Great Lakes Marsh Monitoring Program - Bird Surveys

Birds Canada
https://www.birdscanada.org

Western Atlantic Shorebird Association

Canadian Wildlife Service

https://whc.org/

Project name: Marsh Monitoring Program

Goals : Data collected by MMP volunteers is used to determine long-term trends in species diversity, occurrence and abundance, and to directly inform and guide conservation, restoration and management programs for marshes and their bird and amphibian inhabitants.

Dataset summary : Participant or randomly-chosen, broadcast-assisted point counts focused on detecting secretive marshbirds (e.g., bitterns, rails).

Status : Active

Year started : 1995

Years (comments) : 1994 in Canada; 1995 in the United States

Season(s) and frequency : Twice, or optionally three times, annually during the peak breeding season. Aim is to survey stations with at least 2 visits per year for multiple years.

Geographic area covered : Great Lakes basin, US and Canada

Type(s) of habitat : Wetlands

Primary species covered : Primarily waterbirds

Sampling Design : Non-random, user selected wetlands, wetlands in Areas of Concern

Field methods : Bird survey routes with 1-8 listening stations 250 m apart. Listening stations were 100 m fixed-distance point counts. Two visits, 10 days apart between 20 May and 5 July. Broadcast tapes used for 5 minutes followed by a 5 minute silent listening period

Analysis methods : Annual indices and trends for the number of individuals per station is estimated using generalized linear mixed models with a Poisson distributions with year as categorical (for indices) or continuous (for trends) and survey route as a random intercept and the number of stations in the route as an offset. The response is the maximum number of individuals observed on any of the point count visits in a year.

Data format : Access data base

Data validation : Data are reviewed by staff knowledgeable in the ecology and behavior of marsh birds.

Sample size : Over 6000 stations since 1994 with approximately 650 stations surveyed each year.

Results : Reports and publications are available on line at <a href="http://www.bsc-eoc.org/volunteer/glmmp/index.jsp">http://www.bsc-eoc.org/volunteer/glmmp/index.jsp</a>.

Trends and time series availability : yes

Publications : Ducks Unlimited Canada. 2003 Are King Rails Hiding in Your Marsh? Ducks Unlimited Canada Fact Sheet. 2pp. BROCHURE Timmermans, S 2002 Marsh bird and amphibian trends and Great Lakes water levels Wildlife Watchers 8:4. NP_PUBL Tozer, D.C. 2002 Point count efficiency and nesting success in marsh-nesting birds. M.Sc. thesis, Trent University, Peterborough, ON. 162pp. MSTHESIS Tozer, D. 2002 American Robin nest supported by cattails. Ontario Birds 20:95-97. NP_PUBL Weeber, R.C., and M. Vallianatos (editors). 2000 The Marsh Monitoring Program 1995 - 1999: Monitoring Great Lakes Wetlands and Their Amphibian and Bird Inhabitants. Bird Studies Canada, Port Rowan, Ontario. 47 pp. TECHREPORT Weeber, R.C., J.D. McCracken and C.M. Francis. 1999 The Marsh Monitoring Program of Bird Studies Canada (Long Point Bird Observatory). Proceedings of the Marsh Bird Monitoring Workshop, Patuxent Research Refuge, Laurel, Maryland, 26-28 April 1998. Pages 51-52. PROCEEDINGS Francis, C.M. and R.C. Weeber 1999 Statistical issues related to monitoring marsh birds Pages 31-32 In: Proceedings of the Marsh Bird Monitoring Workshop, Patuxent Research Refuge, Laurel, Maryland, 26-28 April 1998. PROCEEDINGS Weeber, R.C., J.D. McCracken and C.M. Francis 1999 The Marsh Monitoring Program of Bird Studies Canada (Long Point Bird Observatory) Pages 51-52 In: Proceedings of the Marsh Bird Monitoring Workshop, Patuxent Research Refuge, Laurel, Maryland, 26-28 April 1998. PROCEEDINGS Kirk, D. A., M. Csizy, R. C. Weeber, C.M. Francis and J.D. McCracken. 1999. Habitat associations of marsh-nesting birds in the Great Lakes Basin: Implications for local conservation and management NP_PUBL

Funding sources : Wildlife Habitat Canada, Environment Canada, US EPA

Applications for the data : Local citizen groups are using MMP data to help understand and maintain wetlands in their neighbourhoods, regional governments and others are making use of MMP data for planning, and federal governments and others are making use of MMP data to help assess the health of Great Lakes wetlands and the bird communities at the scale of individual lake basins and for the region as a whole.

Users of the information : Wetland researchers, conservation organizations

Environmental assessment : The Marsh Monitoring Program data has been reported at State of the Lakes Ecosystem Conferences and the data collected are being used as indicators of Great Lake health.