46-year-old Jason Hanlon works with the environmental group the Nature Conservancy, which owns 60,000 acres of grassland in north central Montana stretching east.
This spring, he collared 10 female Sharp-tailed Grouse with the aim of testing how well drones and infrared cameras work as a method to track their nesting habits.
Researchers say the technique could provide a less invasive option for observing the birds and eventually help with efforts to reintroduce sharp tails to parts of their historic range in western Montana.
Collaborator Montana State University professor Lance McNew said Sharp-tailed Grouse are more flexible in their diets and habits than certain close relatives, like the Greater sage-grouse, but have still lost some of their native habitat over the years.
“Historically, they did occur in inter-mountain valleys in western Montana, but they were extirpated from those intermountain valleys 20 to 30 years ago,” said McNew. “So we have [an] ongoing project where we're translocating birds, catching them in eastern Montana and translocating them - delivering them and reintroducing them - into western Montana.”
He said researchers hope to use the drones to collect data from females going about their daily lives: “Things like nest survival and brood survival and perhaps even adult survival without the need or potential negative impacts of capturing birds.”
The Nature Conservancy's Jason Hanlon is also an MSU graduate student and researcher who's worked closely with McNew on the study.
Once Hanlon captures and fits ten female birds with antennae, he can track them using telemetry, or radio signals, which he said he’s new to.
“But it’s exciting,” he said. “It’s hard to not want to get out there and do it.”
Hanlon will be tracking the females through the summer. Once he locates them, he said he’ll spend the rest of the season experimenting with drones and fine-tuning his technique.
