British Columbia - Yukon Nocturnal Owl Survey

The British Columbia-Yukon Nocturnal Owl Survey monitors trends in owl populations through road-based methods similar to those used in the Breeding Bird Survey.

Participants survey their route at least once per year in the following months: February on the south coast, March in the southern Interior and April in central and northern BC and the Yukon. Additional surveys can be carried out in other late winter and spring months if the participant wishes. Routes consist of 10 to 30 stops positioned 1.6 km apart along secondary roads. At each stop, the observer simply listens for two minutes and notes any owls heard. Each survey takes about 1 to 2 hours (not including driving time to and from the survey site). Surveys must be done in good weather, and also must be completed before midnight, so no-one will fall asleep at the wheel on some remote mountain road.

No tape playback is used on Interior routes, since owl numbers there are sufficient for monitoring without this technique. On coastal surveys we use a CD-based playback of Western Screech-Owl calls to increase the numbers of detections of all owls; this results in about 5 minutes spent at each stop on coastal routes. Participants receive annual newsletters and tax relief for travel expenses incurred during the survey.