KELLY’S WILD ADVENTURE

PDE Science Coordinator Explores Nature's Melody in the Marshes

By Kelly Faller, PDE’s Science Coordinator

You might not know this, but tidal marshes are teeming with a rich tapestry of sounds. From noisy bird calls and distant coyote howls to the rustle of vegetation, these auditory cues contain a wealth of information about the health and vitality of an ecosystem.

After two months and 1,600 recorded hours of wildlife sounds from New Jersey salt marshes, I started learning how to decode these intricate soundscapes and discern how wildlife reacts to changes in their environment, especially when humans are trying to restore it.

I launched this soundscape study last year as part of a larger, ongoing restoration project between PDE, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Ducks Unlimited, and the Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey. The restoration project focuses on the use of cost-effective methods to restore tidal marshes in New Jersey and Delaware, which are increasingly vulnerable to sea level rise. Restoring these landscapes will boost resiliency and prevent these environments from eroding into the Delaware Bay.

Restoring these vital ecosystems is the impetus for PDE’s work, but I proposed the soundscape study to add perspective to the big picture of this effort.

The recordings I collected last year establish a baseline for the soundscape of the unrestored marshes. As PDE moves through the restoration phases, I can compare soundscapes over time with the initial data. I’ll also be able to compare sounds from marshes that won’t be restored as a way of knowing which soundscapes have natural variations and which ones are reacting to our work.

Marshes have amazing environmental benefits. They provide wildlife habitat, filter pollutants, and act as buffers from heavy storms. As a person who is passionate about wildlife, my motivation in both the sound study and the restoration work is protecting endangered species. Salt marshes in this region are native to the saltmarsh sparrow (Ammodramus caudacutus) and the eastern black rail (Laterallus jamaicensis), which are at risk of

Apperently, microphones are delicious. A raccoon chewed through one of Faller’s microphone coverings, which she caught on audio. Go to the link at the end of the article to listen.

losing breeding habitat to sea-level rise. The saltmarsh sparrow only breeds and nests in areas of tidal salt marsh that are meant to flood once a month. Due to marsh degradation, the birds’ breeding success has plummeted and their population has dropped 87 percent since 1998. The National Fish and Wildlife Service is determining whether the saltmarsh sparrow should be listed as endangered. Without management intervention, our lush salt marshes will disappear, and the salt marsh sparrow could go extinct.

Thanks to a grant from Wildlife Acoustics, I used cutting-edge recording devices to collect soundscapes. I set the devices to start recording two hours before sunrise and stop two hours after sunset (at half-hour intervals) to capture daytime and nocturnal animals. Every so often, while swapping out the equipment’s batteries and SD cards, I saw telltale signs that curious critters had come to visit. I knew birds had been perching if the recorder was covered in droppings. Another time, a raccoon ate the foam covering off one of the microphones. Luckily, the microphone was recording at the time, so I have great coverage of the whole event, including when the raccoon jumped down and splashed into the flooded marsh (must have been high tide).

After two months, I amassed 49,367 separate recordings, equivalent to over 1,600 hours of audio from loon yodels and hoots from great horned owls, to nightjars, eastern whip-poor-wills, and Chuck-will’s-widows.

As you can imagine, nearly 50,000 recordings are a lot of data to comb through, so I’m using artificial intelligence software to help with species detections. I’m also using Wildlife Acoustic’s Kaleidoscope software to pull out ecologically significant information, such as bird species diversity and human-generated sound pollution.

This project will continue for the next few seasons to help me understand how this marsh will respond to the restoration project. PDE hopes the degraded habitats restoration project will improve and we can turn the tide on the decline of rare animal species.

GOAL 1: PREVENT WETLAND LOSS STRATEGIES 1-3

WANT TO HEAR SOME OF KELLY’S RECORDINGS?

Chuck-will’s-widow: https://bit.ly/chwilwid

Eastern whip-poor-will: https://bit.ly/easternwpw

Loon (48 seconds in): https://bit.ly/loon-48secs

Raccoon eating Kelly’s microphone: https://bit.ly/hungryraccoon