Marsh bird monitoring summary report: Voyageurs National Park
Kissane C, Olson BT, Windels SK. 2018. Marsh bird monitoring summary report: Voyageurs National Park. Natural Resource Report. NPS/VOYA/NRR—2018/1640. National Park Service. Fort Collins, Colorado
Secretive marsh birds were surveyed within Voyageurs National Park in 2017 to inform hybrid cattail (Typha x glauca) removal and wetland restoration efforts within the park. Sixty-two points distributed in wetlands throughout Rainy Lake and the Namakan Reservoir were surveyed three times. We followed the Standardized North American Marsh Bird Monitoring Protocol which includes both passive listening and playback calls. Nine focal species, including American bittern (Botaurus lentiginosus), American coot (Fulica americana), black tern (Chlidonias niger), least bittern (Ixobrychus exilis), pied-billed grebe (Podilymbus podiceps), red-necked grebe (Podiceps grisegena), sora (Porzana carolina), Virginia rail (Rallus limicola), and yellow rail (Coturnicops noveboracensis) were the focus of the surveys. All of the focal species except for the American coot were observed during the surveys. The most commonly observed focal species were American bittern with 63 observations, red-necked grebe with 52 observations, and Virginia rail with 39 observations. Black terns, red-necked grebes, and pied-billed grebes were observed on the Namakan Reservoir, while yellow rails were only found on Rainy Lake. Yellow rails and least bitterns were each observed seven times, suggesting they are regular summer residents of the park. Future surveys will be essential to determine any local population trends for individual marsh bird species within the park, and to document how these species respond to wetland restoration.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Kissane, Claire; Olson, Bryce; Windels, Steve
- Date of Issue
- 2018-05
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Units
- NRSS , VOYA
- Keywords
- marshbirds, Minnesota, monitoring