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Bird Studies Canada, in partnership with Environment Canada’s Canadian Wildlife Service (Québec Region), launched the Marsh Monitoring Program (MMP) in Québec in 2004. The program provides long-term monitoring of marsh-dependent bird species across the province, and an extension of the Great Lakes MMP into the St. Lawrence River basin. The survey concentrates on eight focal species, the Pied-billed Grebe, American Bittern, Least Bittern, Yellow Rail, Virginia Rail, Sora, Common Gallinule and American Coot; however, information is collected on all birds using the marsh sites visited.
Survey routes comprise one to eight 100-meter radius semi-circular survey stations dominated by emergent vegetation. In tidal marshes, these are situated in the "high marsh", which is not flooded twice a day. In marshes with multiple survey points, stations are at least 350 meters apart. Two surveys are carried out annually by dedicated volunteers between the 27th of May and the 12th July, with an interval of at least 10 days between visits.
During the survey, the call playback technique is used to coax responses from six of the eight focal species. Each visit to each station lasts 15-minute and is sub-divided into three five-minute components: a five-minute passive (silent) survey period, a five-minute call playback period, and a second five-minute passive survey period. During the call playback period, the calls of the Least Bittern, the Sora, the Virginia Rail, the Common Gallinule and American Coot (together), and the Pied-billed Grebe are each played for 30 seconds, and are interspersed with 30-second silent listening periods. Habitat descriptions for each station are provided annually to map changes in vegetation patterns.
Routes are either surveyed in the morning or the evening. The survey time is determined when the route is established and remains the same for both visits and in subsequent years. Participants are asked to survey on days of good visibility, with no precipitation and little or no wind.
Between 150 and 200 stations are surveyed annually with the majority being situated in three Bird Conservation Regions (BCR): BCR12, the Boreal Hardwood Transition; BCR13, the Lower Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Plain; and BCR14, the Atlantic Northern Forest.
For the purpose of this website, abundance indices, based on counts of individuals per survey station, were derived for bird species in each survey year using a mixed-modelling Bayesian framework (e.g., each survey route had its own random intercept) to generate species-specific annual indices. Another model fit an overall linear trend for each species (e.g., to estimate the overall change per year over 15 years).
Development and implementation of the MMP has been funded by Environment Canada. The program has also received support from Ducks Unlimited Canada. Finally, implementation and success of the MMP is made possible by the participation of dedicated volunteer citizen scientists.
For more information on the Marsh Monitoring Program in Québec see: http://www.bsc-eoc.org/volunteer/qcmmp/index.jsp?lang=EN&targetpg=index
