Florida LAKEWATCH

Aquatic Bird Survey

CITIZEN SCIENCE SINCE 1986

Dear Bird enthusiast,

On Behalf of the Florida LAKEWATCH program, I would like to thank you for participating in this aquatic bird survey. While this project is experimental, we hope it will eventually yield data that will help manage bird populations for Florida lakes. Long-term bird count data collected on individual lakes (through the use of bird surveys) can be used in a similar way to LAKEWATCH water chemistry data; it gives us hard numbers to use in identifying patterns or trends that may be occurring in your lake’s bird populations. For example, these data can yield trend analyses of bird counts. If bird counts decrease significantly over time, this could suggest a problem with the bird population that needs to be looked at more intensely. Additionally if bird counts remain constant through time then the lake and bird populations are probably fine. If surveys are conducted on many lakes, data will be available for LAKEWATCH personnel to examine relationships among other environmental data and bird count data.

This survey supplies you with enough bird count data sheets to record information from 5 trips or birding “events.” Feel free to use the survey every time that you go out birding, just make sure you record the name of the lake and location of the lake on the top of the individual data sheets. Once you fill all of the pages, don’t hesitate to ask for another survey or you may download more survey data sheets from our website at “http://lakewatch.ifas.ufl.edu.”

If you have any questions about the survey, or know someone else who would like to participate in this project, please call the Florida LAKEWATCH office. Again, thank you for your assistance and we wish you many happy birding days.

Sincerely, Mark Hoyer Florida LAKEWATCH Director

Adding Aquatic Bird Surveys to the Florida LAKEWATCH Program Since the inception of Florida LAKEWATCH, there has been a desire to survey bird use of Florida’s lakes. A considerable number of bird species are known to utilize lakes, but few studies have directly quantified their numbers or examined long-term trends in diversity and abundance. For our purposes, aquatic birds will be defined as “all bird species that utilize any type of aquatic or shoreline habitat.” As Florida’s wetlands continue to be altered or destroyed, the importance of lake habitat to aquatic bird communities needs to be documented. Monitoring the distribution and abundance of birds associated with Florida lakes will help us determine which bird species utilize Florida lakes and develop future management strategies. The call for Volunteers Volunteer bird monitoring programs are by no means a new idea. There are many successful state and national programs, including the Christmas Bird Count (CBC) and the Breeding Bird Survey (BBS). Started in 1900 in response to the excessive hunting of birds, the CBC now has roughly 45,000 participants across the U.S., Canada, Central America, and South America. Conducted annually, the CBC is the “oldest and largest wildlife survey in the world” (Butcher 1990). Likewise, the BBS, started in 1966, is a large-scale, roadside survey of North American birds. Currently there are over 3500 routes across the U.S. and Southern Canada that are surveyed every June by experienced birders (Sauer et. al 2000). Closer to home, a collaboration between one of our volunteers and the LAKEWATCH Program Leader has led to a publication in the Journal of Lake and Reservoir Management (Hoyer et. al 2001), showing that volunteer bird monitoring efforts can provide valuable information on the long-term status of Florida’s aquatic bird populations. The value of volunteer assistance cannot be stressed enough because it is the essence of the Florida LAKEWATCH program. Volunteers are the most practical way to efficiently gather data on birds that utilize Florida lakes. Citizen volunteers enable a more comprehensive and intimate understanding of these lake systems than could ever be achieved by biologist that only visit the lakes one or two times. Over the long term, such monitoring efforts help us detect changes in the types and numbers of birds using Florida lakes. Changes in bird populations could be an indication of natural or human-caused environmental factors at the local or state level. By recruiting volunteers, we hope to empower citizens to take an active role in the management and conservation of their natural resources. Objective The objective of the Florida LAKEWATCH Aquatic Bird Survey is to establish a standardized, statewide, long-term monitoring program to examine seasonal and yearly trends in Florida’s aquatic birds. This data will offer insights into the effects of shoreline habitat, water chemistry, and broad-scale climatic factors on the foraging, nesting, and roosting of aquatic birds. Methods Since this program is designed to monitor monthly trends in aquatic bird numbers, we are asking for a commitment of one bird survey per month. However, if your schedule does not allow for such a commitment, surveying every other month or even quarterly would still provide useful data. Of

course, if you have the time and interest, surveys can be done as often as once a week. Bird surveys can be done either in conjunction with water sampling or on a separate day. Before you begin actual bird counts, it would be helpful to start learning the aquatic birds that frequent your area. By using a field identification guide (for example; Peterson’s Field Guide to Eastern Birds 4th or 5th edition or the National Geographic Guide to Birds of North America 2nd or 3rd edition), you can create a list of common aquatic bird species for you area and then practice estimating the numbers of various species. Such practice runs will make the actual counts much easier. After familiarizing yourself with this bird survey protocol, please contact Jason Bennett at 1-800-525-3928 or jpb@ufl.edu to discuss the bird survey should any questions arise. Numerous methods have been developed to survey birds and each method has its advantages and disadvantages. For the purposes of this project, bird counts should be conducted by slowly boating once around the edge of your lake and counting all aquatic birds that you observe. One use of the bird data will be to compare your lake with other lakes. To prevent biased comparisons, it is important that each volunteer survey birds in the same way. Although we prefer the surveys be done from a boat, we will accept standardized bird surveys performed from the shore of your property. Just make sure to note the method you used on your data sheets. Please indicate whether the surveys were done by boat, by walking around the lake’s shore, or by observing from a fixed location such as your dock or yard. If this is not possible or if you would like to survey birds in a different way than described please contact Jason Bennett at 1-800-525-3928 and explain what you would like to do. Ideally, the primary monthly survey should be conducted between 9:00 a.m. and 12:00 noon. However, if this is not convenient for you, then do the surveys whenever you can. Just remember to record both the start and finish times of your survey. If you want to conduct more than one survey per month, try to include evening counts to help detect roosting sites. Evening surveys should be done as close to sunset as possible and no earlier than 1.5 hours before sunset. Make sure to allow enough daylight to complete the entire survey. It is best if two people can do a bird survey together. With one person driving the boat, the other person can devote their full attention to counting the birds. This method will usually result in a more accurate survey when compared with a survey done by one person driving and counting at the same time. But if you have to do the survey alone, that is still acceptable. Just be careful and take your time so you don’t run into a dock, stump, or another boat while you are busy counting birds! Ideally, bird surveys should be done on days with no rain and low winds. The reasons being both for your enjoyment and safety and because birds are active and more visible during better weather. At the beginning of each count you should record general weather conditions including wind intensity, temperature, and estimate of percent cloud coverage, and any other observations that may be significant.

You should travel at a slow, steady, no-wake speed during the survey. For your first few surveys try to travel at slower speeds to make sure you are getting an accurate bird count. As you become more familiar with the birds and all their hiding places, you can slightly increase your speed as long as you are still obtaining accurate counts. Try to stay as close to the lake’s shore as the aquatic vegetation and

water depth will allow. This is especially important around areas of emergent aquatic vegetation such as cattails where aquatic birds may hide. On your data sheet is a list of the more common aquatic birds that use Florida lakes. It is not all-inclusive, so please be alert for rare or unusual species. If you survey bird species that are not listed on your data sheet, please record the species name and number observed in the space provided at the bottom of the sheet. You can also use the back of the data sheet if you need more room. Just make a note to see the back of the page for additional data. It is important to avoid counting the same bird more than once. Often birds will flush from their position when disturbed. Should they fly ahead of you and land along a portion of the shoreline that you have not yet surveyed, make a mental note of their new location and do not count them when you pass them a second time. If large flocks of birds are encountered it can be very difficult to get an accurate count. Do not try to count each individual bird. Rather, try breaking the flock down into groups of 10 or 20. This will take practice but will ultimately make your job much easier. Try to identify all aquatic bird species. But if you can’t, unidentified birds should be classified as such on the data sheet, using the closest taxonomic affiliation that can be determined (for example, unidentified heron). This type of data is still important and can be used to estimate which types of birds are found in the area. Due to difficulties in identifying different species of birds such as rails, plovers, sandpipers, gulls, terns, swifts, swallows and crows, these birds should only be identified to the above groupings unless you are extremely confident of your identification. If you are doing surveys in conjunction with your monthly Florida LAKEWATCH water sampling, you can include the data sheet from your bird survey along with the data sheet for your water sampling and put both of them in the bag together with your water samples. If you are doing bird surveys on days different from your water sampling days or if you are doing only bird surveys and no water sampling, then you can mail your bird survey data sheets to: Florida LAKEWATCH 7922 NW 71st Street Gainesville, FL 32653 To save on postage costs, you can save your bird data sheets for several months and send in 3 or 4 of them together in the same envelope.

Thanks for your interest and participation in the Florida LAKEWATCH Aquatic Bird Survey. If you would like to talk with someone who can answer questions and who will be glad to discuss the bird survey with you, please give us a call at 1-800-525-3928.

Literature Cited Butcher, G.S. 1990. Audubon Christmas Bird Counts. Pp. 5-13 in J.R. Sauer and S. Droege, eds. Survey designs and statistical methods for the estimation of avian population trends. U.S. Fish Wildl. Serv. Biol. Rep. 90(1). Hoyer, M. V,J.Winn, and D.E. Canfield Jr. 2001. Citizen monitoring of aquatic bird populations using a Florida lake. Lake and Reservoir Management 17:1-8. Sauer, J.R., J.E. Hines, I. Thomas, J. Fallon, and G. Gough. 2000. The North American Breeding Bird Survey, Results and Analysis 1966-1999. Version 98.1, USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, Laural MD.