Hi tweets,

With the recent arrival of West Nile virus to the state, it's only a
matter of time before it reaches western Washington. Because of its
potential impact on crows we are going to reinitiate our survey for crows
in the Seattle area. With survey results we will have standardized
observations on which to base our conclusions about the effect of WNV on
crow populations, rather than relying on an anectodal sense of "there's no
crows anymore."

You may remember my past e-mails about a monthly crow survey. We're going
to conduct the new survey - maybe we should call it the West Nile arrival
survey - quarterly (every three months) rather than monthly. The protocol
will be the same as before: meet downtown on a Sunday morning and drive on
specified routes for a few hours, counting crows as you go and getting out
at designated stops.

The monthly survey from October 2000 to December 2001 was a big success
and helped us 1) show a year-to-year increase in crows consistent with the
long-term trend in Christmas Bird Count results for crows, and 2) validate
using the CBC results as an index to the urban population. We're
submitting a paper about the relationship of crows and human populations
that includes the survey results to the Condor.

If you have any questions about the past survey, the future survey, west
nile virus, or crows in general, those are welcome. If you're interested
in participating in the next survey please let me know ahead of time by
phone or e-mail.

NEXT CROW SURVEY:
SUNDAY, October 27, 2002
MEET: 7:45 a.m.
PLACE: Under the Alaskan Way viaduct across from the Bremerton/Bainbridge
ferry terminal (map on web page)
SURVEY RESULTS: http://courses.washington.edu/vseminar/survey.htm


-john

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John C. Withey
College of Forest Resources
Ecosystem Sci. & Conservation Div.
U. of Washington Box 352100
Seattle, WA 98195-2100

work: 206-543-2764
home: 206-632-4713
cell: 206-240-5655

jwithey at u.washington.edu
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