Breeding Birds of Deep Portage Learning Center - 2016 Hackensack, Minnesota 56452

Abstract

The Avian Research program at the Natural Resources Research Institute (NRRI) of the University of Minnesota, Duluth has developed a spatial technique to sample breeding birds over a large heterogeneous landscape in northern Minnesota’s forested regions. We currently have sampled 10 of these one square mile research plots among diverse ownership and areas that range from the Chippewa National Forest to Pine County to extreme northeastern Minnesota. Hence, Deep Portage represents the 11th such plot and the second in a nature, learning center environment; the other one being Wolf Ridge Environmental Learning Center in Isabella, MN. Many of these research plots were originally sampled in the mid-1990’s. They provide a solid baseline on the spatial distribution of breeding birds within forest stands, but more importantly the landscape context of those forest stands with respect to patch size and edges. The vast majority of research on breeding bird populations and distributions have focused on individual stands, but not on the entire landscape. Our overall goal is to increase understanding on how individual bird species use different forest cover types and landscapes in different ecological regions of the forested zone of Minnesota. Our specific objective here was to sample the distribution and abundance of breeding birds in a large landscape of the western, forested region in Minnesota, but also one under active forest management. Here we present the results of sampling in June 2016 and compare with a previous sampling of the Deep Portage area by Wieland over a four year period from 2004-2007.