|
Riparian Songbird Habitat Assessment and Long-term Monitoring on Hart Mountain and Sheldon National Wildlife Refuges
Active
Riparian areas in the western United States support a higher diversity of breeding songbirds than surrounding habitats, but they are often affected by livestock grazing. USGS scientists are comparing riparian songbird abundance immediately after cattle were removed from Hart Mountain and Sheldon National Wildlife Refuges (1991-1993) to abundance a decade later (2000-2002). Results show large increases in abundance of most foraging and nesting bird communities, especially on Hart Mountain, as well as increases in riparian shrubs and regeneration in aspen that are consistent with cattle removal. Additional plots were surveyed in the latter period to provide a more robust monitoring scheme for future years and to quantify bird-habitat associations among aspen, willow, and meadow cover types. An estimate of nesting success on a subset of plots suggested that brood parasitism was relatively low and nesting success was relatively high compared to other western sites, particularly in aspen. The surveys will be repeated in 2010-2012, and the results compared to earlier surveys.
Heltzel, J., Earnst, S.L., 2006, Factors influencing nest success of songbirds in aspen and willow riparian areas in the Great Basin: The Condor, v. 108, no. 4, p. 842-855. [Highlight] [Abs] [FullText] Catalog No: 1687 Earnst, S.L., Heltzel, J., 2005, Detection ratios of riparian songbirds In Ralph, C.J., Rich, T., eds., Proceedings of the Third International Partners in Flight Conference: USDA Gen. Tech. Rep. PSW-GTR-191, Asilomar, CA, USDA Forest Service, p. 781-786. [Highlight] [FullText] Catalog No: 1516 Earnst, S.L., Ballard, J.A., Dobkin, D.S., 2005, Riparian songbird abundance a decade after cattle removal on Hart Mountain and Sheldon National Wildlife Refuges In Ralph, C.J., Rich, T., eds., Proceedings of the Third International Partners in Flight Conference: General Technical Report PSW-GTR-191, Albany, CA, USDA Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Research Station, p. 550-558. [Highlight] [FullText] Catalog No: 1521
Earnst, Susan L. - Research Wildlife Biologist
Phone: 208-426-5209
Email: susan_earnst@usgs.gov
 |
