Northern Harrier Survey Report 2014
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Western Riverside County Multiple Species Habitat Conservation Plan Biological Monitoring Program 2014 Northern Harrier (Circus cyaneus) Survey Report Northern Harrier female in flight near Nuevo. 28 July 2015 2014 Northern Harrier Report TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................... 1 GOALS AND OBJECTIVES ............................................................................................................... 3 METHODS ......................................................................................................................... 3 FIELD METHODS ........................................................................................................................... 3 RESULTS .............................................................................................................................. 4 DETECTION RATES ........................................................................................................................ 4 DISCUSSION ......................................................................................................................... 6 RECOMMENDATIONS ..................................................................................................................... 8 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ......................................................................................................... 8 REFERENCES ........................................................................................................................ 8 LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Figure 1. Known nesting areas and additional areas with suitable breeding habitat for Northern Harriers, as well as 2014 transect locations and 2010-2014 detection locations .2 Table 1. Most recent detection of, and successful nesting attempt by, Northern Harriers within each survey area, as observed by Monitoring Program biologists. ..........................5 Table 2. Number of transects surveyed within each survey area, and the number of transects within each survey area along which we detected Northern Harriers in 2014. ....5 LIST OF APPENDICES Appendix. Avian species detected during 2014 Northern Harrier surveys. ......................11 Western Riverside County MSHCP ii Biological Monitoring Program 2014 Northern Harrier Report NOTE TO READER: This report is an account of survey activities conducted by the Biological Monitoring Program for the Western Riverside County Multiple Species Habitat Conservation Plan (MSHCP). The MSHCP was permitted in June 2004. Reserve assembly is ongoing and expected to take 20 or more years to complete. The Conservation Area includes lands acquired under the terms of the MSHCP and other lands that have conservation value in the Plan Area (called public or quasi-public lands in the MSHCP). In this report, the term “Conservation Area” refers to these lands as they were understood by the Monitoring Program at the time the surveys were conducted. The Monitoring Program monitors the status and distribution of the 146 species covered by the MSHCP within the Conservation Area to provide information to Permittees, land managers, the public, and the Wildlife Agencies [i.e., the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service]. Monitoring Program activities are guided by defined conservation objectives for each Covered Species, other information needs identified in MSHCP Section 5.3 or elsewhere in the document, and the information needs of the Permittees. A list of the lands where data collection activities were conducted in 2014 is included in Section 7.0 of the Western Riverside County Regional Conservation Authority (RCA) Annual Report to the Wildlife Agencies. The primary author of this report was the 2014 Avian Program Lead, Nicholas Peterson. This report should be cited as: Biological Monitoring Program. 2014. Western Riverside County MSHCP Biological Monitoring Program 2014 Northern Harrier (Circus cyaneus) Survey Report. Prepared for the Western Riverside County Multiple Species Habitat Conservation Plan. Riverside, CA. Available from http://wrc-rca.org/about-rca/monitoring/monitoring-surveys/. While we have made every effort to accurately represent our data and results, it should be recognized that data management and analysis are ongoing activities. Readers wishing to make further use of the information or data provided in this report should contact the Monitoring Program to ensure that they have access to the most current data. Please contact the Monitoring Program Administrator with questions about the information provided in this report. Questions about the MSHCP should be directed to the Executive Director of the RCA. Further information on the MSHCP and the RCA can be found at www.wrc-rca.org. Contact Information: Executive Director Western Riverside County MSHCP Western Riverside County Monitoring Program Administrator Regional Conservation Authority c/o Adam Malisch Riverside Centre Building 4500 Glenwood Drive, Bldg. C 3403 10th Street, Suite 320 Riverside, CA 92501 Riverside, CA 92501 Ph: (951) 248-2552 Ph: (951) 955-9700 Western Riverside County MSHCP iii Biological Monitoring Program 2014 Northern Harrier Survey Report INTRODUCTION The Northern Harrier (Circus cyaneus) is one of 45 bird species covered by the Western Riverside County MSHCP (Dudek & Associates 2003) and is a Species of Special Concern in California (Davis and Niemela 2008). The Northern Harrier is a medium-sized raptor that prefers open habitats (Bohall and Collopy 1984) and has a breeding range that extends south of the Alaskan tundra and throughout Canada, south to southern California, east to southern Texas, and across to northern Virginia (Smith et al. 2011). Outside of the MSHCP Plan Area in California, harriers occur in the Central Valley, Sierra Nevada Mountains, and northeastern California at elevations ranging from sea level to 1,700 m (Garrett and Dunn 1981). Documentation of harriers breeding in western Riverside County is sparse (Garrett and Dunn 1981), but some locations within the Plan Area, including Mystic Lake/San Jacinto Wildlife Area (WA) (Garrett and Dunn 1981), Lake Skinner (Bloom 2002, personal communication in Dudek & Associates 2003), Chino Hills, Lake Mathews-Estelle Mountain, Lake Elsinore grasslands/Collier Marsh, Vail Lake/Wilson Valley/east Temecula Creek, and Garner Valley (Cooper 2001) are identified as historical breeding locations (Fig. 1). Harriers tend to nest on the ground in patches of shrubby or dense vegetation throughout their range (Brown and Amadon 1968; Toland 1986; Christiansen and Reinert 1990). Nests are typically constructed near water but may also be located in agricultural fields or grasslands several miles from water (Call 1978). Nests usually consist of a mound of sticks or grasses when built on wet habitat, or a cup of grasses when constructed on dry sites (Call 1978). Wet nest sites seem to be preferred (Forcey et al. 2014), perhaps due to a decreased risk of predation (Simmons and Smith 1985; Simmons 2000), and nesting in less optimal habitats such as dry cropland may result in increased nest failure due to predation or human disturbance (Smith et al. 2011). Data on pair formation and breeding dates for harriers in southern California are sparse, but males throughout the range tend to arrive on breeding grounds 5–10 d before females, sometime between late February and early April. Nests are built soon thereafter, with construction lasting several days to two weeks. Eggs are laid between late March and late June, with the timing related to prey abundance (e.g., high vole abundance leads to earlier egg-laying). Incubation lasts 28–36 d and nestlings fledge at about six weeks of age; however, fledglings remain in the vicinity of the nest for an additional two weeks. Overall, the breeding season lasts 120–135 d (Smith et al. 2011). Five species objectives are identified for this species, three of which are directed at conserving breeding locations and monitoring nests (Dudek & Associates 2003). Seven known and historic Northern Harrier breeding locations are identified in the MSHCP: Mystic Lake/San Jacinto WA, Lake Skinner/Diamond Valley Lake, Chino Hills, Lake Mathews-Estelle Mountain, Lake Elsinore grasslands/Collier Marsh, Vail Lake/Wilson Valley/east Temecula Creek, and Garner Valley. Two additional areas, Potrero and the Prado Basin/Santa Ana River, are identified as containing suitable breeding habitat (Dudek & Associates 2003) (Fig. 1). Objective 5 of the species account specifies that the continued use of, and reproduction in, the known and historic breeding locations be documented at least once every five years. 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