12 June 2016 - Citizen Science

My head is so full of new stuff that I think my brains are leaking out of my ears. There is an image for you! 

In February, I signed up with the Tracy Aviary to join their Citizen Science team to do breeding bird counts. Sounds simple? Hardly! The training is intense. We have field trips several times a week to learn the survey areas, learn how to use GPS devices to find the exact spots we will be doing the surveys from, learn how to use range finders, learn how to identify birds, and in addition to this we were sent ten or more bird songs a week to learn and get quizzed on. Did I mention my brain is on overload?  

I think we are up to 92 bird songs, most of which are so jumbled up in my head that I am now questioning the ones I know. But slowly, very slowly it is all coming together. 

The hardest part about the bird songs is that a bird does not have a single song. Take robins, for example. A robin might use the entire song, or the first part of the song, or the last part, or add a bit of its own to the song. A song is not static. Each bird might have its own slight variation. In addition to the songs they sing during breeding season, there are calls. Calls can be short chips, whits, buzzes, etc. There are notification calls and alarm calls. The whit call in the mountains will be a flycatcher, but if you hear something darned similar in the valley it will be a different kind of bird, so you need to think about the habitat when you are listening.  It is crazy hard. 

The very patient soul who is teaching us said he identifies over 90% of the birds by song. We'll be hiking up a trail, he will stop dead and say "Did you hear that? It's a Ruby-crowned Kinglet." Most of us never even heard it. Pretty funny. I am getting so I can hear or be aware of the tiny, high-pitched chirps, but I think there were too many Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, CCR and King Crimson concerts in my youth that have affected the high range of my hearing. 

I should tell you more about the Citizen Science program. For the last five years, Tracy Aviary has partnered with a variety of agencies such as  Salt Lake Public Utilities and the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources and through the Citizen Science program  conducts annual breeding bird surveys.

 The goal of this project is to generate science-based knowledge to provide support tools for managers of the canyons to help them in decisions that support bird and riparian habitat conservation. The hope is that over time a baseline of knowledge can be established to better understand how the abundance and distribution of birds relate to the quality of the habitat they live in.

The timelines are different for low, medium and high elevations. There are two weeks of surveys left in the low elevations which include many areas along the Jordan River, Parleys Canyon and City Creek Canyon.  Next week the surveys start in the high elevations such as Alta. 

The survey areas covered can be huge. The area is marked in grids and then points are dropped in. Since it is done by map, you may find a point where you standing in a marsh, calf deep in water and surrounded by mosquitoes. Or you may have to bushwhack your way through brush and tall grass. Many of the surveys have up to 16 points and take three to four hours to complete. 

We fill out a form for each point on the survey. Wind, sky, temperature and noise levels are noted, as well as any water or snow that is within 50 meters. For each bird we have to note whether it was detected by call, song or visually. We need to note which direction it was first seen, how many, and the distance in meters. 

Bird surveys start at sunrise, which means you have to be on your first point about 5:30 am. Getting up at 4 am is hard for this night owl. I am learning a lot and not getting much sleep. It is wonderful and frustrating at the same time. But little by little the information is beginning to sink in and even more importantly, it is becoming retrievable.

My part in this is coming to an end so I will be able to turn my attention to my much neglected garden.