The birds of Guilford Courthouse National Military Park
Gerwin JA and Browning RB. 2006. The birds of Guilford Courthouse National Military Park. North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. Raleigh, North Carolina
During the breeding season five-minute, fixed-radius point counts were conducted at 15 points selected by the National Park Service. We recorded bird detections in time intervals of 0-3 minutes, and 3-5 minutes. We also estimated the distance of each detection in three“bands” of 0-25m, 25-50m, and >50m. We participated in some distance estimating exercises and discovered that our abilities to accurately estimate individual bird distances were rather poor, even after training (resulting in unacceptably high variances). The results indicated we were better able to estimate within “bands”, and thus we resorted to the traditionally used bands noted above. These should still provide a useful distance estimate while greatly reducing variances.In the non-breeding period, surveys were conducted using a combination of three observation methods: flock encounters, transects and points. “Flock encounters” involve documenting both the species in a flock and the number of individuals of each species (most flocks contain more than onespecies). These flock encounters were scored while walking between the preset point count locations. If a mixed species flock was discovered at one of the preset points, it was recorded as occurring at that point.
- Type
- Unpublished Report
- Authors
- Gerwin, John; Browning, Rebecca
- Date of Issue
- 2006-12
- Publisher
- North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences
- Units
- CUPN , GUCO
- Keywords
- Avian, Bird, Bird Inventory, Birds Inventory Reports, Inventory, Vertebrate