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LOWER VALLEY BIRD PROJECTS

Beginning in 2004, we began an avian monitoring program with the assistance of volunteers from the Yakima Valley Audubon Society. Volunteers conduct counts on properties managed our program once every season. These counts are then used to index avian population and provide distribution of avian species in the Valley portion of the Reservation.

The Yakama Reservation has the western most population of bobolinks. This population was first described in 1930’s. In 2005 we began a formal monitoring protocol to determine the status of this population.

Due to recent declines in this population, we will begin a banding program to determine status, survival, and assess monitoring protocols. Funding for this research was provided by the Western Bird Banding Association.

Working with the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (http://www.fws.gov), we conduct annual Mourning Dove Call-Count Surveys along established routes. These counts are used by the Yakama Nation to monitor populations on the reservations and are used by the U.S.F.W.S. as an index to population size and to detect annual changes in mourning dove breeding populations in the U.S.

In 2003, the Yakama Nation Wildlife Management Program participated in a reward band study to determine hunter reporting rates. This study ran through 2005 and provided the USFWS with information on reporting rates. Data collected from mourning dove banding project on the Yakama Reservation provides us with annual reproductive rates and helps identify where doves raised on the reservation are harvested.

In 2005, we began banding California quail on the Satus Wildlife Area to determine annual reproduction and harvest rates. Banding efforts also allow us to determine how our management influences quail populations.

During the 2005-06 hunting season 3% of the banded birds were reported harvested by hunters. Reporting rates were steady throughout the hunting season indicating that quail harvest may not peak early in the season and decline slowly as the season progresses. To report a banded quail contact Nathan Burkepile.

This section is under construction.

In 1996, the first Bald Eagle nest was found on the Yakima Reservation. This nest was the first recorded in the Lower Yakima Valley in >100 years. Currently, we have documented 3 nesting pairs on the Yakima Reservation. We monitor these nest annually to determine if they are successful and we conduct annual searches to locate new nesting bald eagles. All reports of nesting Bald Eagles within, or on the boundary of the Reservation should be directed to the Yakama Nation Wildlife Program.

For more information on any of these project please contact Nathan Burkepile at (509)865-5121, x6332, or Tracy Hames x6309.