The Season Starts

Across nine states, biologists are counting birds. Those in Arizona started surveying two weeks ago. Oklahoma, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Utah, and Colorado started last week. And we northerners, in Montana and Idaho, start now.

Seven people will cover the state of Idaho; we'll complete 210 surveys before July 12th. 

It costs roughly a thousand dollars to complete one survey and with my thirty surveys, I've been given a thirty thousand dollar responsibility. 

One of my surveys is by Dickshooter, Idaho

We're looking for two things: density estimations and occupancy - what birds are on each survey and how many? 

To choose survey locations, statisticians laid grids over maps and randomly selected sixteen GPS points, each point 250 meters apart in a rectangle with four points on each side. The random part means these grids could be found on mountain tops, in canyons, in neighborhoods, deep in the forest far from any road, etc.

It also means that some points could drop on private land - that's when this becomes a landowner partnership. If landowners give us permission to survey, not only do we try to charm them with our beauty and intelligence when we meet, but we send them glossy bird lists with photos of all the birds we found on their property. Participation in the program can never restrict their rights as property owners. Most, when they get the glossy bird list at the end of the season, show their neighbors, and tell them about the cute bird hippy girl who knocked on the door - their neighbors want to participate.

It's called conservation contagion. 

Onward!