Surveying Birds Along the Lower Colorado River

Well, training is over, and data collection is well underway on our Lower Colorado River (LCR) project, where we monitor distribution, population size, and long-term trends of breeding bird species in riparian habitats within the LCR Multi-Species Conservation Program (MSCP) project area. We are collecting data on all bird species that breed and migrate through the lower Colorado (up to 200 species a year!), including the following six focal LCR MSCP covered species:

• Sonoran Yellow Warbler
• Arizona Bell’s Vireo
• Summer Tanager
• Gila Woodpecker
• Gilded Flicker
• Vermilion Flycatcher

We conduct area search surveys where we identify all the birds in a plot, mapping their locations and recording breeding behavior for each individual. The surveys are challenging, and we train our techs for several weeks in bird identification by sight and sound, breeding species’ natural history, survey techniques, and data collection methods.

Here are a few photos so far this season:

The Nevada Bird Count has begun...

Training for the field season has begun!  Last Monday, about a dozen surveyors gathered at Moapa’s Warm Springs Natural Area for Day 1 of a couple of weeks of birding and practicing protocols. It's been great! Sadly, I haven’t been carrying my good camera with me, so I was unable to get usable photos of the Lucy’s Warblers, Vermilion Flycatchers and Phainopeplas building their nests, but it was fun to watch!  The Phainopepla male was carefully placing materials on a forked branch about 4m up a 5m tall screwbean mesquite, the nest site shaded by a clump of branches, above.  A little over a meter below the Phainopepla nest, a Vermilion Flycatcher female sat inside the nest cup, delicately rearranging the materials in front of her with her beak.  The Lucy’s Warblers are cavity-nesters, so I wasn’t able to watch the action beyond one of the pair (probably the female) carrying a beakful of fluff up to a crevice in a cottonwood snag, the (probable) male accompanying her on her travels.

A little over a week later, my crew is in the field, collecting double-observer point count data and doing veg work.  Yesterday morning, however, we went out again to practice with our area search technique ... and this time I brought my camera!  The Phainopepla male hasn’t yet enticed a female to join him, but the Vermilion Flycatcher female is now incubating, with the male making numerous trips her way with food. 

A Vermilion Flycatcher male surveys his domain

Female Vermilion Flycatcher on nest

And (drumroll), flying over several of our plots was an adult Common Black-Hawk! 

All in all, a fantastic time in the field.  Happy birding, everyone!

- Jen

Scenes from the Pinyon Jay project

In March and April, as a part of our Pinyon Jay project in the Desatoya Range, our surveyors located a large number of their nests - here are a couple of nest photos, taken on April 6^th.  Stay tuned for more details!

Guess Who?

Well, the Lower Colorado River, Golden Eagle, and Pinyon Jay projects are all underway, and the Nevada Bird Count starts up in a week and a half (for which I am abundantly grateful: FIELD WORK!).  But until then, a photo:

This photo was taken in Reno in March.  Any guesses who the bird might be?  The answer is below (just highlight the black box).

Cedar Waxwing. 

Happy birding everyone!

- Jen

The Nevada Bird Count 2012, in Photos

Ok, I had a few folks ask me about photos of the Nevada Bird Count (NBC), since they'd had a look inside the Lower Colorado River project.  So I made a quick look into last year's photo files and came up with some that represent fairly well the gamut of conditions we get to survey, from low elevation Mojave to high-elevation Great Basin.  Happy exploring!

-- Jen

Watch for Color-Banded Burrowing Owls

Burrowing Owls at the Port Kells site, showing off their color bands

In January, I visited the Burrowing Owl Conservation Society of British Columbia's Port Kells breeding program site. The BOCS captive breeding program aims to reestablish a self-sustaining Burrowing Owl population within the interior of BC. All birds within the program are banded, and they are now experimenting with GPS backpacks, to try to determine their migration routes and/or dispersal.  So far, BC birds have been recorded in Oregon and California, as far south as San Diego. If you spot a Burrowing Owl with green-over-black color bands on its right leg, you're looking at a BC bird!, and I'm sure they'd love to hear about it (and if you luck out, and can actually read the color bands, even better).  The BOCS can be reached here, and if you spotted it in/near Nevada, we'd love to hear about it too!

-- Jen

Feeling a little beaky today . . .

Vermilion Flycatcher with mildly deformed beak, Muddy River, Clark Co., NV, June 2012

You may have read about an epidemic of beak deformities in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest.  Researchers at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS, Alaska) are attempting to determine what factors are causing these deformities. Among the potential causes are: contaminants, nutrition, disease /parasites, and/or genetics.

The prevalence is mindboggling - they are reporting within their study area an approximate 6.5% of adult Black-capped Chickadees and 17% of adult Northwestern Crows that have some degree of beak deformity.  And it's not just Alaska - Britain has been reporting higher rates of beak disorders as well.

What you may not have heard is that USGS is also attempting to track potential spread of these deformities, and is accepting records from across North America.  If you find any such individuals, you may report them here.  Useful information to include with your sighting includes: location, date, habitat, any other physical or behavioral abnormalitieis - and a photo if you've got one!  The British Trust for Ornithology is collecting similar information on their side of the pond, listing some of the types of beak deformities.  If you find any birds with these deformities, please report them to USGS - and if you're in/near Nevada, please send that information GBBO's way, as well!

Happy birding!

-- Jen