DWH NRDA AMOY Telemetry

Deepwater Horizon Bird Study #5 had two primary components: 1) to estimate the proportion of visibly oiled shorebirds via observational surveys and 2) to estimate the mortality rates of both oiled and unoiled adult birds using radio telemetry. This dataset pertains to the telemetry data collected pursuant to the second objective, and is the American oystercatcher (AMOY) telemetry dataset. AMOY were captured in both oiled (“impacted”) areas in Louisiana and non-oiled (“reference”) areas in Georgia. From September 2010 to April 2011, field teams conducted relocation surveys and recorded sighting or radio detection of a bird. If the field team detected a mortality signal, efforts were made to recover the carcass within 24 hours. The data were collected by Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences (Plymouth, Massachusetts) personnel contracted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Data were documented on the “American Oystercatcher Telemetry Survey” datasheet. Note that the datasheet version used in Georgia varied slightly from the datasheet version used in Louisiana. Additional details on the methodologies, data entry and review process are available in the January 2012 “Deepwater Horizon/Mississippi Canyon 252 NRDA Bird Study #5: Non-breeding Shorebirds QA/QC Notebook” produced by Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences (Appendix F of the Verification and Validation Report for this dataset).