WildResearch Nightjar Survey News

1. Upcoming 2016 Field Season

Folks have started inquiring about sign-up for the 2016 survey season, so we thought we'd send a quick update. Official volunteer sign-up will begin in April. We will announce the launch of the sign-up process in the next Nightjar News. In BC, last year's volunteers will get priority to sign-up for your routes, and will receive an early-bird email alerting you of this opportunity.

Sign-up is scheduled for April this year because we're currently building an online atlas with the Community Mapping Network that will streamline the process. In case you're wondering, here's an overview of how the new sign-up process will work:

1. Go online to the WildResearch Nightjar Survey Atlas.
2. Zoom in on the map to your region of choice.
3. Click on an available route.
4. Either log in or register to sign-up for your route.
5. Choose whether you want to adopt your route for multiple years (preferred) or for just one year.
6. Receive a personal confirmation email from your Regional Coordinator within a few days of sign-up.
7. Log in to your account anytime to download your route map and station location information.

2. Program Expansion Update

The Regional Coordinators have been working hard to get ready for the launch of the WildResearch Nightjar Survey in Alberta, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick, Yukon Territory, and the Northwest Territories! Here's what we've been working on:

• The team has been working away at planning routes using the Breeding Bird Survey framework and other previously-surveyed routes.
• We've been reaching out to non-profit partners in each of the regions and are excited about all the new partnerships!
• We've started planning orientations in major cities in each region for the start of the 2016 survey season.
• We submitted several funding applications to make sure the program has adequate support in this pivotal year.
• We updated our website and program objectives! Check them out here.

Common Poorwill roosting on a gravel road. Photo: Alan Burger.

3. First Data Request Received

WildResearch recently received our first public data request following our recent launch of the WildResearch Nightjar Survey data on Bird Studies Canada's NatureCounts portal. The Science Division of the National Audubon Society is using avian datasets such as the WildResearch Nightjar Survey to update species distribution models for North American birds. We're thrilled to contribute to this project and we hope you are too!

WildResearch Nightjar Survey data is available on NatureCounts here.


 4. BC Nature Magazine Article

The WildResearch Nightjar Survey was recently highlighted in an article in BC Nature Magazine. The article describes the successes of the 2015 survey season, and includes some musings on what a nightjar is. For those of you who are BC Nature members, you can find the article on Page 23 of the Winter 2016 edition. For those of you who aren’t BC Nature members, you can join BC Nature by joining WildResearch! As a federated club under BC Nature, a WildResearch membership gets you all the benefits of a BC Nature membership, including the seasonal BC Nature Magazine.

1. Partners Meet to Standardize Survey Protocols

A team of biologists from multiple agencies have been working together over the winter to develop a standardized nightjar survey protocol for Canada. Standardization of survey protocols is critical for ensuring that data collected by various survey programs across the country can be integrated for large scale conservation analyses. The team includes biologists from Environment Canada, Bird Studies Canada, WildResearch, the University of Regina, and Regroupement QuébecOiseaux. The protocol development process used a comparison of existing protocols from the participating groups as a starting point. There was considerable consistency between existing protocols, so development of a single unified protocol is well-underway. The next step in the process is solicitation of feedback from a committee of avian survey experts at Environment Canada, with hopes to have the standardized protocol ready to launch for the 2016 survey season.


2. Eastern Whip-poor-will Breeding Habitat Research

A new study published in the journal Wildlife Society Bulletin examines the breeding ecology of Eastern Whip-poor-wills in pitch pine-scrub oak barren in eastern Massachusetts, USA. The study by Akresh and King from the University of Massachusetts Amherst found that Eastern Whip-poor-wills relied on managed shrublands such as scrub oak barrens and heavily thinned pitch pine stands for nesting and roosting habitat. The birds relied on the presence of trees at a small scale for nesting cover, but not at a larger territory scale. Nest survival in the study area was 63%, which is consistent with other published nightjar studies in North America. You can access the full article online here.

Roosting male Common Nighthawk in the Northwest Territories. Photo: Emily Upham-Mills