Approximately 50 volunteers conducted grassland bird surveys from May 15th until June 15th, 2005.  In addition, they visited their site two more times, once in May and once in July to record habitat characteristics.

These citizen scientist collected bird data using 5 minute fixed radius point counts along roadside survey routes.  Target species included Bobolink, Grasshopper Sparrow, Savannah Sparrow, Eastern Meadowlark, Vesper Sparrow, Horned Lark, Northern Bobwhite, American Kestrel, and Northern Harrier.

A total of 342 points along 28 routes were surveyed.

Data collected:

General information (time, date, tide level, weather, location)

Numbers of individuals of each target species recorded, distance at which they were recorded and method of detection (heard or seen)

 

Disturbance - number of cars counted during the 5 minutes of the observation period (to get an idea of the background noise)