American Woodcock Singing-ground Survey The Logistical Challenges Associated with Route Consistency through Time

The American Woodcock Singing-ground Survey (SGS) is a long-term roadside survey (1968–present) administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). The SGS was developed to provide indices to changes in American woodcock (Scolopax minor) abundance. The population index derived from the survey is the primary metric used for the United States (US) harvest strategy. Integral to any long-term wildlife-monitoring program (e.g., SGS) with replicated spatial point-count locations is accurate management of metadata related to those locations. Technological advances over the last 20 years have resulted in large-scale coordination and logistical planning changes for the SGS, including improved communication between stakeholders and the creation of a database that houses metadata for all point-count locations. These improvements revealed weaknesses in the historical record-keeping system used for official paper route-maps that may have led to point-count location inconsistencies over time. To summarize the scope of the problem, and make corrections, we compared submitted GPS coordinates for count locations on SGS routes against indicated route paths on official route maps. Across the entire SGS coverage area, we found that 9.9% of observer-submitted point-count coordinates did not match the route path highlighted on the official route maps. We also compared a subset of digitized Minnesota and Wisconsin submitted point-count coordinates and found that 20.9% did not match the route path highlighted on the official route map. We quantified and grouped Minnesota and Wisconsin route-map discrepancies to provide perspective on the types and magnitude of the discrepancies that occur throughout the SGS coverage area. Reasons for the mismatch were many. We share the many challenges of maintaining route consistency and provide recommendations on how to best alleviate route map discrepancies, thus improving the integrity of the SGS and its data. Proceedings of the American Woodcock Symposium 11: 217–226 Key woRdS: American woodcock, American Woodcock Singing-ground Survey, roadside survey, route consistency, route relocation, Scolopax minor, SGS, spatial data 1 email: rebecca_rau@fws.gov The American Woodcock Singing-ground Survey (SGS) occurs throughout the core of the American woodcock (Scolopax minor; hereafter woodcock) breeding range in Canada and the United States (Fig. 1, Seamans and Rau 2017). This survey began in 1968 and is administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) in cooperation with the Canadian Wildlife Service (CWS), state (19) and provincial (6) natural resource agencies, Bird Studies Canada (BSC), other U.S. and Canadian government organizations, and volunteer observers. The Migratory Bird Program within the USFWS is responsible for program coordination and compiling, managing, and reporting the data, whereas the United States Geological Survey (USGS) is responsible for data analysis. More than 700 natural resource agency staff and volunteer observers collect data. https://doi.org/10.24926/AWS.0128 This is a work of the U.S. federal employee and is not subject to copyright protection in the United States. Foreign copyrights may apply. 218 [5] singing-ground survey evaluation · Proceedings of the Eleventh American Woodcock Symposium The population index derived from the survey is the primary metric used for the United States (US) harvest strategy (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 2010). SGS data have also been used to develop population and habitat goals for the American Woodcock Conservation Plan (Kelley et al. 2008). Woodcock are managed on the basis of 2 regions, Eastern and Central, and the boundary between the 2 regions conforms to the boundary between the Atlantic and Mississippi Flyways; results from the survey are therefore designed to support management at a regional scale (Seamans and Rau 2017). Thogmartin et al. (2007) used data from this survey to develop spatially explicit models to show the relationship between woodcock abundance and landscape-level habitat variables. Field Methods An index of woodcock population abundance is estimated by taking advantage of the conspicuous breeding call of male woodcock (Seamans and Rau 2017). Early studies demonstrated that counts of singing males provide indices to woodcock population abundance and could be used to monitor annual changes (Mendall and Aldous 1943, Goudy 1960, Duke 1966, and Whitcomb 1974). Before 1968, woodcock counts were conducted on non-randomly located routes. Data from these early surveys are not used in any current analysis. In 1968, state, federal, and provincial agency personnel randomly established SGS routes along lightlytraveled secondary roads in the center of randomly-chosen 10-minute degree blocks within each state and province within the central and northern portions of the woodcock’s breeding range (Fig. 1). Each route is 5.4-km long and consists of 10 equally spaced listening point-counts (stops). The routes are surveyed once a breeding season within a designated temporal window. The SGS periods (windows) were assigned by latitude to coincide with peaks in courtship behavior of local woodcock populations (Seamans and Rau 2017). Routes are to be surveyed between 22 and 58 minutes after sunset (or, between 15 and 51 minutes after sunset on overcast evenings) by an assigned observer who drives to each of the 10 stops and records the number of woodcock heard peenting (the vocalization by displaying male woodcock on the ground). Additional guidance on survey protocols can be found within the SGS data entry website (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 2017). The SGS is managed by a national coordinator in the USFWS Migratory Bird Program office who works directly with 1 Canadian and 2 US regional coordinators in the 2 designated management regions (Figs. 1 and 2, Seamans and Rau 2017). Historically, the management region coordinator’s primary responsibility was to distribute survey materials to the state and provincial coordinators in their respective regions. Since the mid-2000s, the management region coordinator’s main focus has been to assist in finding state and provincial coordinators as needed and to boost participation levels in the SGS. Since the inception of the SGS, 25 state and provincial coordinators have been responsible for the distribution of survey materials, finding observers for routes, and collection and/or entry of survey data. The observers (>700) are primarily responsible for conducting the survey following standard operating procedure (SOP) guidelines (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 2017). Observers are encouraged to scout their routes before conducting the survey to ensure the route is safe and roads are navigable. Since 2003, observers have also been responsible for acquiring the spatial data for their route per GPS data collection standards (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 2017). Once GPS coordinates for a route are submitted to the national coordinator, stop coordinates are not requested again unless a route changes or there appeared to be a discrepancy. Although direct communication does occur between observers and the national coordinator, it typically only occurs when questions arise during annual validation of the survey or data. Route Map Management Historically, state and provincial coordinators have been responsible for making the official paper route maps (official route map). Map elements such as scale, content, labels and clarity were their responsibility (supporting information Fig. S1). Once established, they provided the official route map to the national coordinator who maintained them. The state and provincial coordinators retained a copy of the map, which they distributed Figure 1. American woodcock management regions, breeding range, and Singing-ground Survey coverage (Seamans and Rau 2017).