CWS-ON - Protected Areas Wetland Monitoring Program & Long Point Phragmites Management Anuran Surveys - 2023

About

Data users are encouraged to reach out to the Canadian Wildlife Service – Ontario Region before using the dataset. For clarification and additional information (e.g., ARU coordinates), contact Joe Fiorino at giuseppe.fiorino@ec.gc.ca. ARU recordings were transcribed to identify anurans and marsh bird species of conservation concern for two projects: the Protected Areas Wetland Monitoring Program (PAWMP) and the Long Point Phragmites management project. For PAWMP, ARUs were deployed in wetlands in Mississippi Lake, Lake Erie, Lake St. Clair, and the St. Clair River (Ontario, Canada) in 2023. ARUs surveyed hemi-marsh habitat (approximately 50% open water, 50% persistent emergent [usually Typha or Phragmites]). For the Long Point Phragmites management project, ARUs were deployed in wetlands across the Big Creek National Wildlife Area and the Long Point National Wildlife Area on Lake Erie (Ontario, Canada) in 2023. ARUs surveyed the following dominant habitat types: hemi-marsh (50% Typha, 50% open-water), cattail marsh, meadow marsh, invasive Phragmites australis, and managed invasive Phragmites australis, which included habitat 1-4 years post-management (managed by either herbicide-application, cutting and rolling, burning, or a combination of these methods). Both projects followed a modified version of the Great Lakes Marsh Monitoring Program (MMP) anuran survey protocol. Three 3-minute recordings were transcribed for calling anurans for each ARU: 1) one in April at 9pm, 2) one in May at 10pm, and 3) one in June at 10pm (corresponding to approximately one hour after sunset). 1. The recording for each month was randomly selected from a subset of recordings that met the following selection criteria: Recording date was between the 1st and 15th of the month for ARUs located south of the 43rd parallel, or between the 15th and 23rd for ARUs located north of the 43rd parallel. 2. Temperature was >= 5°C at 9pm for the April recording, >= 10°C at 10pm for the May recording, and >= 17°C at 10pm for the June recording. 3. Temperature was consistently at or above the threshold for 4 out of 5 days, or 5 out of 7 days. Anurans were tagged using a modified 1SPT method. Species were tagged at the first time of detection (maximum 20 second Tag and assigned the highest call code detected in that window). If a higher call code was observed outside of the 20 second Tag at the time of first detection, a separate Tag was created to indicate the calling intensity had increased. Once the highest call code of a species was Tagged, no other call codes (i.e., the same or lower codes) were tagged. Select marsh bird species of conservation concern were also identified during transcription, which included the following: American Bittern, American Coot, Common Gallinule, MOOT (American Coot or Common Gallinule when vocalizations were undistinguishable – tagged as “UNKN” but specified as “MOOT (COGA/AMCO)” in comments), Least Bittern, Pied-billed Grebe, Sora, Virginia Rail and King Rail. Bird transcription followed the 1SPT tagging method.