Specifications include, but are not limited to: Determining the effects of mineral development on Greater Sage-grouse in northeastern Nevada; Objective 1: Sage-Grouse Capture and Radio-GPS Telemetry • Capture and mark sage-grouse using spotlighting techniques (Wakkinen et al. 1992, Giesen et al. 1982) during the fall and spring of each year. • Captured birds will be aged, weighed, sexed, banded, measured including total tarsus, culmen, wing chord and primary 1,9,10, and fitted with either a necklace-mounted very high frequency (VHF) radio transmitter with an activity sensor (Sveum et al. 1998), or a rump-mounted GPS transmitter (the decision to fit either a GPS or VHF transmitter will be made randomly for each bird). • Data from the GPS transmitters will be downloaded from the ARGOS website and postprocessed using various computer software and quality control measures. However, GPS technology is costly, and use of additional VHF transmitters will allow us to increase our sample size for demographic analyses. • All birds will be released at the point of capture and the location marked using a Global Positioning System (GPS). • Radio-marked birds will be followed using standard tracking protocols every two to three days. o All bird locations will be recorded in Universal Transversal Mercator (UTM) units. • A Microsoft Access database of all morphological, telemetry, GPS, and vegetation information collected within the study area will be maintained. • Data will be collected in the field using personal digital assistants (PDA’s).
