The figure below provides the geographical context for the proposed monitoring of 5 bird species relative to the creation of high-quality Red-cockaded Woodpecker (RCW) foraging habitat: Bachman’s Sparrow, Brown-headed Nuthatch, Pine Warbler, Prairie Warbler, and Northern Bobwhite. The study area was restricted to those stands in Management Units 11 and 17 expected to be treated over the next few years. However, in 2017, the refuge requested stands in Management Unit 17, sub-unit 6, be added as a standalone sample.
The proposed methodology involves fixed radius (100 m; 3.14 ha), spatially-balanced point counts (plots) located throughout the study area. Given the anticipated amount of effort available for point counts in a given year, we allocated 100 spatially-balanced (GRTS) point counts (“base” points) throughout the study area to be visited 1X per summer. We additionally provide 75 oversample locations in the event any base points prove inadequate or extra effort is available. Additional GRTS details: point selection restricted to plots > 50% of area in study area and weighted by this area estimate.
Point counts will be conducted using the National Protocol Framework for the Inventory and Monitoring of Breeding Landbirds. This point count protocol combines time to detection and distance sampling to estimate the two components of detection probability. Essentially, for each individual bird of the target species, the time of the detection (in 1-minute windows) and the distance from the observer (in 3 distance bins) at the time of detection are recorded.