Maine Owl Monitoring Program

Updated 2-25-11

Owl Monitors,

Thank you for indicating continuing interest in the Maine Owl Monitoring Program

This will be the eighth year of MOMP monitoring with some seasoned owlers entering year ten including the old Maine Cooperative Owl Survey from 2002 and 2003. What a lot of cold dark nights sampling for Maine owls and other night creatures! Congratulations on your persistence and citizen science dedication.

Welcome also to those who wish to assist for the first time in 2011. I will try to assign a route as fits the existing program. The MOMP survey routes were established in 2002. Many routes are active and assigned to current and continuing monitors. Unfortunately MOMP coverage in southern Maine is already extensive, so new participants may be limited by their willingness to travel to distant routes. However, as owl monitors are a flexible flock, some routes open each year. If you are new to MOMP, you may need to prompt me again to contemplate how you can become an active monitor.

Here are some options for the 2011 MOMP monitoring season. We encourage you to try some techniques that may resolve a few of the questions that present during data analysis and interpretations of how the MOMP survey represents owl behavior and actual owl distribution across the landscape.

1. Monitor the route as usual and customary. The protocol at Maine Audubon Society web pages is unchanged since 2008 despite some minor revisions that each of us makes. See http://www.maineaudubon.org/conserve/citsci/owl_docs.shtml. We recommend this usual and customary survey for new MOMP monitors. However, I suggest that for 2011 the CD recording number 2 be played with northern saw-whet owl the first call. If you prefer to broadcast the long-eared call series, please do so. I trust that each owl monitor will indicate the call series on the data sheets. The effort with long-eared call first has produced very few records of long-eared owls. Good data, but a lot of effort for not much return.

2. Monitor the route in reverse order from end to beginning. Start at Stop 10 (still to be identified as Stop 10 in the data) and continue back to Stop 1 (still to be identified as Stop 1 in the data). Why? Some data and interesting anecdotal observations indicate that owls may respond to playback over longer intervals than the usual and customary survey allow. For example in 2010 one team returned home along their MOMP route and found a barred owl sitting roadside at Stop 1 three hours after the survey at Stop 1 when no owl was reported. Owls may also be more or less active at different times of night. Since the data can be analyzed as route data as well as stop data, we hope reverse route surveys will provide some information about whether time and sequence may influence spontaneous calling and responses to playback.

3. Monitor the route starting at an intermediate stop and finish the survey to complete the 10 sites. For example start at stop 6 and continue as 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Similar rationale as for 2 above. We understand that our sample size for each variation on the typical survey protocol will be small, but we expect to tease out some valuable information during analysis.

4. Monitor the usual route from Stop1 to Stop 10, but adjust the stops ahead (or back?) by approximately one-half mile. Retain the minimal interval between stops at one mile. This one is too complicated to explain briefly, but we think the variation will offer some interesting data. Try this modification especially if you have noted during the duration of your MOMP participation that as the survey continues fewer owls respond and perhaps also at greater distances from your roadside location.

5. For the truly dedicated! Monitor the route multiple times. If you choose option 2, 3, or 4, then conduct a typical standard survey another night (maybe even the next night) and then another survey according to your same first option and then repeat as many as 6 times. Wow! You really are dedicated! Rationale? The standard MOMP provides good data for owl distribution, but may not provide good distinction between owls detected and true population size. To understand how many owls are detected and how many owls are present and not detected by sighting or vocalization (because they are far distant on territory, hunting, eating, brooding, preening, and other behaviors), additional and revised sampling is useful. Perhaps this is greater detail about owl distribution than we can reliably deliver with MOMP, but data on even a few routes will offer insight toward owl conservation.

Your thoughts and critique are always welcome.

Data entry for 2009 is complete; a few more data sets to enter for 2010, and then an analysis.

Bill Green’s Maine this Saturday will dig into the archives and revise a 2003 interview with Susan Gallo, a primary developer and coordinator for MOMP in the early years. The segment will offer an historical perspective to the current MOMP and to our future. Today I found the video at http://www.wcsh6.com/life/programming/local/bill_greens_maine/default.aspx. Mid page, right side of screen, at image of northern saw-whet owl.

Apologies for such tardy planning on my part.

Good listening,

Dave Potter
MOMP coordinator
Center for Biodiversity
Unity College in Maine
90 Quaker Hill Road
Unity ME 04988
dpotter@unity.edu (preferred)
207 948 3131 x 330

Maine Owl Monitor,

Welcome to 2011! We hope that you have a wonderful new year.

The Maine Owl Monitoring Program (MOMP) is set for the 2011 survey season. The sampling window will be 4 March 2011 until 11 April 2011. We are planning a full survey season and hope that you will again participate. You may see additional electronic and print notices as we encourage veteran and novice owlers across the state to participate again following the transitions during 2009.

MOMP web materials remain at: http://www.maineaudubon.org/conserve/citsci/owl_docs.shtml

I may update some items before the 2011 MOMP monitoring season begins, but I anticipate no major changes to procedure. However, as I learn more about behavior of long-eared owls, I may suggest that we move back to the original monitoring for saw-whet owls rather than continue the search for elusive long-eared owls.

We expect to continue and to revive the effort built in MOMP since 2004, to recruit new monitors in regions of Maine poorly sampled for owls in previous years, to offer basic training for new participants, and to provide opportunities for seasoned owlers to record additional data or to try electronic monitoring.

Your data for the 2010 season is still in process, but we determined that owls again maintained typical distribution across much of Maine as documented since 2002. I hope to have a full summary of 2008, 2009, and 2010 MOMP data loaded to the web at Maine Audubon Society before the 2011 MOMP season begins.

I will again act as MOMP coordinator, so please send communications to me at any of the contacts noted below. I prefer e-mail communications.

Some additional web links are at Global Owl Project http://www.globalowlproject.com/ and the International Festival of Owls http://www.festivalofowls.com/.

Best wishes for the new year, good listening, and anticipate an exciting owl monitoring season,

Dave Potter
Maine Owl Monitoring Program Coordinator
Unity College in Maine
90 Quaker Hill Road
Unity ME 04988
e-mail: dpotter@unity.edu
tel: 207 948-3131 ext 330

Survey Materials for MOMP Volunteers

Almost everything a volunteer needs to conduct an owl survey is available here, from datasheets to the survey protocol and all other supporting materials. MORE

2007 MOMP Field Season Summary

Last year, more than 110 volunteers went out on 84 MOMP routes across the state on cold spring nights to listen for owls. This is more routes than we've had in the past, though fewer owls (404) were detected during the season. A change in protocol that included Long-eared Owl playbacks yielded 15 detections for this species, many more than in previous years of MOMP. Read full 2007 Results here.