Wright State University CORE Scholar Browse all Theses and Dissertations Theses and Dissertations 2017 Breeding Bird and Bat Activity Surveys at Dairymen's Inc. Mandy M. Salminen Wright State University Follow this and additional works at: https://corescholar.libraries.wright.edu/etd_all Part of the Biology Commons Repository Citation Salminen, Mandy M., "Breeding Bird and Bat Activity Surveys at Dairymen's Inc." (2017). Browse all Theses and Dissertations. 1853. https://corescholar.libraries.wright.edu/etd_all/1853 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses and Dissertations at CORE Scholar. It has been accepted for inclusion in Browse all Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of CORE Scholar. For more information, please contact [email protected]. BREEDING BIRD AND BAT ACTIVITY SURVEYS AT DAIRYMEN’S INC. A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science By MANDY M. SALMINEN B.S., Miami University, 2011 2017 Wright State University WRIGHT STATE UNIVERSITY GRADUATE SCHOOL August 25, 2017 I HEREBY RECOMMEND THAT THE THESIS PREPARED UNDER MY SUPERVISION BY Mandy M. Salminen ENTITLED Breeding bird and bat activity surveys at Dairymen’s Inc. BE ACCEPTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF Master of Science. _______________________ Thomas Rooney, Ph.D. Thesis Director _______________________ David Goldstein, Ph.D. Chair, Department of Biological Sciences Committee on Final Examination _______________________ Thomas Rooney, Ph.D. _______________________ Jeffrey Peters, Ph.D. _______________________ Volker Bahn, Ph.D. _______________________ Robert E. W. Fyffe, Ph.D. Vice President for Research and Dean of the Graduate School ABSTRACT Salminen, Mandy M. M.S. Department of Biological Sciences, Wright State University, 2017. Breeding bird and bat activity surveys at Dairymen’s Inc. The purpose of this study is to conduct baseline inventories of breeding birds and bat activity for the Dairymen’s Inc. property. In addition, I compared the breeding bird communities of two habitats, black ash swamp and alder thickets. I conducted line transects and point counts to collect data on the breeding birds. For bat activity levels, I conducted acoustic point counts on the Dairymen’s lakes. The data from this study, was used to predict the outcome of the white-nose syndrome and emerald ash borer becoming part of the landscape. The inventory data will be used to create a baseline for management practices and to monitor effects of environmental threats. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE I. INTRODUCTION……………………………….………..……………………….....…1 Background…………………………………………….………………..…...……2 Dairymen’s Historic Land Use.…………………..… .….……………………..…4 Habitats…………………………………………..………………….….…………8 Wildlife…………………..………………………………………………………18 II. SURVEY METHODOLOGIES…….…………………………..………..…….….….20 Breeding Bird Inventory…………………………………….…………...………20 Birds of Alder Thicket and Black Ash Swamp…………………..………………26 Index of Bat Activity………………………………………………………….…32 Data Analysis………………………….…………………………………………35 III. RESULTS……………………………….………….………………………..………41 Breeding Bird Inventory……………….……………….…………………..……41 Birds of Alder Thicket and Black Ash Swamp………………………………….54 Index of Bat Activity………………………………………………………….…59 IV. DISCUSSION………………..………………………………………………..……..60 Breeding Bird Inventory…………………………………….……………...……60 Birds of Alder Thicket and Black Ash Swamp………………………………….64 Index of Bat Activity……………………………………………………….……67 Future Studies and Conclusion………………….……………………………….70 iv V. REFERENCES…………………………………………………………………….…73 v LIST OF FIGURES FIGURE PAGE 1. Dairymen’s Habitats in 1925……….…………….……………………..……………...5 2. History of Dairymen’s Land Acquisitions…..……….……………….………………...6 3. Northern Hardwoods Habitat Type…………………………………………..………..11 4. Open Water Habitat Type…………………………………………………..…………12 5. White Birch Habitat Type………………………………………………..……………13 6. Aspen Habitat Type……………………………….….………………..……………...14 7. Hemlock-hardwood Habitat Type…………………………….…..…………….……..15 8. Red Pine Habitat Type………………………………..…………..…………….……..16 9. Old Field Habitat Type…………….………………………………..……….………..17 10. Sedge Meadow Habitat Type…………………..….…………………………………18 11. Map of Habitat Types at Dairymen’s………….…………….……………….………22 12. Map of Survey Transects Through Habitat Types at Dairymen’s…………...………23 13. Map of Geographical Sections at Dairymen’s…………………………….…………24 14. Map of Surveyed Sections at Dairymen’s………………………..……….…………25 15. Black Ash Swamp Habitat Type…………………………….…………..…..….……27 16. Alder Thicket Habitat Type…………………………………….……………………28 17. Inside Alder Thicket Habitat Type…………………….……………….……………29 18. Black Ash Swamp Canopy…………………………….…………………………….30 19. Map of Bat Survey Sites…………………………….………….……………………34 vi 20. Map of Broad Habitat Types at Dairymen’s………………………………..………..37 21. Map of Survey Transects Through Broad Habitat Types at Dairymen’s.…………...38 22. Rarefaction Curve of the Avian Species Found on the Property…………………….44 23. Rarefaction Curves of Avian Diet Guilds for the Property……………….………….47 24. Rarefaction Curves of Avian Foraging Guilds for the Property……………………..48 25.Rarefaction Curves of Avian Nest Type Guilds for the Property………………….…49 26.Rarefaction Curves of Avian Nesting Location Guilds for the Property…………..…50 27. Box Plots of Avian Diet Guilds for the Property…………………………….………51 28. Box Plots of Avian Foraging Guilds for the Property………………..…….………..52 29. Box Plots of Avian Nest Type Guilds for the Property……………………………...53 30. Box Plots of Avian Nesting Location Guilds for the Property………………………54 31. Rarefaction Curves of Black Ash and Alder Thicket Avian Communities………….56 32. Bar Graphs of Black Ash and Alder Thicket Diet Guilds…………………..……….57 33. Bar Graphs of Black Ash and Alder Thicket Foraging Guilds……………….……...57 34. Bar Graphs of Black Ash and Alder Thicket Nest Type Guilds…………………..…58 35. Bar Graphs of Black Ash and Alder Thicket Nest Location Guilds…………………58 36. Point Graph of Bat Passes per Lake…………………………….……………...….…59 vii LIST OF TABLES TABLE PAGE 1. Dairymen’s Habitat Type Descriptions……………………………………………...…9 2. Broad Habitat Constrained Jaccard Similarity……………………………..…………45 3. Section Constrained Jaccard Similarity……………………………….………………46 viii LIST OF APPENDICES APPENDIX PAGE A. Breeding Bird Inventory………………………………………….….………………81 B. Black Ash Swamp and Alder Thicket Inventory……………………………….……85 ix ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my advisor, Dr. Rooney, and my committee members, Dr. Peters, Dr. Bahn for their guidance, advice, and support. I would especially like to thank Dr. Rooney for his mentoring and both academic and career guidance. My thanks to Dr. Peters and Dr. Bahn for teaching me the skills to become a better and more confident birder. I would like to thank Dr. Benzdecny, who taught me the skills for spatial analyzing and to look at the world in a different way. Dairymen’s Inc. and its members, especially George Tzanetopoulos and Tim Hanson for their support and welcoming attitude. I want to thank my family and friends for all of their support. To Lynsey Ellingwood, for the many read throughs she endured. Lastly, I would like to thank Jenn Bauer, for her edits upon edits, and her constant support and faith in me. x I. INTRODUCTION Dairymen’s Inc., hereafter referred to as Dairymen's, implemented a land stewardship management plan in 2009. The stated goals of this plan were to preserve the land’s scenic beauty while using its natural resources in a responsible manner (Rooney, 2009a). Dairymen’s has little spatially documented information on the flora and fauna. The aim of this study was to compile two inventories for the property. I documented breeding bird species composition and distribution and I documented insectivorous bat activity levels. This inventory data will be used to create a baseline for ongoing management practices and to monitor effects of environmental threats. This project will improve future researchers' and managers' ability to answer temporal and spatial questions about the effectiveness of land management. The Dairymen’s Inc. property is located in Vilas County in northern Wisconsin (46° 9’ N, 89°51’ W). This area has a continental climate and is considered part of the Northern Highland region. The region contains glacial deposits from the Pleistocene, mainly moraines and out wash plains (Rooney, 2009b). This property is comprised of 16 major habitat types and contains 7 oligotrophic lakes. The property is used by its members for low impact recreation, such as hiking, cross country skiing, snow mobile riding, recreational fishing, and recreational water activities. Timber harvest occurs on approximately 35% of the forest, and follows principles of ecoforestry (Rooney, 2009a). The purpose of this study is to conduct baseline inventories of surrogate taxa (birds; Gregory & Strien 2010) and indicator taxa (bats; Jones, et al. 2009; Staahlschmidt, 1 2012). These data will be used in the future to evaluate the effectiveness of Dairymen’s stewardship plan. To accomplish this, I compiled two inventories for Dairymen’s. One inventory documented the abundance of breeding bird species in different habitats. The other inventory provided an index of bat abundance based on activity levels. This data enabled me to examine the distribution of bird species composition among the habitats and to create a baseline for future monitoring of bat populations before widespread losses due to the invasive fungal infection, white-nose syndrome (Minnis & Lindner, 2013). In addition to