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

Ode to Lower Colorado River Vegetation Surveys

LCR vegetation data collection

The fourth component of our riparian bird surveys on the Lower Colorado River involves performing a detailed habitat assessment for four of the LCR MSCP covered species: Gila Woodpecker, Bell’s Vireo, Yellow Warbler, and Summer Tanager. For each species, habitat assessments are conducted in known territories and paired non-use sites. The assessments are comprised of a wide range of measured variables that describe vegetation structure, plant species composition, and abiotic factors that may affect the presence or absence of the species above. Surveyors collected habitat data at ten use and ten non-use territories for each of the four covered species in September and October, 2012. Surveyors also deployed HOBO units (to collect automated abiotic data for a full year) at six of the ten use and non-use territory centers for each of the four species.

 

We had a wonderful crew- all of which have worked on the bird survey portion of the project as well- out collecting data this fall. It is challenging work! Here are two reflections from the field crew along with a few photos to give you an idea of the job…..

 

Living in the Veg

A poem by Michelle Tobin

We get up before the sun

To get that crazy veg stuff done.

Roll out of bed, pull on clothes,

Eat some breakfast, off we go!

The sun rises, as we drive

And we begin to come alive.

Now we arrive where we must park,

Thankfully, it’s not still dark.

Jump right out, grab our packs,

rods, tert poles, tapes, and snacks.

Now we hike and seek to find

The center points and hope they’re kind.

Striding swiftly in the open,

Come what may, we won’t be broken.

Through thickest TAMRAM and Mesquite,

Mud, slopes, water, sand, and heat.

On to we are not sure where,

What, the center’s really there?!

Break through veg to make a line,

Put up flagging, now that’s fine!

The flagging’s up, the plots laid out,

Now there’s no time to sit and pout!

Count those TAMRAMS, all those stems!

Take short breaks for silly whims.

Count the corners touching sky,

Check hits to pole up really high.

Measure tree trunks, see how tall.

Move through branches, but do not fall.

We all love POPFREs and SALGOOs,

But TAMRAMS get a lot of boos.

Arrowweed stomps, but also stabs,

While mesquite pokes, tears, and jabs.

We deal with all these, plus some more,

And, when we’re done, we’re very sore.

Lots of walking, ducking, crawling,

Climbing, sloshing, slipping, falling.

We wonder how to walk upright

And, “Just what time will end our plight?”

And, “Will the mosquitoes ever die?”

And, “Why are they thickest where it’s most dry?”

At last we return to our 4-wheeled friends,

But this is not where our story ends.

No, we do this again and again,

Day after day, but still we grin.

Reflections from Jennifer Wilcox:

Eight weeks and ninety veg surveys ago we did not imagine it could be done.  But here we are, on the other side of much blood, sweat - and a few tears.  An accordion folder plump with data sheets is a testament to the teamwork and high spirits maintained by our small crew over the course of the season, and with a little distance, we can now reflect warmly upon our time spent collecting vegetation data along the Colorado River.  

The following was written in the midst of the season:

“As we plunged through the densest thickets of tamarisk and fallen cottonwoods with the morning sun already burning high above us, we did not wish for water.  As we tunneled for miles through narrow vegetation with the humidity already threatening to suffocate us, we did not wish for air conditioning.  As we crawled beneath fallen logs and combed our way through willow tangles whilst swatting-away famished mosquitoes, we did not wish for insect repellent.   As we waded through caliginous standing water, feet sucking into the sticky bottom, we did not wish for kayaks.  And as we endured sharp stabs from forgetful sticks and branches, we did not wish to be done with our work.  No, we wished only for a chainsaw.”

Thanks to the wonderful crew for their contributions: Michelle Tobin, Jennifer Tobin, Cyrus Moqtaderi, Jennifer Wilcox, David Henderson, and Lead Dawn Fletcher!