2023 Bird Community Monitoring
The 5th Season of our Forest Bird Monitoring Project on Fawn Gulch and Jackson Mtn was completed in July of 2023. Each year birding skills among our volunteers have improved. The addition of the Merlin bird song identification phone app has proven to be a useful tool in helping us to identify those birds that are much easier to hear than to see. We use this method judiciously, only recording those birds that are also heard by volunteers.
In looking at bird species that are common in our observations versus those that are not, the 5th year report raises an important management question. Which species warrant the focus of conservation measures, those that are common or those that are more rare? The 5th year report also addresses the migratory status of birds observed in our study and notes species that are of conservation concern due to population declines.
Our thanks again to Herb Grover for compiling and analyzing our observations and to all of our volunteer observers who love being out in the woods paying attention to birds. Read the 5th Season Report here.
Use this link to watch a video on youtube with highlights of the 2023 season. Volunteers express why this project is important to them. https://youtu.be/v3APnV0IPnM?si=YzsdoN_uudck9Oh8
Use this link for a summary of findings from the 2023 Report.
2022 Bird Community Monitoring
In the 4th Season, we surveyed a new site on Jackson Mtn which is part of the adaptive silviculture forest study. This site is noticeably more moist than our other survey sites and dominated by Douglas fir, White fir and Aspen and has a more dense understory. We did not return to the Turkey Springs site this year. You may read the 4th Season Report here.
2021 Bird Community Monitoring
In anticipation of our 3rd season, Herb Grover has created a video which recaps the goals and accomplishments of our study. Watch the youtube video here and get ready to join us this May. https://youtu.be/zI1QNo7qZBU
The third season of monitoring bird populations in our 3 survey areas was completed in July of 2021. One of the highlights of this season was finding 2 nighthawk nests (one at Fawn Gulch and one at Turkey Springs) each with 2 hatchlings. Camouflage serves these birds well since they hide out in the open!
You can read the 3rd year report here with a discussion of fielding guilds and the importance of cavity nesting birds in forest health. We are again indebted to Herb Grover for all of his work in this project and to our dedicated volunteers who give their time to document bird populations in the forest.
2020 Bird Community Monitoring
The second year of our Citizen Science Project monitoring bird populations in 3 areas of Ponderosa Pine Forest in the San Juan National Forest was conducted between late May and early July of 2020. This study used the same sites and protocols established in the 2019 study. Two of the areas surveyed (Turkey Springs and Fawn Gulch) have been subjected to fire prevention treatments in the past and the 3rd site (Jackson Mtn) has not been treated in the recent past. This year, additional protocols dictacted by the Covid pandemic were adhered to for the safety of all participants.
This project addresses the question; “What are the effects, if any, that forest thinning treatments or prescribed fire have on bird community composition and structure?” An addition to the analysis in this year’s report is the comparison of feeding guilds and nesting types of birds documented at the three sites.
Summary and Conclusions:
The primary objective of this project was to identify possible differences in bird community composition and structure between Ponderosa Pine forested sites recently subjected to wildland fuel reduction treatments compared to an un-treated, old-growth site. Our data revealed a reduction in bird species richness, abundance and overall diversity on the TS site immediately following prescribed fire treatments in early June, 2019. Recovery of the shrub layer at the TS site was clearly evident, with subsequent changes in the bird community to render this site more like FG and JM in species composition and feeding guilds.
Comparing 2019 to 2020 datasets revealed that increased sampling frequency and involvement of more observers per site visitation (i.e., sampling density) in 2020 contributed to a substantial increase in the number of birds recorded, but only a marginal impact on increased number of species. Regardless, patterns in the increased number
of birds within species at TS were interpreted to indicate recovery of that site from prescribed fire in 2019.
Although the numbers of birds counted at FG increased from 2019 to 2020, there was not a substantial change in numbers of species observed. Increased sampling density at JM, however, yielded both an increase in bird numbers and a notable increase in the number of bird species documented for that site. We attribute that finding to improved
birding skills by observers assigned to that site, particularly with regard to identification by ear.
The secondary objectives of this study concerned raising the awareness of participants regarding the importance of fire in Ponderosa Pine forest ecosystems; the role of wildland fuel management in protecting residential communities in the WUI; and improving their understanding of how field studies are conducted. The feedback participants provided to project coordinators at the end of the 2019 field season, and again in 2020, affirms that we
have been very successful in accomplishing these objectives.
Finally, through the conduct of this project we anticipated that participants would benefit from improving their bird identification skills and, by working as teams to accomplish the goals of our study, they would also form a more cohesive group of citizen scientists concerned with conservation issues. In these regards, feedback from participants in both years of this study affirm that our study has been overwhelmingly successful. Certainly, among the most rewarding and somewhat surprising outcomes of this project was the dedication participants exhibited toward the success of this study, and their enthusiasm for continuing the project in coming years.
You may read the full 2020 report here:
The Weminuche Audubon Society Chapter is indebted to Herb Grover for the work that he has put into making this project and the reports a success. Thanks to all of the volunteers who participated and contributed to the study.
2019 Bird Monitoring Project
Members of the Weminuche Audubon Society are participating in a Citizen Science Project in partnership with the San Juan Headwaters Forest Health Partnership (SJHFHP) and its member agencies to record bird communities in areas of the San Juan National Forest. United States Forest Service personnel with the San Juan National Forest, in collaboration with the SJHFHP, have used understory mastication and prescribed fire treatments to establish strategically defensible areas surrounding communities in Archuleta County, Colorado. This project addresses the question; “What are the effects, if any, that forest thinning treatments or prescribed fire have on bird community composition and structure?”
This is designed to be a long term study comparing treated and non-treated sites in Ponderosa Pine forests, Bird species and numbers will be collected according to the parameters set in the study design. Herb Grover and Keith Bruno, board members of the Weminuche Audubon Society, are project coordinators. Our thanks to them for the hard work that they have put into this project.
Read the report on the 2019 Project here:
For further information on this project and to be included in the volunteer participant list, contact weminuche.audubon@gmail.com . Following are pdf data collection sheets which may be printed for use in this survey.
WAS Teams(pdf) WAS Data Sheet (pdf) WAS Bird List(pdf)