7.3 Species Monitoring
• Continuing to participate in ongoing monitoring research that NC State University (NCSU) and the USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center are conducting to evaluate monitoring protocols for standard point counts and the Breeding Bird Survey (estima- tion of detectability). • Expanding current bird monitoring across the state, especially Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship (MAPS) and migration banding stations, as training opportunities and technical assistance allow, in order to improve population status information for birds not adequately sampled under existing protocol (e.g., Breeding Bird Survey). • Establishing ‘surrogate’ species where possible—species that may be representative of the habitat needs of a particular guild of species and are widespread enough to allow for population-level monitoring. • Continuing established shorebird and waterbird monitoring eforts along all coastal and estuarine habitats, and expanding monitoring eforts for secretive marshbirds along estuarine, lake, and tidal swamp habitats using established protocol (Conway 2004) . • Continuing to monitor recovering species such as Bald Eagles and Peregrine Falcons in their key habitats. Key species (or species groups) include Swainson’s Warbler, Cerulean Warbler, Henslow’s Sparrow, Bachman’s Sparrow, other grassland specialists, Wayne’s Black-throated Green Warbler, Painted Bunting, hawks, ground-nesters, cavity-nesters, and owls. Key habitats include Longleaf Pine forests, foodplain forests, early successional habitats, high-elevation forests, pocosins, nonalluvial wetlands, and maritime forests. Ideally, mon- itoring should continue expanding across all habitats in order to strengthen trend data for all species. 7.3.4 Mammals Standards and protocols for surveys and monitoring exist for some mammals and should be use to improve data matching with regional datasets. Establish and monitor bat numbers and species composition using reliable, reproducible techniques (Keeley et al. 2003) .Conservation recommendations for monitoring Rafnesque’s Big-eared Bat and Southeastern Bat include protocols for short- and long-term monitoring (BCI and SBDN 2013) . Te North American Bat Monitoring Program (NABat) is an international, multiagency pro- gram to monitor bats at local to range-wide scales that will provide reliable data to promote efective conservation decision making and the long-term viability of bat populations (Loeb
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2015 NC Wildlife Action Plan
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