Results of the 2016 Centennial Bird BioBlitz

This article was originally published in The Midden – Great Basin National Park: Vol. 17, No. 1, Summer 2017.

Numerous field trips were held during the Centennial Bird BioBlitz.

Photo by Annette Hansen

By Gretchen Baker, Ecologist, GRBA and Kelly Colegrove, Biologist, Great Basin Bird Observatory

To celebrate the 2016 Centennial of the National Park Service, Great Basin National Park held a Bird BioBlitz on May 20-22, 2016. During the 2.5 day event, over 1,500 volunteer hours were spent looking for birds. We recorded 1,843 birds representing 73 species. The most common were Mountain Chickadees, Clark’s Nutcrackers, and Pine Siskins (Figure 1).

Locations with over 30 species found included Grey Cliffs Campground, Snake Creek, Rowland Springs and the Sewage Lagoons, Strawberry Creek Road, and Upper Lehman Creek. A total of 18 field trips went to these locations and others, including some to remote locations that located species not found anywhere else.

The BioBlitz also included 11 presentations, two bird illustrating workshops, two live bird demos, and one live reptile demo. Over 150 participants (including 35 school kids) attended, with at least 11 states represented (NV, UT, WI, CO, MS, OR, MD, AZ, WA, MT, CA). Numerous bird photos were taken as vouchers to document the birds that occur in the park.

Figure 1. Most common bird species found during the 2016 Centennial Bird BioBlitz at Great Basin National Park. A total of 1,843 birds representing 73 species were seen during the 2.5-day event, attended by 150 participants.

Special thanks to:
* All of our field trip leaders (Lois and Mark Ports, Dave Henderson, John B. Free, Melissa Renfro, Janice Gardner, Neil Paprocki, Kevin Wheeler, Elisabeth Ammon, Kelly Colegrove)
*All of the presenters (Joe Doucette, Kevin Wheeler, Mark Kirtley, Neil Paprocki, Evan Buechley, Bryan Hamilton, Elisabeth Ammon, Martin Tyner, Gretchen Baker, Mark Ports)
* Artists-in-Residence (Miki Harder and Kristin Gjerdset)
* Great Basin National Park Foundation for lunch
* Western National Parks Association for raffle prizes
* Elisabeth Ammon and Kevin Wheeler for helping with planning
* Beth Cristobal for registration
* Kelly Colegrove for data analysis
* ALL the Participants!!!

Following the BioBlitz, Great Basin Bird Observatory did data analysis on all the park’s bird data. This resulted in an increase of 15 species to the park’s Bird Checklist. Nomenclature and abundance and occurrence rates were also updated. This checklist is available at park visitor centers and the park website.

Photos from the 2016 Centennial BioBlitz: top row- Cedar Waxwings (John Dickson), Cassin’s Finch (John Dickson), Green-tailed Towhee (Evan Buechley); bottom row - Black-headed Grosbeak (Evan Buechley), MacGillivray’s Warbler (Annette Hansen), Turkey Vulture (Chris Gourlay).

In addition, following the BioBlitz and data mining, NPSpecies was updated with an additional 33 bird species!