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The Department of Natural Resources has slightly revised its summer game bird survey for 2025.
Importantly, though, it still requires reports from the public.
New this year the DNR is asking for observations of game birds of all ages.
Species of interest are ruffed grouse, wild turkey, ring-necked pheasant and gray partridge.
Previous iterations of the work were termed the 10-week brood survey and game bird brood survey. Each focused on recently-hatched birds.
The 10-week brood survey was conducted in summers from 1970 through 2018. However, steady declines in survey participation over the years eroded confidence that data could be used as an index to game bird production and made comparisons to long-term data questionable, according to the DNR.
However, the agency still had a need for information to help make management decisions on game birds so beginning in 2022 it launched an upland game bird observation survey to monitor brood production for gray partridge, ring-necked pheasant, ruffed grouse and wild turkey. The survey moved to a smartphone-based platform that allowed for participation by both natural resource agency personnel and public volunteers.
The primary objectives were to evaluate annual reproductive success of the four species at statewide and regional scales, increase the total number of observations received, enhance robustness of the survey and offer ameans in which the public can contribute to the data collection process.
And specifically regarding wild turkeys, there has been growing concern that decreases in productivity may beindicative of general large-scale population declines across portions of the species’ range. Thus, data and metrics derived from this survey can be used for monitoring long-term trends in wild turkey reproductive success and be compared to those from other states.
Last year 254 participants submitted 1,261 observations during August, 91% of which were of wild turkeys, according to the DNR.
This year the DNR decided to expand the summer survey to include the age range from the current year class to the oldest.
The criteria state: Record all individuals as well as broods of ruffed grouse, ring-necked pheasant, wild turkey and gray partridge; only record game birds observed in daylight hours during July and August; do not include repeat observations if you are confident that the same bird(s) is being seen; do not report released bird observations if this is suspected.
Participants are asked to record the date of observation, location, species name and number of individual birds as well as broods.
The data can be input through an ArcGIS Survey or a QR code provided by the DNR. For more information, visit dnr.wi.gov.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Public asked to submit game bird observations through Aug. 31
Continue reading...
Importantly, though, it still requires reports from the public.
New this year the DNR is asking for observations of game birds of all ages.
Species of interest are ruffed grouse, wild turkey, ring-necked pheasant and gray partridge.
Previous iterations of the work were termed the 10-week brood survey and game bird brood survey. Each focused on recently-hatched birds.
The 10-week brood survey was conducted in summers from 1970 through 2018. However, steady declines in survey participation over the years eroded confidence that data could be used as an index to game bird production and made comparisons to long-term data questionable, according to the DNR.
However, the agency still had a need for information to help make management decisions on game birds so beginning in 2022 it launched an upland game bird observation survey to monitor brood production for gray partridge, ring-necked pheasant, ruffed grouse and wild turkey. The survey moved to a smartphone-based platform that allowed for participation by both natural resource agency personnel and public volunteers.
The primary objectives were to evaluate annual reproductive success of the four species at statewide and regional scales, increase the total number of observations received, enhance robustness of the survey and offer ameans in which the public can contribute to the data collection process.
And specifically regarding wild turkeys, there has been growing concern that decreases in productivity may beindicative of general large-scale population declines across portions of the species’ range. Thus, data and metrics derived from this survey can be used for monitoring long-term trends in wild turkey reproductive success and be compared to those from other states.
Last year 254 participants submitted 1,261 observations during August, 91% of which were of wild turkeys, according to the DNR.
This year the DNR decided to expand the summer survey to include the age range from the current year class to the oldest.
The criteria state: Record all individuals as well as broods of ruffed grouse, ring-necked pheasant, wild turkey and gray partridge; only record game birds observed in daylight hours during July and August; do not include repeat observations if you are confident that the same bird(s) is being seen; do not report released bird observations if this is suspected.
Participants are asked to record the date of observation, location, species name and number of individual birds as well as broods.
The data can be input through an ArcGIS Survey or a QR code provided by the DNR. For more information, visit dnr.wi.gov.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Public asked to submit game bird observations through Aug. 31
Continue reading...
