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Motus station installed at Pikes Peak will detect tagged birds in area

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In late October, a Motus Wildlife Tracking System station was installed at Pikes Peak State Park near McGregor, making the site just one of only a handful in Iowa that, through radio telemetry, will be able to detect and record nearby small animals—namely birds—with tags. (Submitted photos)

The setup includes antennas and receivers, which avian ecologist Anna Buckardt Thomas installed with help from Pikes Peak staff.

The station is located on the Pikes Peak State Park shop/office building. “They were looking for somewhere up on a bluff that has a state DNR building they could attach it to, and we’re like right on the river, right on the Mississippi River Flyway, so it worked really well,” said Pikes Peak State Park Manager Matt Tschirgi. “And there’s a pathway here, both east and west, where the trees are somewhat clear, so the antennas are pointed where it would help pick up stuff.”

A map at motus.org notes all the stations. You can click on the individual locations to see what has been detected.

By Audrey Posten, Times-Register

 

In late October, a Motus Wildlife Tracking System station was installed at Pikes Peak State Park near McGregor, making the site just one of only a handful in Iowa that will be able to detect and record small animals—namely birds—with Motus tags through automated radio telemetry.

 

The Motus Wildlife Tracking System is an international collaborative research network that uses coordinated automated radio telemetry to facilitate research and education on the ecology and conservation of migratory animals. Automated radio telemetry uses receivers that automatically record signals from radio transmitters on tagged species. Tagged animals are detected on their local array, as well as any other network stations, which now total over 1,200.

 

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources Wildlife Diversity Program facilitated the project in Iowa, through a collaborative grant with partners in the Midwest and Central and South America. Anna Buckardt Thomas, an avian ecologist with the DNR’s Wildlife Research Section in Boone, helped coordinate the effort.

 

“In Iowa, the goal was to have a line of stations from east to west, to capture migrating birds,” said Buckardt Thomas. “We especially wanted to capture movement on the Mississippi and Missouri rivers.”

 

In addition to Pikes Peak, she said stations were also installed at Odessa Wildlife Unit, Hawkeye Wildlife Management Area, the Boone Wildlife Research Section and Lewis and Clark State Park near the Missouri River.

 

“We wanted areas that are a high spot,” explained Buckardt Thomas. The station antennas can detect tagged animals within 15 kilometers, or 9.3 miles. “Pikes Peak was perched nicely,” she noted.

 

At Pikes Peak, the station was installed on the park shop/office building. According to Pikes Peak State Park Manager Matt Tschirgi, there were several steps involved to assure the site was sufficient.

 

“If you agree to it, you need to find a spot to attach the antenna to the roof, and then it would need a wi-fi signal, which was one of the limiting factors. They looked into Yellow River State Forest, but their office is down in a valley,” he said. “I had to go out and measure the roof of the building, the eave and any hazards in the way like power lines.”

 

“They were looking for somewhere up on a bluff that has a state DNR building they could attach it to, and we’re like right on the river, right on the Mississippi River Flyway, so it worked really well,” Tschirgi added. “And there’s a pathway here, both east and west, where the trees are somewhat clear, so the antennas are pointed where it would help pick up stuff.”

 

Both Buckardt Thomas and Tschirgi are excited about the opportunities the Motus stations present at the local and state levels.

 

“With the radio telemetry system, the bird or bat radio transmitter emits a signal, and the antennas listen on the same frequency and pick up anything within radius. All the tags are on one frequency, so you can identify thousands of individuals with tags,” Buckardt Thomas said.

 

Taggers include biologists, university researchers and other research and non-profit efforts.

 

“What’s cool about this is it picks up any animal with a Motus receiver. It doesn’t have to be our Iowa DNR or this grant project’s birds. It could be someone else’s project that flies through here,” noted Tschirgi.

 

The DNR will learn about birds in Iowa, and maybe even bats and insects, through the project, said Buckardt Thomas. She’s especially interested to learn more about big movements: fall and spring migrations.

 

“We know a lot about birds when they are stationary, but not that transitory period,” she said. “We want to get a sense of the timing of migration. This point to point on a map—where it went and how long it took—can tell us a lot about a species as a whole.”

 

Buckardt Thomas said any researchers will be able to analyze the data the stations pick up.

 

“Hopefully we can do our own tagging project to analyze Iowa’s bird species,” she quipped.

 

“One of the things they are interested in is cerulean warblers,” added Tschirgi. “[Local bird researcher] Jon Stravers has done a lot of research on that. Anna was going to try to get a hold of someone to do some tagging to pick those up.”

 

Pikes Peak’s Motus station is up and running, and the public can view what the antenna picks up at motus.org. Although migratory action is minimal now, Tschirgi is looking forward to what springtime will bring.

 

“It should be able to pick up things in the spring or fall or anything that hangs around here too. It’s very cool,” he said. “I know the public is going to be excited about it. We’re hoping to do some interpretive programs with it next year.”

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