[TN-Bird] BBS routes and habitat sampling

As a follow-up to the comments about Breeding Bird Surveys and 
traffic, Bert Harris and I recently completed a study of BBS routes 
in Tennessee to see whether they sampled habitats in a representative 
manner. The article that discusses this work is at 
http://www.ace-eco.org/vol2/iss2/art12/ or, for pdf, 
http://www.ace-eco.org/vol2/iss2/art12/ACE-ECO-2007-201.pdf (Avian 
Conservation and Ecology).
Urban/developed areas around BBS routes were over-represented by up 
to 69%, and row crop and pasture/grassland were over-represented by 
up to 23% and up to 34%, respectively. Upland deciduous forest was 
underrepresented by up to 32%. These biases changed over time, 
throwing a curve-ball into long-term trend estimates. No doubt 
changes in traffic volume year-by-year might add another variable to 
the interpretation of BBS data.

David Haskell
Sewanee, TN 

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