At the risk of opening a new can of worms we could speculate why there are few King Rails (if that is the case) and how to change that trend.
Cheri At 01:49 PM 2/19/04, Jeff Price wrote: >--- "Alt, Mark" <[email protected]> wrote: > >If > anyone has a methodology and an idea of where to >go > to find King Rails, let me know. It can't be >much harder than chasing Yellow Rails in McGregor, and >I considered that fun. > >Years ago there was a concentrated effort to find >Yellow Rails in North Dakota. The surveyor (Gordon >Berkey?) found far more Yellow Rail locations than >previously known. > >There have been various techniques put forward to look >for wetland species. Many of them are variants on >call counts with tape playback. As long as the >methodology is consistent then you are making a >reasonable effort. For King Rail it might mean - > >1) Identify areas the species is likely to be found (a >wheatfield won't cut it). If there are roads then you >can use a road survey. If not, it may mean some work >in boats. > >2) Determine an adequate distance between survey >points (this might take some literature review). >Maybe every quarter of a mile, maybe a half-mile, >maybe a mile. > >3) Stop at that point during peak calling period and >listen for 1 minute. If you hear a rail mark it >present and move on. If you don't, play a tape for a >period of time (again, check the literature). Stop >and listen for 1 minute. Try again. No response, >assume bird is not present. > >4) Repeat for other wetlands on your survey route. > >Obviously, this would need to be refined but the goal >is a survey not a population estimate nor looking for >population trends. > > > > >===== >Jeff Price >Boulder, CO >[email protected] > >__________________________________ >Do you Yahoo!? >Yahoo! Mail SpamGuard - Read only the mail you want. >http://antispam.yahoo.com/tools >_______________________________________________ >mou-net mailing list >[email protected] >http://cbs.umn.edu/mailman/listinfo/mou-net
