Coastal Sage Scrub Bird Survey Report 2011

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Coastal Sage Scrub Bird Survey Report 2011 Western Riverside County Multiple Species Habitat Conservation Plan (MSHCP) Biological Monitoring Program Coastal Sage Scrub Bird Surveys and Nest Monitoring, 2011 20 April 2012 CSS Bird Surveys and Nest Monitoring Report - 2011 TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ...............................................................................................................................................1 GOALS AND OBJECTIVES ...................................................................................................................2 METHODS........................................................................................................................................................2 SURVEY DESIGN ................................................................................................................................2 FIELD METHODS ................................................................................................................................3 TRAINING...........................................................................................................................................5 DATA ANALYSIS ................................................................................................................................6 RESULTS..........................................................................................................................................................7 NEST SURVIVAL AND REPRODUCTION .............................................................................................11 DENSITY ESTIMATION......................................................................................................................13 NEST HABITATS...............................................................................................................................14 DISCUSSION...................................................................................................................................................16 NEST SURVIVAL AND REPRODUCTION .............................................................................................17 DENSITY ESTIMATION......................................................................................................................18 NEST HABITAT.................................................................................................................................18 RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FUTURE SURVEYS ...................................................................................19 LITERATURE CITED ......................................................................................................................................20 LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Table 1. Extent of suitable habitat and number of transects established per Core Area .................................3 Figure 1. California gnatcatcher Coe Areas, transects and detections in 2011...............................................8 Figure 2. Bell’s sage sparrow Core Areas, transects and detections in 2011..................................................9 Table 2. Summary of most recent detections for target species....................................................................10 Table 3. Distribution of transects and detection rates in each Core Area .....................................................11 Figure 3. California gnatcatcher nest detections in 2011..............................................................................12 Table 4. Distribution of California Gnatcatcher nests and family groups detected ......................................13 Table 5. Summary of nesting habitat data for California gnatcatcher nests in 2011.....................................15 Table 6. Number of potential nest shrubs, by species, within 17.8 m (0.1 ha) of active California gnatcatcher nests in 2011 ..............................................................................................................................16 Western Riverside County MSHCP Biological Monitoring Program ii CSS Bird Surveys and Nest Monitoring Report - 2011 LIST OF APPENDICES Appendix A. Coastal Sage Scrub Bird Survey Protocol, 2011.....................................................................22 Appendix B. Line Transect Monitoring Data Sheet, 2011 ...........................................................................34 Appendix C. Nest Monitoring Data Sheet, 2011..........................................................................................35 Appendix D. Nest Habitat Data Sheet, 2011 ................................................................................................36 Appendix E. Species detected during transect surveys in 2011. ..................................................................37 Western Riverside County MSHCP Biological Monitoring Program iii CSS Bird Surveys and Nest Monitoring Report - 2011 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. The Monitoring Program monitors the distribution and status of the 146 Covered Species 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 Game and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service). Monitoring Program activities are guided by the MSHCP species objectives for each Covered Species, the information needs identified in MSHCP Section 5.3 or elsewhere in the document, and the information needs of the Permittees. Reserve assembly of the MSHCP is ongoing and it is expected to take 20 or more years to construct the final Conservation Area. The Conservation Area includes lands acquired for conservation 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 the Conservation Area as understood by the Monitoring Program at the time the surveys were planned and conducted. We thank and acknowledge the land managers in the MSHCP Plan Area, who in the interest of conservation and stewardship facilitate Monitoring Program activities on the lands for which they are responsible. A list of the lands where data collection activities were conducted in 2011 is included in Section 7.0 of the Western Riverside County Regional Conservation Authority (RCA) Annual Report to the Wildlife Agencies. Partnering organizations and individuals contributing data to our projects are acknowledged in the text of appropriate reports. 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. Any reader 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 best available or most current data. The primary preparer of this report was the 2011 CSS Bird Survey Project Lead, Masanori Abe. If there are any questions about the information provided in this report, please contact the Monitoring Program Administrator. If you have questions about the MSHCP, please contact 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 Biological Monitoring Program iv CSS Bird Surveys and Nest Monitoring Report - 2011 INTRODUCTION Coastal sage scrub (CSS) is one of the unique plant communities found in coastal and inland southern California and Baja California. This habitat type is characterized by low-growing, drought-deciduous, and semi-woody shrubs, such as California buckwheat (Eriogonum fasciculatum), brittlebush (Encelia farinosa), California sagebrush (Artemisia californica), black sage (Salvia mellifera), and white sage (S. apiana) (Dudek & Associates 2003). In the spring and summer of 2011, Biological Monitoring Program biologists surveyed avian species in CSS habitat, focusing on 2 Covered Species: coastal California gnatcatcher (Polioptila californica californica; gnatcatcher) and Bell’s sage sparrow (Amphispiza belli belli; sage sparrow). Gnatcatchers are non-migratory, insectivorous, CSS-obligates, and are distributed in southern coastal California and Baja California (Atwood and Bontrager 2001). In the MSHCP Plan Area, gnatcatchers are widely distributed within suitable habitat in the southwestern region, especially in the Riverside Lowlands and San Jacinto Foothills Bioregions along the Interstate 15/215 corridor from the Santa Ana River to Temecula, and into the Vail Lake area (Dudek & Associates 2003). Gnatcatchers primarily use coastal sage scrub, desert scrub, and Riversidean alluvial fan scrub during the breeding season, which occurs from mid-February to mid-August in Riverside County (Dudek & Associates 2003). Gnatcatchers nest in relatively dense stands of CSS shrubs such as E. fasciculatum and A. californica (Atwood and Bontrager 2001). There is no estimated trend for gnatcatchers from the Breeding Bird Survey (BBS; Sauer et al. 2008).
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