Hi All, Sorry for short notice, but I wanted to make sure you were all included in the following volunteer opportunities at the refuge. Waterbird Flush Counts and Detectability Surveys As you may be aware, volunteers, Larue St. Clair and Jackie Bakker, and regional US Fish and Wildlife Service staff, Jamie O'Brien, do weekly waterbird surveys in refuge and state emergent marshes. They do an excellent job, however in many marshes the vegetation is so thick that it is impossible for them to get an accurate count. This not only makes it seem as though there are less birds here than there really are but it also makes it seem as though this thick vegetation is not providing good habitat. To mitigate this detectability issue, we will be conducting flush counts in refuge impoundments with thick vegetation. Larue, Jackie, and Jamie will do their regular survey and immediately following their survey, we will flush the birds out of the impoundment and count them. This way, we can compare the number initially counted to the number that is flushed to determine the total birds in the marsh and to get some sense of the percent of birds present that are actually counted. We need a lot of volunteers to stand at the edge of the marsh and assist with counting and recording, and we hope you can help! The more people we have for these surveys, the better. You will not need to go into the marsh at all so you won't need waders and won't get wet. We need people to help with both counting and recording so all are welcome even if you are not proficient at identifying or counting waterfowl in flight. We will need you to be here for about three hours total. Please let me know if you can make it for any of these surveys.
Tuesday, November 6, Meet at the refuge office at 8:30 to survey the Main Pool Thursday, November 8, Meet at the refuge office at 9:15 to survey the Sandhill Crane Unit Friday, November 9, Meet at the refuge office at 9:00 to survey Tschache Pool Feel free to pass this along to anyone you think may find this work interesting. Thank you! Linda Chorba Ziemba Wildlife Biologist Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge 3395 Routes 5/20 East Seneca Falls, NY 13148 Phone: 315-568-5987 ext. 225 Fax: 315-568-8835 -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
