Audiomoth Recorders
There are some really exciting wader research projects happening in Scotland right now, and we’re always pleased to learn more about new techniques and ideas to gather more information about wader conservation. David Jarrett is involved with Working for Waders across a variety of projects, and he is currently looking at the use of sound recording equipment as a research tool. We caught up with him for a quick Q and A to find out more -
David Jarrett sets up an Audiomoth to record curlew breeding attempts in Galloway - 28th April
Q. David, what's your background and how did you come to study waders?
I worked as a fieldworker for BTO previously and now I'm doing a PhD. I particularly enjoy working in open habitats and find waders a fascinating group of species to study.
Q. One of your current wader projects is based on Audiomoth recorders - what are they?
AudioMoths are a low-cost, low power, programmable acoustic recording device, about the size of a pack of playing cards. They have only been around for a couple of years, but are already being used for a wide range of acoustic monitoring and research projects (more info here ->https://www.openacousticdevices.info/)
Q. How can audiomoths help us learn more about breeding waders?
Surveys for breeding waders are often based on observers hearing (or not hearing) particular calls during the breeding season and thus making inference about the status of a breeding attempt. Hopefully AudioMoths will be able to gather some of this data for us, and also help us to understand how much predator activity there is at different sites (from looking at how much alarm calling there is).
Q. Where are your Audiomoth recorders located this spring?
They're deployed at sites in Dumfries and Galloway, Lanarkshire, Perthshire and Aberdeenshire in farmland and moorland habitats, some where predators are controlled, and some where there is little or no predator control.
Q. Have you targeted specific wader species? If so, why?
Initially we're looking at Curlew, Lapwing, Snipe, Redshank and Oystercatcher. In lots of good wader habitat these species overlap anyway so it makes sense to focus on these species initially. Golden Plover and Dunlin may also be targets in future.
Q. This is a pilot project which covers new ground for wader conservation. What are the challenges and what are you hoping to learn?
The key challenge is that initially, we have to validate the audio data against knowledge of the outcomes from nests, so we can tie up the patterns of vocalisations we record against actual outcomes.
Q. How does this piece of work fit into a bigger drive to conserve wading birds?
Understanding relative predation pressure different populations are under is a key challenge in breeding wader conservation at the moment. Audiomoths should allow us to compare how much alarm-calling is going on at different areas and at different times of day and across the breeding season. Because mammalian predators are mostly active at night, while avian predators during the day, we might then be able to assess the extent to mammalian or avian predators were causing more alarm-calling. Additionally, some species, like Ravens, can also be vocal during attempts to predate nests or chicks so we may also be able to gather data on interactions between waders and Ravens on the breeding grounds.
It should also be possible to use Audio recorders deployed in grids to localise the origin of vocalisations, which would allow us to identify separate territory centres, and also some information on how many territories were likely to be successful at a site based on how long alarm calling activity persisted at each territory centre. Indeed, there are lots of people working on localisation methods with audio recorders at the moment for various species.