10. monitoring protocol
Prepared by:
Kerecsensólyom Védelmi Munkacsoport
Magyar Madártani és Természetvédelmi Egyesület
Budapest
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Introduction
The objective of the monitoring is to provide sufficient information about the efficiency of project actions and about the situation of the Falco cherrug population to be able to evaluate the project results.
The project area covers the most important habitats of F. cherrug but doesn’t cover the entire area of the countries concerned therefore it also doesn’t cover the total population of them due to the restriction of the project area to SPAs and tothe immediate proximity (25 km) of the SPAs by the Commission.
To assure the unified monitoring of F.cherrug population unified data sheets must be used but it must be marked under point nr.1 of all sheets whether the monitoring is done inside the project area or outside to be able to separate the project work and collected data. The collected data of F. cherrug population will be stored in electronic format ready for data processing. There will be electronic data sheets also beside the hard copies.
Beside the special F. cherrug monitoring data sheets two of the overall raptor survey sheets will be used outside of the known territories.
The most important rules for monitors that birds must least disturbed by the data collection and theirbreeding success shouldn’t be risked. During hatching and small chicks period nest can be visited only in case of serious danger and must be left ASAP. Observation within 500 m to the nest must be done hidden after securing that the birds cannot see us. If the birds are disturbed we must stop the observation.
There isan appointed responsible person in each known F. cherrug territory.
Attention: Working group members know the responsible site managers and partner co-ordinators therefore everybody is asked to contact them before and after the checking to avoid unnecessary disturbance of the birds but distribute essential information.
The following questions should be answered by the general F. cherrug monitoring:
- What’s the trend of breeding pairs in the monitored population?
- Where are the most important habitats for F. cherrug?
(breeding-, feeding-, wintering- & temporarily settling areas)
- What’s the trend of the breeding seasons of the different pairs?
(occupying nest, hatching, breeding, fledging)
- Which are the best quality breeding areas?
(breeding success, territory stability)
- What are the prey species & what is their ratio inthe feed of the different pairs?
- What are the main causes of mortality inthe different age groups?
(egg, chick, juvenile, sub-adult, adult)
- What kind of seasonal factors are endangering the breeding?
- What’s the effect of certain conservation measures?
- What’s kind of long term changes endangering the studied population?
10. What’s the result of the different conservation measures?
Nomenclature:
Identification of F. cherrug by age:
- Chick pullus (Pull):Chick in the nest which cannot fly. Covered by white down, legs and cere are bluish.
- Juvenilesjuvenilis (Juv):Bird fledged in the given year. It is darker than the adults. More regular streaks on the breast than on the adults.There is a wider creamy or reddish tail band at the end of the tail. Cere and legs are bluish.
- Sub-adult subadult(Ász):1-3 years old. From January of 2nd year to December of 3rd year after fledging. They moult twice during this period and plumage become brighter. Legs and cere getting to be yellow.
- Adultadult(Ad):From the 4th calendar year. Streaks become thinner on the head, neck and breast, therefore plumage looks brighter. Legs and the cere are yellow. Males are more yellow than the females.
Identification of sex:
Females are 20% bigger than males and they are usually darker.
Definition of habitat concepts:
Territory: It is about 2 km range around the currently used nest where F. cherrug is breeding or bred inthe previous years.
The territory can be different size depending on the habitat. It is important to know the breeding pair and the nests what they used to use to be able to identify the territory correctly.
Feeding area:These are those areas where F. cherrug was seen to hunt.
Potential territories or feeding areas:About 5 km range around nests in the past 10 years or areas where saker pair was seen regularly are considered like this.
Roosting spot:It is a regularly used spot for roosting at the breeding or feeding area.
Types of artificial nests:
1.Wooden nest box:Square shaped tray made of wood. It is to replace old nests in wood. Sometimes it was installed on pylons too before.
2.Covered aluminium nest box:It is a two side open cube made of aluminium. It is to install on electric pylons.
3. Basket shaped artificial nest: It is a wicker-work made of twigs. It is to install on treesin Slovakia.
4.Artificial nest made of branches:It is made form branches on the spot. Branches collected inthe forest are used to prepare artificial nest onthe selected tree. It is covered with a mixture of leaves and soil inthe middle.
5. Open aluminiumnest box: It is a three angular tray made of aluminium. It was installed inthe electric pylons before.
Within the LIFE projectnr.1 & 2 will be installed in Hungary and nr.1& 3 in Slovakia.
Bird marking:
PIT-tag: PIT (Passive Integrated Transponder)-tagswill be used to mark sakers to be able to identify them easily.It is a microchip installed on a metal ring. When it would get energy from the antenna it would send an identifiable signal to the LCD where the individual code of the bird can be read. (The colour rings will be very dirty soon therefore we are using PIT tag instead.)
Right leg of the birds will be marked by PIT tag in both countries.
PIT-antenna& reader is the equipment to identify the code of the marked birds. It includes a ring shaped antenna an LCD reader and connection cable. The antenna must be taken to the nest where saker with PIT tag was identified. As soon as the PIT tagged birds leg would become 4 cmnear to the antenna its PIT code can be identified. The antenna can be removed from nest after identification. Some chicks tagged in 2007 might start nest in 2009 therefore from that time they might be identifiable.
Left leg of the birds will be marked by ornithological rings.
Satellite transmitter, PTT (Platform Transmitter Terminal)–It is to monitor the birds during migration. It will be fixed onthe back of the birds. By the PTT we can monitor the movement of the birds. After a certain time of use the PTT will be lost from the birds.
Filling in Falco cherrug data sheets
Re point 1 of every sheet:
Name of settlement: Name of the nearest settlement should be written here. This is the first important identification data therefore it must be filled in clearly by capital letters.
Project area:Please markwhetherit is inside or outside of the project area.
Actionnumber: Inside of the project area we have to mark the action number too. If the data sheet is used for more actions then we have to mark all.
Nest number:In a territory there can be more nests therefore we can mark them continuously started by 1.
Code of territory: This is the secret abbreviation of the territory. To create it we will consider the codes and data used before. It will be coordinated by all site managers.
Start use of territory: Date of first breeding or first attempt for breeding.
UTM code: Thenumberof 10x 10 kmUTM squares. A 4 digit code must be put here.
/UTM maps can be obtained from MME Monitoring Centre:
MME Monitoring Központ, 4401 Nyíregyháza 1., Pf. 286., E-mail:/
Data security:
GPS co-ordinates won’t be collected centrally. Those should be kept by the site managers together with the nest number. Site manager will be approached if the project would need them.Nobody should collect GPS data outside his own working area.
1. FALCO CHERRUG MONITORING SHEET
This sheet has to be filled in annually by nest or territory if the nest doesn’t known.
Re point 4.:It is important to describe the colour of the sakers carefully in the territory to be able to identify the pairs and any changes in between. It should be identify if there is any ring on their leg.
Re point 5.: This data can be collected several times a year recording the day & month. (Date recorded here must match date in logbook.)
In case of nest boxes installed by the project observation is going under action: D1(checking occupation) D7, while in case of natural nest or earlier installed nest boxes it is D7. Related Action number has to be marked at point 1.
Numbers of fledged juveniles form known & monitored nest must be put here.
Re point 6.: It is important to identify the start of incubation because it can be used to find out changes within the pairs. Stable pairs usually start hatching about the same time. Newly established pairs start hatching later.
Re point 7.: It may happen that we cannot find the nest due to difficult terrain situation but shortly after fledging (usually at the end of June) we can see juveniles inthe territory what fledged from a nest nearby. We have to record the number of juveniles here.
Re point 8.:In case of unsuccessful breading the reason of it should be determined together with the time o fit.
Deadline for submitting this sheet: 15 July in every year together with the monthly report.
2. FALCO CHERRUG – NEST MONITORING SHEET
This sheet must be used to monitor both old and new nest.
Re point 1.:This sheet can be used to record installation of new nest (Action C1) too.
Monitoring of nest boxes installed by the project is Action D1.
Monitoring of natural nest and old nest boxes is Action D7.
Tick the relevant Action number!
Re point 4.:The habitat of the territory around the nest has to be described here.
Re points5.-6.-7.: Location and type of nest has to be described here.
„Single tree” means that there is any other tree around the nest within 500m.
„Some trees” means that there are a few scattered trees around.
„Group of trees” means that there are a few trees in a group around the nest.
Re point 8.:Time of installation & maintenance of nest box.
Re point 9.:Any endangering factor must be reported to the site manager.
Deadline for submitting this sheet: up to 15th of next month after completing the work together with the monthly report.
3. FALCO CHERRUG – BIRD MARKING SHEET
Attention! Marking F. cherrug can be done only by authorised person included in the Research Authorisation of the LIFE project.
PIT-tags must be installed on the right leg of the chicks in both country. It is foreseen that PIT tagged birds will start to nest from 2009. In case of these pairs identification of tagged adults and marking the chicks must be done inthe same time. Detailedinstruction related to PIT’s activities will follow later.
Re point 6.: PIT- tag must be installed on the right leg whiles the ornithologicalon the left leg.
It is essential to correctly identify the age and sex of the chicks therefore it will be adjusted with the site managers.
Re points 7.-8.-9.: Birds cannot be disturbedduring hatching therefore we cannot check nest during this period. However if we would be able to check the nest from far by telescope or by camera than number of eggs should be recorded here.
Re points 10.-11.: Damagedor addled eggs should be kept in refrigerator and must be sent to János Bagyura ASAP because their examination will be done centrally.
The insured or dead chicks should be sent to Országos Állategészségügyi Intézet (1149 Budapest, Tábornok utca 2.)
Deadline for submitting this sheet: up to 15th of next month after marking of birds together with the monthly report.
4. FALCO CHERRUG – FOOD REMAIN SHEET
Usually food remains should be collected two times from nest. It should be done first time during marking the chicks and second time after fledging during nest control and maintenance. Food remains (bone, fur, feather, pellets) should be collected from the nest and from bellow the nest. Recognised prey species should be recorded during collection with special reference to the rare species. These data will be compared to the examination result of the food remain. Filled data sheet should be put attached to the specimen in a separate plastic bag.
Collected specimens should be sent to János Bagyura because their examination will be done centrally.
5. FALCO CHERRUG – FEATHER SHEET
It should be done together with food remain collection or during any action inthe territory. Collected feathers together with the attached data sheet should be put into a plastic bag and sent to János Bagyura.
COMMON MONITORING OF BIRDS OF PREY SHEETS
For the LIFE project two sheets of them will be used:
6. imput data sheet:
This sheet will be used to estimate the range of the surveyed area by each surveyor during the given year. We can better estimate the completeness of our population figures by this data and we can identify those areas where saker is definitely absent. Practically we won’t have any data about this latest one if we would collect the positive data (by the other monitoring sheets) only.
For this work a map is needed with 10x10 km UTM squares where 2.5x2.5 km squares are also marked. This kind of map can be obtained from MME’s Monitoring Centre.
In this sheet it should be marked that how extensively the different UTM square was checked inthe different months according to the following category:
A – superficially, B – partially, C – thoroughly, D – full.
Each category has to be defined by the following system:
How large part was checked?1 - 25% / 26 - 50% / 51 - 75% / 76 - 100%
How many times? / 1 – 2 / A / A / B / B
3 – 5 / A / B / B / C
6 - 10 / B / B / C / C
> 10 / B / C / C / D
Deadline for submitting this sheet: 15 July in every year together with the monthly report.
IMPORTANT: Columns must be filled in monthly because it would be difficult later on.
7. Observation data sheet:
This data sheet should be used outside of known territoriesfor faunistic observation. It is important that the data recorded on falco cherrug monitoring sheet shouldn’t be included in this sheet. It means that the two sheets must be used separately and only one of them should be used inthe same area. One data should be included in one sheet only.
Before filling please read the filling instruction.
Deadline for submitting this sheet: 15 July in every year together with the monthly report.
In case of any question concerning filling in of the data sheets please turn to the Project Office.
ATTENTION!
Filled in data sheets must be sent to József Fidlóczky in BükkNational Park together with monthly report. He will forward it to János Bagyura for checking. János Bagyura will forward the checked sheets to the Monitoring Centre for data processing.
If you are using electronic format prepared by the Monitoring Centre of MME you doesn’tneed to submit hard copies.
The electronic format will be available in:
The received and automatically checked electronic data will be forwarded to János Bagyura for checking. Information necessary to documents the work of the LIFE project will be provided to the project manager by the Monitoring centre too.
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