Volume 14, Issue 1,
Spring 2004 |
This issue:
Editor's Note
This past year has been a busy one for the program as we worked
on updating previously missing or lost site information. Thank you
to all the volunteers who took the time to respond to our fall information
request.
In this edition of the newsletter you will find the results from
the 2003 season, trend results from 17 years of data, and information
on what program staff have been working on during the last year.
~Mike Cadman, FBMP Coordinator
The Forest Bird Monitoring Program (FBMP) began in Ontario in 1987
to provide information on population trends and habitat associations
of birds that breed in the forest interior. Sites consist of three
to five stations in woodlands. Volunteers perform ten minute point
counts at each station twice between late May and early July, at
which time all birds are identified by song or sight.
For more information:
Forest Bird Monitoring Program
Canadian Wildlife Service
Environment Canada (Ontario Region)
49 Camelot Drive
Nepean, Ontario K1A 0H3
Tel: (613) 941-8377
Fax: (613) 952-9027
E-mail: FBMP@ec.gc.ca
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Results
Highlights
Over the history of the program, there have been 232 participants
who have surveyed a total of 375 sites (Figure
1 and Figure 2). In 2003, 63 volunteers
surveyed a total of 92 sites. The number of volunteers and subsequently,
the number of sites, has been decreasing in recent years with a
notable decline from 2002 to 2003. The decline is likely in part
due to the number of volunteers who are also participating in the
Ontario Breeding Bird Atlas. For those of you who have taken time
off from FBMP for the Atlas, just let us know when you’re
ready to survey your FBMP sites again and we’ll be sure to
send you your packages. (Note: you are considered “active”
and we will continue to send your package if you have submitted
data in the last three years.) If you’ve collected data from
2003 or any year and haven’t submitted it yet, please do so
as soon as possible. There have been cases where data was put aside
to send “tomorrow” and never got sent (we recently received
data from 1994 that was found in a dusty file somewhere!).
In 2003, 119 species were observed. The 10 most common species
in terms of the number of sites where they were recorded are:
- Red-eyed Vireo (87)
- Blue Jay (80)
- Ovenbird (79)
- American Crow (75)
- Black-capped Chickadee (73)
- American Robin (70)
- Veery (61)
- Eastern Wood-Pewee (60)
- Great Crested Flycatcher (60)
- Black-throated Green Warbler (56)
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Trend Analysis Highlights
Overall trends from 1987 to 2003 were determined using the WILDSPACETM
Decision Support System, a CWS data management tool.
Trends are similar to those found in the 1987-2002 period, with
Blackburian, Magnolia and Nashville Warblers, Ovenbird, Rose-breasted
Grosbeak, Winter Wren, Song Sparrow, and Red-winged Blackbird still
showing significant declines. Joining them on the declining list
this year are White-breasted Nuthatch and Downy Woodpecker. Species
with significant increases remained the same as last year, with
increases seen for Pine Warbler, Yellow Warbler, American Redstart,
Northern Cardinal, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, American Goldfinch,
Mourning Dove and Ruby-throated Hummingbird.
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|
Oak savannah
/ John Mitchell |
Fall 2003 Updates Process
A big thank you to all our volunteers, past and present, who took
the time to respond to our fall 2003 information request. We received
responses from 59 volunteers who provided us with updated information
for 108 sites. This information is helping us to fill in the gaps
that existed previously for many of the sites. If you have not yet
provided updates, please send them in as soon as possible. This
information will help to make the data more useful for upcoming
analysis projects.
If your site map looks wrong or there are no station locations
indicated, please consider taking GPS readings for your stations
(if you have access to a GPS unit) or use a topographic map to indicate
the station locations.
If you submitted new coordinates and would like to see what your
site looks like on the map, just ask and we’d be happy to
send you a new map.
Our fall update process also involved the creation of a Microsoft
Access database. This database now has the capacity to store all
our site, volunteer and observational data, along with the capability
of undertaking some simple queries. The data analysis will still
be done using the WILDSPACETM Decision Support System.
Should you wish to see what information we have on your site, just
let us know and we’ll be happy to send along the summary.
We indicated that we were going to be undertaking some landscape-level
analysis this spring. Unfortunately, this timeline has been pushed
back. We’ll keep you informed through the newsletter about
any such analyses that are completed using the FBMP data.
For those volunteers who indicated they have experienced hearing
loss, we have not forgotten about you – we are in the process
of trying to determine how best to guide you. We will be in touch
soon.
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Changes to the Data Summary Sheets
I can already hear the sighs of exasperated volunteers when they
read the word “changes”. However, I am confident that
these new changes are for the better and will make your life as
a volunteer easier.
Background
While verifying the incoming data last year, there were a high proportion
of transcription errors. It was no fun for me to constantly make
changes and send out Data Modification Forms. Equally, I’m
sure it was not fun for volunteers to, at times, struggle to make
sure observations made it into the right row and column and then
receive that Data Modification Form in the mail.
Many errors were attributable to the design of the Data Summary
Sheet. Observations were recorded one line too high or too low or
were off by a column in either direction. This problem prompted
the survey that went out in the fall. The responses gave us a good
idea as to how easy/hard the volunteers found the form to use, as
well as some idea of how the form could be modified. From all this,
it was determined that a new form was needed and we went about designing
something completely new.
The New Forms
The new forms are customized for each site and station so that only
the list of species that have been recently found at each station
are included. This reduces the number of irrelevant species that
were previously contained on every form. Space is provided to include
any additional species that are not on the list. The forms are now
set up a little bit differently. Instead of having all of the stations
across the top, each station is contained within a separate set
of rows (Figure 3). The hope
is that this will reduce the errors caused by having to read across
multiple columns to enter the data.
Another slight change comes with the changes to about a dozen species’
codes. The changes make it easier for data entry as these codes
conform to the codes used by WILDSPACETM, which is where
all of the data are stored and analyzed. A full listing of the species
codes and names is included with each of the volunteer packages.
Should you find yourself using the “old” codes in the
field, please find its equivalent “new” code for use
on the Data Summary Sheet, then correct the field form before sending
it in.
As always, feedback regarding these new forms is most appreciated
as we attempt to make the lives of both volunteers and staff a little
easier.
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Atlas update
The Ontario Breeding Bird Atlas is entering its fourth year of
data collection. Things are going well, with over 87,000 hours of
field work logged to date; but there is still much to do to meet
the project’s coverage goals in the remaining two years. You
can view Atlas species maps at www.birdsontario.org
*.
While the Atlas data is not yet complete, comparing the data from
the first (1981-1985) and second (2001-2005) projects already reveals
some patterns that parallel trends found in the FBMP data. For example,
the Atlas is showing that the Northern Cardinal and Mourning Dove
are expanding northward, while the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker is expanding
southward from the Canadian Shield. All these three species are
showing an increasing trend on FBMP sites.
The Atlas is showing increases in many woodland birds south of
the Canadian Shield. Black-throated Green, Yellow-rumped, Pine,
and Magnolia warblers are all showing notable expansions south of
the Canadian Shield, as are the Red-breasted Nuthatch, Sharp-shinned
Hawk, Blue-headed Vireo and, to a lesser extent, Golden-crowned
Kinglet and Purple Finch. These birds are all primarily dependent
on coniferous habitat. The prevalent hypothesis at this time is
that the maturation of the conifer plantations in southern Ontario
is providing additional habitat for these species and they are taking
advantage of it.
At the same time, a considerable amount of land that was formerly
farmed in southern Ontario has returned to forest through natural
succession, and the increase in forest cover in many areas is providing
new habitat for other woodland species such as Black-throated Blue
and Chestnut-sided Warblers, Cooper’s Hawk, Hermit Thrush
and, as mentioned above, the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. All of these
species have also expanded their range and populations south of
the Canadian Shield, according to the Atlas data.
We haven’t yet analyzed the latest FBMP data for the area
south of the Shield, to see if the trends found in the Atlas data
are reflected in the FBMP. Given that FBMP sites are primarily mature
forest, we might not expect to see increases on those sites. But
perhaps the overall increase in the amount of woodland habitat is
providing a landscape generally more suitable for forest birds,
and that will be reflected in increases in those species on FBMP
sites.
For now, it’s fun to speculate but soon we will be able to
analyze the Atlas data in conjunction with data from the FBMP and
other projects, such as the Breeding Bird Survey and Marsh Monitoring
Programs, to give a much better understanding of the dynamics of
forest bird populations in Ontario. Stay tuned.
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|
Dark-eyed Junco
/ Lee Karney, USFWS |
Our Amazing Volunteers
Congratulations to all the volunteers who have completed 10 years
of participation. In 2003, congratulations go out to: David
Cattrall, Chris Earley, Chris
Ellingwood, Daniel Entz and James
Martin. You will each receive a limited edition FBMP pen
and a certificate of recognition.
Volunteers
with 5+ years of experience with the FBMP |
Years
of Participation |
Volunteers |
17 |
Dennis Barry,
Virgil Martin, Ron Tasker |
16 |
Kathryn
Lindsay, Rick Ludkin, Margaret McLaren, Chris Sanders, Ron Weir |
15 |
Jacques
Bouvier, Bruce Falls, Bill McIlveen, Ron Scovell,
Cynthia Suhay |
14 |
Chris Bell,
Bruce Duncan, Al Harris, Dan Strickland |
13 |
Jon McCracken,
Ron Tozer |
12 |
Peter Blancher,
Ted Cheskey, Paul Hector |
11 |
David Bree,
George Bryant, Fred Caloren, Nick Escott, Manson Fleguel, Joe
Johnson, Doug Martin, Lynn Paibomesai, Don Scanlan, Don Shanahan,
Jim Spruce, Chris Wedeles, Bill Wilson, Jim Wilson |
10 |
David Cattrall,
Chris Earley, Chris Ellingwood, Daniel Entz,
Helen Inch, James Martin, Jean Niskanen, Sandra Parsons,
Reinder Westerhoff |
9 |
Sue Greenwood,
Helen Hutchinson, Karl Konze, Dave Martin, Deryl Nethercott,
Gary Nielsen, Al Sandilands |
8 |
Mike Cadman,
Rob Crawford, Bonnie Devillers, Joan Donnelly, James Forrest,
Sarah Mainguy, Pete Read, Ron Ridout, Andy Steinberg, Peter
Stinnissen |
7 |
Sylvia Biribauer,
Ray Blower, Mike Bouman, Gary Clay,
Joanne Dewey, Connie Downes, Tony Edwards, Don Fillman, Stew
Hamill, Judith Kennedy, Richard Knapton, Larry Martyn, Irene
McIlveen, Craig Potter, Paul Pratt, Ted Presant,
Lynne Richardson, Ilmar Talvila, Dan Welsh, Mark Wiercinski,
John Woodcock |
6 |
Madeline
Austen, Richard Blacquiere, John Cartwright, Bill Crins, Mary
Gartshore, Ross James, John McLaughlin, Erwin Meissner, Kathy
Parker, Nick Quickert, Bob Sachs, Don Stuckey, Janice Sukhiani,
Steve Wendt, Charlie Whitelaw, Audrey Wilson |
5 |
Alfred Adamo,
John Blaney, Terry Bradt, Rob Cheskey,
Tom Cosburn, Richard Frank, David Hawke, Mike Lepage,
Ken McIlwrick, Annette Mess, Chris Michener, Richard Moore,
Bill Murphy, Bob Whittam |
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FBMP Data Submitted
to the Ontario Breeding Bird Atlas
There were several inquiries last fall as to whether or not the
FBMP data was going to be submitted to the Ontario Breeding Bird
Atlas. The answer to that question is “yes.” All data
from 2001 and 2002 have been submitted. Point count data for those
who used the new method in 2002 were submitted along with all nest,
pair and territorial records. Data from 2003 will be submitted this
fall.
For volunteers who had already submitted their data to the Atlas,
don’t worry. A process is in place to track what data is submitted
by whom in order to avoid duplicated records.
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To order printed copies, contact:
Environment Canada
Canadian Wildlife Service
(Ontario Region)
4905 Dufferin Street
Downsview, ON M3H 5T4
Tel: 416-739-5830
Fax: 416-739-5845
E-mail: Wildlife.Ontario@ec.gc.ca
Aussi disponible en français sous le titre : Bulletin
du programme de surveillance des oiseaux forestiers de l’Ontario.
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