Point Count Survey - Terrestrial Species Stressor Monitoring [ds2829]

In response to a drought State of Emergency declared by the Governor in January 2014 and subsequent executive orders, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) was charged to implement projects that respond to drought conditions through habitat restoration and other measures. To provide scientific information necessary to meet these conservation challenges, leadership at CDFW prioritized establishment of a statewide resource assessment program, one component of which would be to monitor wildlife populations and their vulnerability to drought stressors. The purpose of Terrestrial Species Stressor Monitoring (TSM) was to begin the monitoring process by collecting baseline survey data on a wide variety of common wildlife species throughout the Great Valley and Mojave Desert ecoregions. Data collected at some or all study sites include infrared camera trap images, ultrasonic acoustic recordings, audible acoustic recordings, visual encounter surveys for reptiles and amphibians, avian point counts, and vegetation surveys. The data will be used to estimate occupancy and abundance of wildlife species and to model associations with drought and other habitat conditions.

<DIV STYLE="text-align:Left;"><DIV><DIV><P><SPAN>Avian point count surveys were conducted at 184 Great Valley study sites, and 107 Mojave Desert sites, between March and June 2017. Whenever possible, three independent point count surveys of five minutes each were conducted over the course of the month-long survey period at each site. To enable relatively accurate distance measurements, observers would mentally mark 50 meters in each cardinal direction using a rangefinder. Observer qualifications determined the complexity of the survey being conducted, with a focal survey recording data for only 25 pre-designated species; for comprehensive surveys, data for all bird species was collected. During survey site establishment visits, a 15-minute quiet period was taken at the point count center prior to starting the survey; subsequent visits only required a 5-minute quiet period. During the quiet period, the observer recorded general information about the survey location, weather, etc. During the point count, observers recorded the name of each species using six letter codes. Individuals of each species were tallied within the three different distance categories: &lt; 50 meters, &gt; 50 meters, and flyover. Birds seen at multiple distances were recorded only at the closest distance. Observers also recorded the confidence level of their observations and the type of detection (aural and/or visual). When individuals were detected at different confidence levels, the observer created distinct entries of the species and separated them by confidence. If an unknown species was detected, the observation was labelled as UNK, numbered, recorded with the technicians best guess to species ID, and marked at low confidence (e.g. UNK1 HOUFIN).</SPAN></P></DIV></DIV></DIV>

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