2025 Midwest Fish & Wildlife Conference

AUTHORS: Dale Gentry, Director of Conservation, Audubon Upper Mississippi River; Brent Newman, Program Director - Mississippi River Water Initiative, National Audubon Society

ABSTRACT: Riparian and floodplain forest habitats of the Upper Mississippi River (UMR) are the backbone of the Mississippi Flyway which serves as a major aerial highway for 60% of North America's bird species. The incredibly diverse ecosystems associated with the Mississippi River have been altered by agriculture, the impoundment of the river in locks and dams, levees, pollution, and climate change, which have reduced the quantity and quality of habitat for migrant and breeding birds. Audubon’s Mississippi River Initiative is a focused effort engaging and working alongside private and public land managers to mitigate these factors that are negatively influencing habitat and water quality by encouraging and guiding bird-friendly habitat management strategies that retain and enhance forest and grasslands cover in the UMR flyway. Audubon’s Mississippi River Initiative emphasizes science, habitat restoration, and policy approaches. 1) We are implementing and supporting avian monitoring and research efforts along the river to fill critical science gaps and develop habitat restoration strategies that align with science-based management and adaptation plans. 2) We are partnering with federal, state, and private land managers and stakeholders to restore and enhance bottomland and upland forests. We are also enhancing water quality by expanding and improving the management of perennial grass pastures in the Mississippi River watershed through Audubon’s Conservation Ranching initiative. Finally, 3) we are pursuing policy solutions that will lead to a healthy and resilient environment for priority bird species and human communities. Audubon works from the halls of Congress and river management teams to local city councils to achieve policies and funding implementation in alignment with our watershed goals. Through these three action steps, Audubon is seeking a more resilient and ecologically vibrant future for the Mississippi River.

AUTHORS: Tara Hohman, Audubon Upper Mississippi River; Dale Gentry, Audubon Upper Mississippi River; Nicole Michels, National Audubon Society

ABSTRACT: Floodplain forests of the Upper Mississippi River (UMR) provide critical habitat for a diverse avian community. Yet dozens of bird species that use these forests are listed as priority species and/or Species of Greatest Conservation Need by state and national agencies. These same agencies outline the desire to further define best management practices to conserve floodplain forest birds through their full annual cycle. Our 10 years of research on bottomland forest bird species along the UMR has resulted in the initial development of priority areas for birds within this landscape, as well as habitat associations between birds and the habitat characteristics they select for. This presentation discusses these findings and reviews the different and similar needs of focal species and species diversity in different stretches of this region. Towards the end of this presentation, we will also discuss the next steps to this work and goals for the future.

AUTHORS: Michael Wellik, US Geological Survey; Eileen Kirsch, US Geological Survey; Ryan Burner, US Geological Survey

ABSTRACT: Forested floodplains along the upper Mississippi River are important for breeding birds but are shaped by human use of the surrounding lands and especially by the construction of the lock and dam system in the 1940’s to control water levels. These forests are continuing to change because of higher water levels, maturing forests, and invasive species. We looked at potential changes in the avian community in forests by comparing bird species richness and species’ relative abundance and frequency of occurrence between data collected from 1994-1997 and 2015-2019. Point counts were conducted in three stretches of river at sites where there has been no direct forest management since the 1940’s. The same sites were sampled in several years during both time periods, using point counts with the same spatial scale and duration. The sites in the 1990’s were sampled once per year by a single observer, whereas in the 2010’s they were sampled multiple times by multiple observers each year. To account for this difference in yearly sampling effort we bootstrapped the 2010’s data, creating a distribution to compare to the yearly one-survey one-observer method used in the 1990’s. In this timeframe there was a slight decline in species richness for each of the three river stretches. Across all three stretches some species have declined in frequency of occurrence, such as the American Redstart, whereas others increased, like the Prothonotary Warbler. Examining bird community trends over decades, even with slightly different sampling methods, may benefit avian and habitat management.

AUTHORS: Nicole Michel, National Audubon Society; Jennifer Fuller, National Audubon Society; Dale Gentry, National Audubon Society; Michael Worland, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources

ABSTRACT: The use of autonomous recording units (ARUs) is rapidly growing in the field of avian monitoring. While in-person surveys are often limited by the availability of trained observers and survey duration, ARUs enable researchers to control survey timing and drastically increase sampling frequency and duration. This improves the probability of detecting species and accurately assessing characteristics such as species richness or individual species occupancy. However, until recently, ARU recordings were manually processed by human listeners, which is inefficient and highly time-consuming. Today, numerous publicly available classifiers exist to expedite this process, but these classifiers still require human-assisted validation to confirm whether they can accurately detect species of interest. We performed a pilot study examining the effectiveness of a popular classifier, BirdNET Analyzer, for detecting 24 different migratory landbird species at the Riverbend Nature Center in Fairbault, MN. Three ARUs were deployed by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources May 11th through May 31st, 2023, for four hours after sunrise. ARU recordings were analyzed using BirdNET Analyzer, with up to 100 random samples per species extracted and validated manually in Raven Lite software as either true or false detections. We then identified species-specific confidence thresholds where we were 90-95% confident detections were true positives using a logistic regression. We detected 21 of 24 migratory landbird species, and identified 14 species-specific thresholds for migratory landbirds in Minnesota. Overall, we found that BirdNET Analyzer with human validation was highly effective for remotely monitoring avian species in this region. These findings provide valuable insight for monitoring migratory landbirds in the Upper Mississippi River, as well as for designing effective ARU study designs for a variety of seasons and habitats.

AUTHORS: Michael Monfils, Michigan Natural Features Inventory; Rachael Pierce, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; Kaitlin Barnes, Michigan Department of Natural Resources; Stephanie Bielke, Great Lakes Audubon; Dani Fegan, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; Auriel Fournier, Illinois Natural History Survey; Erin Giese, University of Wisconsin – Green Bay; Doug Gorby, Upper Mississippi/Great Lakes Joint Venture; Andrew Hinickle, Great Lakes Audubon; Kristin Malone, SUNY Brockport; Kali Rush, Ducks Unlimited; Brendan Shirkey, Winous Point Marsh Conservancy; Ben Williams, Illinois Department of Natural Resources


ABSTRACT: Secretive marsh birds, such as grebes, rails, and bitterns, have received increased attention from the conservation community in recent decades due to declining populations, resulting in several species being identified as endangered and threatened at state levels and species of greatest conservation need in state wildlife action plans. Despite increased concern for these species, conservation activities targeting secretive marsh birds has been limited in the Midwest and Great Lakes regions. To meet objectives for these species identified in regional and state conservation plans, greater communication, coordination, and collaboration among partners is needed to overcome barriers hindering marsh bird habitat conservation. With support from the Upper Mississippi / Great Lakes Joint Venture, a group of partners began work in early 2023 to create a framework that would provide the information and tools needed to deliver increased conservation activity for marsh birds. We will describe the process used to develop the framework and give an overview of the resulting vision, mission, goals, objectives, and strategies. We will also provide details on our plans for implementation, highlight current activities, and describe opportunities for people to get involved.

AUTHORS: Auriel Fournier, Forbes Biological Station–Bellrose Waterfowl Research Center, Illinois Natural History Survey, Prairie Research Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign;
Chad Cremer, Forbes Biological Station–Bellrose Waterfowl Research Center, Illinois Natural History Survey, Prairie Research Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign;
Nicole Pietrunti, Forbes Biological Station–Bellrose Waterfowl Research Center, Illinois Natural History Survey, Prairie Research Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign;
Mike Avara, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Havana, Illinois, 62644
Therin Bradshaw, Forbes Biological Station–Bellrose Waterfowl Research Center, Illinois Natural History Survey, Prairie Research Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign;
Chelsea Kross, Forbes Biological Station–Bellrose Waterfowl Research Center, Illinois Natural History Survey, Prairie Research Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign;
Andrew Gilbert, Forbes Biological Station–Bellrose Waterfowl Research Center, Illinois Natural History Survey, Prairie Research Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign;
Joshua Osborn, Forbes Biological Station–Bellrose Waterfowl Research Center, Illinois Natural History Survey, Prairie Research Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign;
Mike Ward, Illinois Natural History Survey, Prairie Research Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign


ABSTRACT: Public wetlands within the midwestern US are managed for waterfowl and other wetland-dependent species, providing habitat for migratory wetland bird species provides the additional challenge of creating the needed habitat at the needed time. While a body of literature is available about the migratory timing of waterfowl and shorebirds other marsh birds remain a data gap. Rallids (Family Rallidae) are members of a larger group of marsh birds, which includes game and non-game species that use a variety of emergent wetlands. Sora and Virginia rail are the most abundant game species among Rallids found in the Midwest. Uncertainty remains about the stopover duration, migratory decisions, and migratory paths of both species in spring and fall migration. Our objectives were to determine the spring and fall migratory timing, stopover duration and migratory pathways of Sora and Virginia Rail.

AUTHORS: Ethan Duke and Dana Ripper, Missouri River Bird Observatory

ABSTRACT: As this audience is aware, the precipitous long-term decline in grassland-obligate bird populations continues largely unabated. We will discuss 12 years of monitoring data from Missouri and surrounding states, how these data can be applied to management action, and how current technology can be employed for real-time analysis and data-sharing. We will also discuss practical suggestions for effectively deploying resources to grassland bird conservation.

AUTHORS: Katherine Millman, South Dakota State University, Department of Natural Resource Management; Mercedes Batalla, South Dakota State University, Department of Natural Resource Management; Steve R. Chipps, U.S. Geological Survey, South Dakota Cooperative Fish & Wildlife Research Unit; Joshua D. Stafford, U.S. Geological Survey, South Dakota Cooperative Fish & Wildlife Research Unit

ABSTRACT: The USDA-NRCS Agricultural Conservation Easement Program (ACEP) works with private landowners to conserve and restore wetlands to provide ecosystem services, including wildlife habitat. We selected 50 wetlands in southeastern South Dakota to survey and quantify avian and vegetation characteristics during 2023 and 2024. Of these sites, 30 were enrolled in ACEP, and the remainder were federal and state properties that served as minimally-disturbed comparative sites (n = 10), and sites heavily influenced by nearby agriculture (n = 10). At each site we sampled herbaceous vegetation, trees, and avifauna. Vegetation was sampled by measuring species richness and cover in 15 quadrats (1 m2) sampled across three vegetation zones (wet meadow, marsh, and open water). We recorded the number, species, and diameter at breast height (cm) of all tree species within 100 m of wetland bank-full boundaries. We used point counts to quantify avian abundance and diversity during four time periods, spring migration (mid-May), summer breeding season (June/July), fall migration (late-August/ mid-September), and winter (early October). Point counts included 3 10-minute surveys at each wetland, with points spaced ≥200 m apart. Vegetation diversity was generally low (e.g., species richness

AUTHORS: Anna Buckardt Thomas, Iowa Department of Natural Resources; Riggs Wilson, Iowa Department of Natural Resources

ABSTRACT: Current state-wide bird monitoring programs in Iowa focus on diurnal species, and many data gaps exist in our understanding of nocturnal birds. Five owls and three nightjars are considered Species of Greatest Conservation Need in the state's Wildlife Action Plan, making the group a priority for monitoring and targeted habitat management. Since 2016, Iowa DNR staff have surveyed four nocturnal MOON (Monitoring Of Owls and Nightjars) routes twice each breeding season. This data collection has been in coordination with a similar citizen-science monitoring effort in Illinois, led by the Illinois Natural History Survey . That Iowa dataset is now reaching an age where it may soon be possible to detect changes in species population trends, but the data is geographically limited, and likely does not represent state-wide trends for these species. Over this time, high annual variation has been apparent for nightjars, with as few as 3 and as many as 21 Chuck-will's-widows detected on a single route, and as few as 53 and as many as 146 individuals detected in a given year across all four routes, for example. The number of owl detections however, have been much more consistent through time. In an effort to learn more about these nocturnal species on a state-wide scale, we increased monitoring efforts in 2024 to include14 routes within our Bird Conservation Areas (BCAs), and will continue to add routes again in 2025, with a goals of conducting MOON surveys all 23 of our BCAs. Our current information sets a base line for nocturnal bird populations in Iowa and has the potential to link species occupancy and abundance to habitat characteristics and management strategies into the future. The goal of this monitoring is to inform management of our BCAs to help maintain and increase populations of these declining species.