Landbird Inventory of San Juan Island National Historical Park (2002)
Siegel RB, Wilkerson RL, Pedersen HK, Kuntz RC. 2009. Landbird Inventory of San Juan Island National Historical Park (2002). Natural Resource Technical Report. NPS/NCCN/NRTR—2009/156. National Park Service. Fort Collins, Colorado
The National Park Service is charged with managing park natural resources and preventing their loss or impairment. NPS established the Natural Resource Inventory and Monitoring Program to provide funding and technical support to help park units collect scientifically credible ecological resource information and to develop or improve field and analytical monitoring techniques to aid park managers in protecting their natural resources. As a first step, 5-year inventories were initiated in the North Coast and Cascades Network (NCCN) to gather core sets of data describing park vascular plants and vertebrate resources. The North American Breeding Bird Survey suggests that landbird populations in Pacific Northwest late-seral forests appear to be in serious decline (Sauer et al. 2001). Although the avifauna of the San Juan Islands has been well described qualitatively (Lewis and Sharpe 1987, Smith et al. 1997), quantitative survey data for the islands, or the park, are lacking. Existing presence/absence data pertain more generally to San Juan Island than to the park, and in any case are insufficient for tracking population changes over time, or for gauging the effects of any future management actions that may alter habitat conditions. These goals require species-specific density estimates. The objective of this inventory is to determine habitat-specific density of landbirds during the breeding season at San Juan Island National Historical Park, using methods consistent with those employed in other parks across the NCCN (Siegel and Kuntz II 2009, Siegel et al. 2002). These results may serve as baseline data for monitoring future ecological changes within the park. We used five-minute variable circular-plot (VCP) point counts (Fancy and Sauer 2000, Siegel 2000) coupled with detailed habitat descriptions of each point count location as primary means of surveying birds. Based on a 250 meter grid, 77 points were done at American Camp and 36 points at English Camp. Eighty-eight species were detected, including 18 that were opportunistically detected but not during point counts.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Siegel, Rodney; Wilkerson, Robert; Pedersen, Heidi; Kuntz, Robert
- Date of Issue
- 2009-01-12
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Units
- NRSS , SAJH
- Keywords
- Abundance, American Camp, Assessment, Avifauna, Birds, Density, Detectability, distance 4.0, English Camp, Habitat, I&M, Inventory, Inventory And Monitoring, Landbird, landbird inventory, NCCN, North Coast and Cascades Network, Point Count, Presence, SAJH, San Juan Island National Historical Park, Survey, transet, variable circular-plot
- Subjects
- Ecological Framework: Biological Integrity | Focal Species or Communities | Birds