WELCOME TO GBBO E-NEWS

GBBO E-News is a new monthly newsletter from GBBO to our partners and interested public. The purpose of the newsletter is to provide regular updates on GBBO’s programs and projects to our funding partners and collaborators, as well as interested members of the public. If you have received this volume, you are on our mailing list. As with all GBBO mailings, we never share contact information of recipients without their explicit approval, in order to minimize unsolicited mailings to our supporters. To unsubscribe, click the link at the bottom of the newsletter.

GBBO NEW PROJECTS

1.  Greater Sage-Grouse and Pinyon Jay Radiotelemetry 

In the fall of 2007, GBBO began a; new research project funded by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and the Nevada Department of Wildlife. The goals of the project are to assess landscape use of Greater Sage-Grouse and Pinyon Jays in eastern Nevada and to evaluate their responses, and the responses of the landbird community, to habitat enhancement efforts for sage-grouse.

Since September 2007, we have been able to fit 17 sage-grouse and 4 Pinyon Jays with radio-transmitters. The sage-grouse were captured at night with spot-lighting near treatment areas, where pinyon-juniper encroachment will be treated through hand-thinnings and mechanical removal. We will track these birds throughout the year to determine how they use the landscape, and whether or not they make use of the treated areas. All radio-tagged sage-grouse are doing great and going about their business, which is currently focused on nesting. This sage-grouse tracking project is done in collaboration with similar efforts nearby by GBBO partners Nevada Department of Wildlife, the Bureau of Land Management, and the Southern Nevada Water Authority.

The Pinyon Jays were radio-tagged in a pilot project to determine the best type of radio-transmitter. We captured the birds in a walk-in trap in the low-elevation pinyon-juniper zone near Baker (White Pine County), courtesy of long-time GBBO supporters John Woodyard and Melissa Renfro. We had received mixed reports on the success of using “glue-on” radio transmitters, with some experts advising us that they would not stay on for long enough to allow for meaningful tracking, and other experts providing positive reviews. We liked the glue-on transmitters, because unlike other attachments, they simply drop off the birds during their feather molt, allowing them to live a transmitter-free life.

On February 29th, we attached the transmitters to the jays without a hitch, and three of the four birds are still carrying them. The fourth bird lost its transmitter in early April, probably because the attachment was too loose. The transmitters on the remaining three jays are soon coming to the end of their battery life, but in the meantime, we have collected lots of valuable data on roosting, nesting, and foraging habitat in this area. With the smashing success of the transmitters for this project, we plan to attach 25 additional ones to birds from different areas, in order to study their habitat and landscape use in relation to pinyon-juniper encroachment. As all other GBBO projects, this effort cannot be done without GBBO partners, and Pete Bradley of the Nevada Department of Wildlife and Adam Ryba of the U.S. Forest Service have been particularly instrumental in locating flocks and prepping for additional Pinyon Jay work in central Nevada.

2.  Clark County Landbird Monitoring and Habitat Modeling 

As part of the Clark County Multiple-Species Habitat Conservation Plan, GBBO was asked to conduct a six-year inventory and monitoring program on landbirds of Clark County, starting in 2008. This effort will be fully integrated into the Nevada Bird Count and also features habitat suitability modeling for nine target species and planning for long-term monitoring of the rarest target species of the county, including Bendire’s and Le Conte’s thrashers and Summer Tanager.

3.  Lower Colorado River Inventory and Monitoring 

Along the Lower Colorado, GBBO is currently surveying riparian birds and their habitats between Separation Canyon (upriver of Lake Mead) and Yuma, Arizona, as part of the Lower Colorado River Multi-Species Conservation Program. Seventy-two plots are being surveyed using rapid area searches, and a subset of these will be surveyed with intensive territory mapping methods in May and June. This two-year effort will serve as a baseline inventory for long-term riparian bird monitoring for the program, and it will produce habitat suitability models for target species of the program, including Gilded Flicker, Gila Woodpecker, Vermilion Flycatcher, Summer Tanager, Bell’s Vireo, and Yellow Warbler. On March 3, the first of the crew came on board to scope out plots and do the hardest part of the work, which is brushing out trails through doghair tamarisk in the densest plots. Since then, the crew has been working hard on getting all the surveys done before the end of the season (July 1).

4.  Comprehensive Bird Data Analysis and Bird Conservation Plan Revision 

Through a grant issued from Nevada Division of State Lands (Question 1 bond issue), GBBO, the Nevada Department of Wildlife, and the other members of Nevada Partners in Flight will undertake the considerable task of revising the Nevada Bird Conservation Plan. In the past ten years, since the first plan was written, an inordinate amount of bird data have been collected throughout the state, including the Nevada Breeding Bird Atlas project, the Nevada Bird Count, winter raptor surveys, Snowy Plover surveys, Yuma Clapper Rail surveys, intensive Greater Sage-Grouse monitoring, and other monitoring projects. This information, as well as recent geospatial data on habitat and landscape changes, have accumulated to provide a wealth of information on the status of birds in Nevada, their habitat needs, and threats to birds and bird habitats. This exciting project will allow us to reassess the conservation needs for species that have been identified as priorities on a regional scale. GBBO is currently busy sifting through all this information, conducting landscape and habitat analyses on the species and habitat types that will be the focus of bird conservation in Nevada for the next ten years.

GBBO PROGRAM UPDATES

1.  Nevada Bird Count 

In mid-April, Nevada Bird Count (NBC) surveyors met along the Colorado River for an intensive training period. On April 12th, the crew and other NBC partners held a little retreat at Pahranagat and Warm Springs Ranch for some birding. On the trip, we discovered two Vermilion Flycatcher nests (in incubation) on Warm Springs Ranch – yay! In late April, the NBC crew started conducting point count surveys, area searches, and habitat assessments in Clark County and continuing northward throughout Nevada. The program’s focus areas in 2008 include Clark County, eastern Nevada wetlands, recently burned areas in the northwest and northeast, the pinyon-juniper country around Ely, and riparian areas near Elko and the Walker, Carson, and Truckee rivers. As every year, we expect to cover about 200 point count transects in 2008, as well as 10-12 area searches in a variety of habitat types throughout the state. We will also scope out alpine areas to expand our statewide coverage into this important habitat type starting in 2009.

2.  Snowy Plover Encore

In 2007, GBBO conducted Snowy Plover surveys throughout the state, in partnership with the Nevada Department of Wildlife. These surveys were a part of a larger project by the US Fish and Wildlife Service to determine the status of the inland population of Snowy Plovers. We tallied ~350 adults, with hotspots at Gridley Lake, Lake Mead, Massacre Lakes, Railroad Valley, and Stillwater NWR. In 2008, we will perform repeat surveys on 16 sites to confirm the results of our 2007 inventory. As always, many partners are participating in this effort, including Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge, Lake Mead National Recreation Area, the Southern Nevada Water Authority, and others.