As part of the CA LCC funded project “A Monitoring Protocol to Assess Wintering Shorebird Population Trends”, monitoring plans were developed for the Coastal CA and Baja region, the Central Valley, and San Francisco Bay area. The plans propose a statistically robust, logistically feasible, long-term monitoring program for wintering shorebirds to track spatial and temporal population trends resulting from changing climate and habitat conditions. Specifically, the authors recommend a sampling design and survey protocol for wintering shorebirds in coastal wetland habitat and provide the data storage and analytical framework for population and trend estimates to be made annually as new data come in through the online data portal in the California Avian Data Center. Also recommended are a series of needed pilot studies, including evaluating methods for estimating error rates in shorebird counts, determining the appropriate scale for measuring habitat, and tracking habitat change.
