[mou] Comments on MOURC, long

[Cheryl Fox]

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" <Mark.Alt@BestBuy.com> 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
>jtpbirder@yahoo.com
>
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