collared-dove, evening grosbeak, Hammond’s flycatcher, house wren, landbird monitoring, Marbled Murrelet, Monitoring, Mount Rainier National Park, North Cascades National Park Complex, North Coast and Cascades Network, northern spotted owl, Observation, olive-sided flycatcher, Olympic National Park, Pacific wren, Pacific-slope flycatcher, pine siskin, Point Count, Presence, red crossbill, red-breasted nuthatch, San Juan Island National Historical Park, savannah sparrow, Steller’s jay, Townsend’s solitaire, Transect, Trend, Varied thrush
- Subjects
- Ecological Framework: Biological Integrity | Focal Species or Communities | Birds