VOLUNTEER BIRDERS NEEDED!!

In collaboration with the National Park Service's Inventory and Monitoring Program, VINS has developed breeding bird monitoring protocols for 8 National Parks and Historic Sites across the Northeast region (see list of parks below). We are currently seeking volunteers to help conduct this long-term bird monitoring. At each park, volunteers will “adopt” a study site consisting of between 5 and 10 point count stations spaced 200 to 250 meters apart. Each June these points will be surveyed during an early morning visit, and every bird seen or heard will be recorded within a 10-minute listening period.

LIST OF PARKS

1. Acadia National Park, Mt. Desert Island, ME
2. Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller NHP, Woodstock, VT
3. Saint-Gaudens NHS, Cornish, NH
4. Minute Man NHP, Concord, MA
5. Saratoga NHP, Saratoga, NY
6. Roosevelt-Vanderbilt NHS, Hyde Park, NY
7. Weir Farm NHS, Wilton, CT
8. Morristown NHP, Morristown, NJ

SKILLS REQUIRED

Volunteers must possess excellent bird identification skills (visual and aural), and be capable of identifying the majority of songbird species that breed in the park. They must also be capable of hiking on variable terrain without trails, and navigating with GPS and/or map and compass.

TIME COMMITMENT

Each survey will take between 2 and 4 hours (depending on the number of points surveyed) during a single morning in June. This does not include travel time to and from the park. Surveys are to be conducted during the early morning hours (e.g. arrive at the first point at approximately 5-5:30 AM). In addition, another 1-1.5 hours of time is required to transfer data from field forms onto data sheets, and to enter data into an online, web-based data entry system. Because this is a long-term monitoring program, we are most interested in participants who can make a multi-year commitment to the project.

For more information, or to sign-up contact:

Steve Faccio
Vermont Institute of Natural Science
6565 Woodstock Rd.
PO Box 1281
Quechee, VT 05059
802-359-5000 info@vinsweb.org

To Download the Draft Survey Protocols Click Here (pdf, 1.3 MB)

To Download Volunteer Training Manual Click Here (pdf, 759 KB)

To Download Survey Materials click here