Carroll And Associates
..an
environmental consulting firm
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VOLUNTEER
JAYWATCH
PROGRAM OF Jaywatch 2009 Indian River County ********* Pelican Island Audubon
Volunteers: Joseph Carroll Dr. David Cox Jens Tripson Rosalind James Peter Sutherland Darlene Halliday William Halliday Beth Viviano At meetings of the Southeast Florida Scrub Working Group the need for a continuous census of Florida scrub-jays was clearly expressed by interested scientists. More areas need to be surveyed to allow gathering accurate information on the status of this Threatened species in the region. The land managers of federal, state and county lands were charged with surveying and managing properties under their control. There is a role for Audubon, to undertake surveys of scrub-jays on other lands including private lands, and lands dedicated to other uses, but which contain scrub and other habitats that support Florida scrub-jays. Jaywatch is a volunteer program of The Nature Conservancy. This program provides a protocol for obtaining scrub-jay survey information in a uniform manner state wide. This statewide summer "snap shot" of Jays and their breeding success is a vehicle for determining trends in the population. Other data bases maintained by the state of Florida, or in experimental stages of testing have also been provided data from this volunteer effort. Using these concepts four areas in Indian River County were selected for study. They all historically supported the Florida scrub-jay. The first was Indian River Club. (See Infrared Aerial Photograph of Indian River County) This is a private club near the south boundary of Indian River County. A member of Pelican Island Audubon, Colonel Jack Taylor, had already established a good relationship with the club and was conducting a monthly bird census. He was able to arrange for the use of golf carts and to lead us directly to scrub-jay occupied territory. This site is also labeled as Vero Highlands in previous Florida scrub-jay investigations. The second area was South County Park and vicinity. This is an Indian River County Park that is primarily devoted to "Active" recreational pursuits but has a remnant scrubby pine Flatwoods area that is easily accessible. The third area was Vero Beach Municipal Airport. Although we have two years of information from this site, this year we were not allowed to survey the scrub area northeast of the active runways. This area is fenced and unmanaged, and includes a well field. Public access is discouraged because of security for both the well field on the site as well as the airport itself. We plan to resume study next year if access is permitted.
The fourth area is in Winter Beach. This is a roadway crossing a privately owned scrub area. We call this area "Winter Beach East-West (65th Street)". The core of the area is on the north side of 65th street just west of U.S. 1, Old Dixie Highway and the FEC railroad tracks. The western boundary is near a canal.
Methods A preliminary survey was performed for the Federally listed (as threatened) Florida scrub-jay on each site. We started by visiting each area once per month starting in February 2008 and leading up to the Jaywatch period in late June and July. During these initial visits the territorial scolding call tape was not played unless necessary to determine presence or absence. More often by walking or driving between our established stations we were able to find the Florida scrub-jay families and observe their behavior, numbers, and leg bands During the Jaywatch period the
objective of the survey was to determine the presence or absence of
scrub jays in a relatively short time period. .During late June and all
of July, we followed guidelines for survey promoted by the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service The scrub jay survey was performed consistent with the Scrub Jay Guidelines as published in "Ecology and Development-related Habitat Requirements of the Florida Scrub Jay (Aphelocoma coerulescens coerulescens)" which is Nongame Wildlife Program Technical Report No. 8 by the Florida Game and Freshwater Fish Commission. We also followed the guidance for reporting provided by the Jay Watch program of the Florida Nature Conservancy. We played recordings of scrub jay territorial scolding calls from a tape recorder held higher than waist level for a minimum of 8 minutes at each station. The calls were directed to the four compass points, so that calls were effectively broadcast across all areas of habitat of concern. We interrupted tape playing when jays were found to be approaching the investigator and immediately began to note whether the birds were banded or not. Bands are reported in the traditional manner for Florida scrub-jay. With the bird facing you first the left side (right leg) and then the right side (left leg) . All Blue bands would be recorded as BB-BB. The ideal month is March when territorial displays have been observed to be most vigorous and jays are defending their home territory in preparation for the nesting season. April is the month when courtship, nest building, and nesting begins in most years. We resurveyed the area in June July and early August using tapes to gather information on juveniles present after the nesting season. In past years we used the scrub-jay tape from the Archibald Biological Station. This year we used the tape recorded from Jonathan Dickenson Park, a closer location, produced by Peter Merritt. The guidelines and study design also called for visiting the site one hour after sunrise, one of the times of most activity by wildlife. The field observations and recording play back were for the most part scheduled for and performed at that time. The following pages are the four surveys performed by our volunteers many of whom are biologists. Biologist Cheryl Millett, Coordinator of the program for The Nature Conservancy, provided guidance in our efforts, and these collected data are included in their JayWatch Annual Report 2009.
2009
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PUBLICATIONS
Douglas
B. Carlson and Joseph D. Carroll, Jr. Developing and Implementing
Impoundment Management Methods Benefiting Mosquito Control, Fish and
Wildlife: A Two Year
Progress Report about the Technical Subcommittee on Mosquito
Impoundments. (In
Journal of the Florida Anti-Mosquito Association Vol 56, No. 1
1985) Jorge Rey, Douglas Carlson and Joseph Carroll, Jr. Regional Marsh Management Strategies for the Indian River Lagoon, (University of Florida, IFAS-FMEL Report 1994) Joseph D. Carroll, Arnold Banner, and D. Scott Taylor, Comparison of Fish species Sampled Before and After Implementation of a Management Plan at Two Mosquito Control Impoundments, Sykes Creek, FL (In: Third Salt marsh Workshop, FMCA 1996) Rey, J. R., Carlson, D. B., Carroll, J. D. and O'Bryan, P. D. 2000. Development of Basin-wide Management Strategies for Wetlands along the Indian River Lagoon - Florida, USA. In: Rao, K. S., and R. S. Gautam (eds.) Present Status of Wetland Ecosystems: A Retrospect. In press. |
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