Bird surveys following habitat restoration work along three watercourses and in an agroforestry plot near Lake Saint-Pierre – Baie-du-Febvre Area (summer 2017)
Introduction
Lake Saint-Pierre and its floodplain, which is the most extensive in Quebec, are a key component of the St. Lawrence ecosystem. With more than 280 migratory and resident bird species and 78 fish species, the lake offers an exceptional natural environment which has received international recognition for its rich biodiversity (UNESCO Biosphere Reserve and RAMSAR site).
Agricultural activities have been carried out on the fertile floodplain of Lake Saint-Pierre for several centuries. Beginning in the second half of the 20th century, perennial crops were gradually replaced by annual crops, even in the lake’s 2-year floodplain (Dauphin and Jobin, 2016). Agricultural practices associated with annual cropping have resulted in degradation of natural habitats and reduced the amount of habitat available for many wildlife species (Latendresse et al., 2008; Rioux et al., 2009). Grassland birds (Bobolink, Eastern Meadowlark, etc.), whose populations are in decline (NABCI, 2012), and waterfowl are among the species that have been adversely affected by the disappearance of wet meadows and the conversion of perennial crops to annual crops. The loss of plant substrates due to fall tillage creates soil erosion during high water periods and results in the destruction of key spawning and rearing grounds used by fish in the spring. This degradation has played a key role in the decline of the yellow perch population in Lake Saint-Pierre (Magnan et al., 2017). To date, roughly 5,000 hectares of potential yellow perch spawning habitat has been lost (TCRLSP, 2017).
With the aim of balancing agricultural activities and wildlife protection, an approach has been developed for restoring wildlife habitats on the shoreline of Lake Saint-Pierre (Groupe de travail « Intendance en milieu agricole : culture du littoral au lac Saint-Pierre », 2010). This approach involves stream maintenance (bank reshaping, planting, etc.) and conversion of annual crops back to perennial crops or natural grasslands. Work was carried out along three watercourses in the Baie-du-Febvre area in 2012 to restore fish habitat while also allowing adjacent land to be farmed. In parallel with this work, an agroforestry plot was developed at Ferme Bertco to assess the wildlife and agronomic benefits of intercropping traditional grain (or alfalfa) crops with rows of trees (oak, maple, poplar, walnut) spaced 40 m apart.
In the summer of 2012, bird surveys were conducted at these four sites (the three watercourses and the agroforestry plot) in order to obtain a picture of the bird communities present before enhancement and restoration work began. A second survey was conducted in the summer of 2017 to assess the changes in the bird communities five years after the restoration work.
This approach is part of the project to restore the Lake Saint-Pierre shoreline, which is being carried out jointly by the Canadian Wildlife Service (CWS) of Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) and the Quebec Department of Forests, Wildlife and Parks (MFFP), as part of the 2016–2021 programming for the St. Lawrence Action Plan (SLAP).
Summary of the methodology
Location and description of bird survey sites
The three watercourses covered in the surveys are located in the southeastern portion of the Lake Saint-Pierre floodplain, in the Baie-du-Febvre area (Nicolet-Yamaska RCM). They are the Brielle River and Côté-Lefebvre and Blondin creeks. The agroforestry plot is located outside the 100-year floodplain, on land owned by Ferme Bertco. See Figure 1 for the locations of these sites.
Figure 1. Location of bird survey sites
Long description
Map showing Baie-du-Febvre area and the St.Lawrence River with the three watercourses and the agroforestry plot that were surveyed.
Watercourses
The three watercourses that were targeted for restoration work in 2012 and subsequent monitoring are located on agricultural land (Figure 2). The restoration work included reshaping of banks and planting of trees and shrubs.
Figure 2. Land use around the three watercourses (100-year floodplain)
Source: ECCC and MDDELCC, 2017
Long description
Map showing colors in the area with the three watercourses. The color code indicates the land use in the area and includes the following categories: farmland (undetermined use), uncultivated farmland, annual cropland, perennial cropland, open water, old field, marsh, swamp, human-modified environment, forested area and wet meadow.
Brielle River
The Brielle River, restored over a 2-km section, is located in the municipality of Baie-du-Febvre. Its north bank is bordered by Department of National Defence property and its south bank by annual cropland. It receives inflows from about 30 agricultural ditches. In June 2017, during the survey period, the fields adjacent to the watercourse were not tilled because they were still covered with flood water or still too wet because the water had receded only a short time before. The vegetation planted in the riparian strip in 2012 did not survive or was destroyed.
Côté-Lefebvre Creek
Côté-Lefebvre Creek, restored over a 1.4-km section, is located in the municipality of Baie-du-Febvre. This creek drains agricultural land on either side of Route 132 and empties into the Brielle River. The restored section of the creek is bordered only by annual crops. In June 2017, during the survey period, most of the fields adjacent to the creek were not tilled, because they were still covered with flood water or still too wet because the water had receded only a short time before. The vegetation planted in the riparian strip in 2012 did not survive or was destroyed.
Blondin Creek
Blondin Creek, restored over a 0.7-km section, is located between Route 132 and the National Defence property in the municipality of Nicolet. Runoff from the agricultural land located south of Route 132 is the main source of inflows to this creek, which empties directly into Lake Saint-Pierre. The adjacent habitat consists of perennial crops and a small woodlot. In June 2017, at the time of the surveys, the banks, including the riparian strip, were flooded along two thirds of the creek’s length. The vegetation planted as part of the restoration work in 2012 was still present; however, some walnut trees appeared to be desiccated.
Bertco agroforestry plot
The Bertco plot is located in the municipality of Baie-du-Febvre, between Route 132 and Chemin du Pays Brûlé. It consists of 10 ha of enhanced land devoted to an agroforestry system consisting of rows of trees and of crops (Figure 3; Rivest et al., 2018). The intercropping system implemented at Ferme Bertco is a second-generation system, with 40-m spacing between the rows (spacing varies between 8 m and 15 m in first-generation systems, and between 25 m to 40 m in second-generation systems). In all, there are four rows of trees in which a high-value tree of moderate-growth (oak, maple or walnut) alternated with a fast-growing hybrid poplar, an approach that enables timber harvests to be spread over time (Rivest et al., 2018). On the strips of land between the rows of trees, a crop rotation system is applied, alternating between grains and legumes from year to year (in 2017, corn was grown). The plot is bordered by a woodlot to the north, by other annual crops and ravines to the east and south, and by a tamarack hedgerow to the west. The Ferme Bertco property, which is outside the 100-year floodplain, is not covered in the land-use mapping document (Cartographie de l’occupation du sol des basses-terres du Saint-Laurent) prepared by ECCC and ministère du Développement durable, de l’Environnement et de la Lutte contre les changements climatiques (MDDELCC) [2017].
3. Bertco agroforestry plot perimeter
(Source: Google Earth, 2017)
Long description
Aerial photography showing the Bertco agroforestry plot and its surroundings.
Bird survey method
The first phase of the work involved determining whether any species at risk frequented the sites to be surveyed. The presence of such species would have made it necessary to use survey methods adapted to species at risk or, if not already done, to make adjustments to the planned restoration work taking this information into account. Data from the Centre de données sur le patrimoine naturel du Québec (CDPNQ, 2017) were used for this purpose. Since no species at risk was found in the CDPNQ database, the work was planned without making any special adjustments in that regard.
The methods chosen for the bird surveys were designed to detect the majority of species present at the sites while also obtaining relative abundance data for most of the species.
Birds feeding in flight (e.g., swallows) or flying within the habitat or over it were recorded and counted, whereas birds merely flying over the site without using it (e.g., vultures or gulls high in the air) were recorded but were not retained when the data were compiled.
Watercourses
The transect method was chosen for the bird survey along the three watercourses at Baie-du-Febvre and Nicolet. This involved counting all birds detected by walking slowly (2-3 km/h) along one side of the watercourse and recording all birds seen or heard nearby as well as in adjacent habitats. All individuals detected on either bank were recorded (Deschênes et al., 1999; Jobin et al., 2001).
For each bird detected, the observer was required to note the type of detection (visual [individual, nest or family group] or auditory [call or song]) and its sex (if possible). Only the behaviour most indicative of breeding was recorded for a given individual. Therefore, when a bird uttered both a call and a song, only the song, a territorial behaviour, was recorded. If this same individual was observed on a nest or accompanied by young, this is the information that was recorded because it enabled confirmation of breeding. When two or more birds were heard or seen simultaneously, they were treated as different individuals. The same is true in cases where detections were so far apart they could not involve a single individual. When in doubt, the observer treated the detection as a single bird.
The observer was required to note the location of each bird detected in relation to the watercourse (open water, bank, vegetated riparian strip or adjacent habitat). When a bird was detected in the vegetated riparian strip, the observer noted the plant composition, specifically whether it was dominated by trees, shrubs, herbaceous plants or a combination thereof. When a bird was recorded in the adjacent habitat, the observer specified the bird’s position, that is, whether it was located within the first 25 m from the watercourse (immediately adjacent habitat) or farther than 25 m away (distant adjacent habitat); the type of habitat being used at the time was also recorded (Deschênes et al., 2003).
Maps of the sites to be surveyed were produced in advance and the geographic coordinates were provided on the maps, allowing the observer to determine his/her position in the field with a GPS. A single observer performed the counts. The sites were visited twice, more than seven days apart, during the month of June 2017. The surveys were carried out between sunrise and 10:00 a.m. under ideal conditions (clear to partly cloudy skies, no rainfall, and no wind to light wind).
During data compilation, detections of individuals were converted to numbers of pairs in keeping with the following convention: a bird seen or heard (male or female) = 0.5 pair; a singing male, a nest or a family = 1 pair. Since the watercourses were visited twice, the highest value for a given species was retained (better indicator of the carrying capacity of the environment).
Bertco agroforestry plot
The protocol chosen for the survey of the agroforestry plot is based on the one used at the same site in 2012 during pre-restoration surveys. It involved counting all birds present in the plot by walking slowly (2-3 km/h) along transects spaced about 50 metres apart. All birds seen or heard were recorded. Three transects were needed to cover the plot.
For each bird detected, the observer was required to note the type of detection (visual [individual, nest or family group] or auditory [call or song]) and its sex (if possible). Only the behaviour most indicative of breeding was recorded for a given individual (for more details on the method used to record birds detected, see the Watercourses section). The observer also recorded the position of each bird in relation to the plot (inside or outside the plot) as well as the habitat used.
A single observer performed the counts. The sites were visited twice, more than seven days apart, during the month of June 2017. The surveys were conducted between sunrise and 10:45 a.m. under good conditions (clear to partly cloudy skies, little or no rainfall, and light wind).
During data compilation, detections of individuals were converted to numbers of pairs in keeping with the convention described in the Watercourses section.
Summary of the main results and conclusion
Watercourses
The watercourse surveys were carried out under ideal weather conditions, but the water was high and overflowed the banks of the watercourses in multiple locations. Owing to the flooding, water birds were more abundant than usual at Blondin and Côté-Lefebvre creeks, and the Brielle River survey had to be abandoned.
The Blondin Creek survey transect was half the length of the transect along Côté-Lefebvre Creek, yet the riparian zone of Blondin Creek was used by twice as many species (21 versus 10). In addition, the average pair density at Blondin Creek was almost six times higher (49.3 versus 8.7 pairs/km). The presence of woody plants in the riparian strip, perennial cropland in the adjacent habitat, and more diversified habitat in the general area are factors contributing to this difference. Not only was Côté-Lefebvre Creek flooded, but there was little or no vegetation on its banks.
At Côté-Lefebvre Creek, the five most abundant species were (in decreasing order): the Song Sparrow and the Tree Swallow; the Savannah Sparrow, the Spotted Sandpiper and the Common Grackle were tied for third place. These species accounted for 80% of the pairs observed. Spotted Sandpiper nesting was confirmed by the observation of a nest containing four eggs in the herbaceous riparian strip.
The most abundant species in the riparian zone of the Blondin Creek, in descending order, were the Red-winged Blackbird, the Swamp Sparrow and the Mallard, with the Wilson’s Snipe, the Song Sparrow and the Black Tern tied for fourth place, and the Green-winged Teal in fifth. Together, they represented 65% of the pairs observed.
The benefits of planting trees and shrubs in riparian strips have been demonstrated by a number of authors (Goupil, 1995; Maisonneuve and Rioux, 1998; Ministère de l’Environnement du Québec, 1998; Nourry, 2006), and they were confirmed by the results of this study. More species (8) and a higher density (20.7 pairs/km) were recorded in the riparian strip of Blondin Creek, where herbaceous plants, shrubs and trees were present, than in that of Côté-Lefebvre Creek (4 species and 3.1 pairs/km), which was devoid of woody plants.
The higher water levels of 2017, compared to 2012, made it difficult to accurately compare the results from the two years. That explains why the main differences between the 2012 and 2017 surveys involved ground nesters and species attracted to water. Ground-nesting species were more abundant in 2012 than in 2017 along both watercourses, whereas more species that are attracted to water were detected in the Blondin Creek area in 2017. The situation was quite different at Côté-Lefebvre Creek, where more duck species were present in 2012. The flooding of the herbaceous riparian strips may have deprived these species of their nesting sites in 2017.
At Côté-Lefebvre Creek, only one species at risk was seen in 2017: the Bald Eagle (designated Vulnerable in Quebec). At Blondin Creek, there were two: the Barn Swallow (designated Threatened in Canada) and the Eastern Wood-Pewee (designated Special Concern in Canada).
Bertco agroforestry plot
The survey of the Bertco agroforestry plot was conducted under good weather conditions. In all, 40 species were observed during the surveys. Ten species representing 14.5 pairs were found in the agroforestry plot, and 37 species representing 67 pairs used the adjacent habitats. Two of the most abundant species were the same in both the 2012 and the 2017 surveys: the Song Sparrow and the Vesper Sparrow. The Killdeer, whose breeding habitat had been altered by the growth of trees planted amidst the crops, was not seen on the site in 2017. On the other hand, breeding of the Savannah Sparrow, another species associated with open areas, was confirmed in the agroforestry plot in 2017, although it was not observed there in 2012. The presence of the trees might explain why a number of species absent in 2012 were observed in 2017, such as the Cedar Waxwing, the Baltimore Oriole, the Northern Flicker and the Great Crested Flycatcher.
The adjacent habitats, especially the wooded areas, supported a broad diversity of species, and those habitats are unquestionably important for wildlife in an intensive-agriculture area. Fewer species were observed in the adjacent habitats planted with annual crops than in the agroforestry plot (3 versus 10), which suggests that the trees enabled the plot to support a larger number of species.
In 2017, two species at risk were observed during the surveys of the Bertco plot: the Wood Thrush (designated Threatened in Canada) and the Eastern Wood-Pewee (designated Special Concern in Canada). Both were found in the adjacent forested areas.
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Prepared by
Alexandre Nicole et Diane Dauphin
Canadian Wildlife Service
Québec Region
Environment and Climate Change Canada
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