BBS route backtrack (was numbers game or counting)

[Bruce Webb]

There are several good reasons why a modified Breeding Bird Survey (BBS)
route (used for long-term censuses of birds) might yield some worthwhile
information for butterflies, even if it is done on a once-in-a-season basis.

For those not familiar with the North American Breeding Bird Survey, it is a
standardized driving route with set start and end points.  Birds are
identified by sight and song at each of 50 stops, (0.5 miles apart) and
counted for exactly 3 minutes at each stop.  At each stop the species are
recorded on an easy to use form which has the short list (likely species)
already listed.  A BBS route starts 30 minutes before dawn and usually
finishes about the time butterflies are getting active (something that has
always distracted me in the final stops on my routes.)  These routes are
done under the auspices of  the U.S. Geological Survey and the Canadian
Wildlife Service and the years of data are available online.

This year, immediately after the route is completed, I plan to reverse
direction and count all butterflies I see at each of the 50 stops using BBS
rules. ( If I cannot ID a butterfly, I plan to net it for close-up view, but
the 3-minutes per stop over 50 stops rules will apply.)  Unidentified
species will be recorded, too.  Some fine-tuning will happen along the way,
but I plan to have fun and gather some data.  I might even do it more than
once this season for temporal species differences.  On one of these routes,
I have to reverse direction anyway just to get back.

A line transect like this, with the clock ticking, will be intense but
should have better repeatability than observations in the 15-mile diameter
circle July counts. If anybody has done this before and has suggestions or
sees pitfalls, let me hear from you.  If others BBSers do this, we should
make our data available.  Who knows where this might lead?


Bruce Webb
birder at surewest.net
Distributor for Bird Recorder Software
www.wildlife-computing.com



----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael Gochfeld" <gochfeld at EOHSI.RUTGERS.EDU>
To: "Barb Beck" <barb at birdnut.obtuse.com>
Cc: <cmbb at sk.sympatico.ca>; "Lepslist" <LEPS-L at lists.yale.edu>;
"TILS-leps-talk at yahoogroups. com" <TILS-leps-talk at yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, May 01, 2002 3:58 AM
Subject: [leps-talk] Re: numbers game or counting- Forgot something


I certainly agree that a single count in early summer can't represent a
butterfly fauna in a meaningful way.  In our club I've tried to
encourage people to select a particular place (park, powerline cut, etc,
to census every 2-4 weeks throughout the season.  I do this behind our
house.

But it lacks the party atmosphere of an annual count.  MIKE GOCHFELD

Barb Beck wrote:
>
> Martin pointed out something I left off.
>
> The fact that we have only one butterfly count per summer is a real flaw
in
> the setup.  There should be several to correspond to our various butterfly
> seasons.  Hopefully as we get more people involved we will be able to do
> more than that.  Right now we are just getting snapshots at one time of
the
> year per circle.  In some areas like around Edmonton we have many counts
and
> run some of them early and others late but in the rest of the province we
> just do not have the manpower. We are getting snapshots around the
province
> on a variety of consistent dates since it is not convenient to hold them
on
> the 4th of July Date.  Our routes that are associated with BBS route and
the
> Cold Lake Count which is held in conjunction with a University field trip
> are end of May - early June each year.  These counts must be held then
> because it is the only time the people are in that  area on a consistent
> basis.  Our mountain counts are late and we have a few counts near
Edmonton
> which are held late each year.  In other words we are getting snapshots
> under the current rules of butterflies at various seasons but
unfortunately
> not multiple snapshots per season at one place.
>
> It would be nice if the rules were amended for multiple counts in one
circle
> BUT right now I would just like to see the species we have properly
recorded
> and not have our data lost by the practice of "conservative taxonomy".
>
> Barb Beck
> Edmonton, Alberta

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