Fall 2018 Acoustic Monitoring Research Update | MPG Ranch

Fall 2018 Acoustic Monitoring Research Update

October 18, 2018

Debbie Leick and Kate Stone share an update on research capturing nocturnal flight calls in the Bitterroot Valley and beyond.

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Acoustic Monitoring Research Update Nocturnal Flight Calls

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The microphone array is also the world’s largest attempt to monitor for nocturnal flight calls. Over time and with many sites, these data have the potential to track changes in migration pathways and species populations.

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We added 26 new monitoring sites to the existing 22 sites we had from last year.

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Two of the new monitoring sites were on MPG Ranch.

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We also installed microphones at locations outside the Bitterroot Valley to help us compare our data to other areas

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We examined weather radar images from August and saw what looked like promising reflectivity data from birds, bats, and insects on the night of August 18th

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Across our 48 monitoring sites on the night of August 18th, we recorded nocturnal flight calls from over 8,000 migrants

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The Yellow-rumped/Townsend’s Warbler complex and Wilson’s Warbler are consistently in the top 5 species we detect by nocturnal flight calls

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Since we began nocturnal flight call monitoring in 2012, we have recorded more calls at low elevations than high elevations.

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From previous year’s monitoring, we suspected that topography may funnel migratory birds through narrow parts of the valley.

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Wilson’s Warblers ranged from five to 122 calls per site on August 18th

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Our monitoring in 2017 suggested that insectivorous warblers dominated the skies in August, but September brought sparrows and Swainson’s Thrushes

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2018 continuing efforts

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Acknowledgements

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Acknowledgements 2

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UMBEL Update: Breeding Birds in Woody Draws

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2018 Hummingbird Project Update