Playback Point Count Methods

 
 

We’ve updated all the methods!

Well, when you think about it, we haven’t really changed the methods at all. We have actually defined a species-flexible ARU protocol and combined two major playback point count survey protocols into one (below). You may be surprised to hear that a number of different protocols have been used to survey Western Screech-Owls over the years. This has led to some major challenges when analyzing the data. Because of this, we are working to create a single, unifying survey protocol, that can be used (or adapted for) most studies involving Western Screech-Owls in BC. We needed to make sure that these methods matched those used by the Nocturnal Owl Surveys (NOS), and those used by projects following the Resource Inventory Standards Committee (RISC 2006) protocols so that the historical data collected using these methods could be included in analyses done with our updated methods as well.

 

Playback Survey Protocol

Step 1: Setting up your audio

The first step in our new playback survey protocol is the playback. Because Western Screech-Owls have regional dialects we are collecting recordings from across BC. For now, we are working with a recording from Duncan (provided by Tania Tripp). Download the wav file onto your smartphone, ipod or other audio device.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/14xQXl_0tcX3CuvmRfiyh9XfQa4k7PrFK?usp=sharing

Now that you have the audio, let’s make sure that it’s playing at the right volume. Watch the following video for instructions on setting your speaker volume to 70-75db

 

Step 2: Getting, and understanding, your datasheets

We have provided a full set of datasheets, and datasheet guides, for observers to use when doing their surveys. When we start working with our direct data entry we won’t need the datasheets anymore, but it’s still good to have spares on hand incase your phone runs out of batteries.