Motus at Beaver Creek Reserve

 By: Tully Frain, Beaver Creek Reserve's Avian Field Technician

Beaver Creek Reserve has been monitoring birds through banding, surveys, and nest monitoring for over 20 years. Beaver Creek is constantly improving our program to stay relevant, provide to our local community, aid in the conservation, and contribute to the scientific community. Beaver Creek is looking at the future of bird research and is making plans to collaborate with avian researchers on a global level through a new program called Motus. Motus is a wildlife tracking technology out of Canada that uses radio signal towers to track migrating flying animals, from eagles to butterflies. Transmitter tags are placed on a migrating bird and when the bird flies within 15 km of a tracking tower, the tower detects and records the signal from the tag. This data is then submitted to an international database that keeps track of all tagged birds’ location information. 

Motus will dramatically change how we think about migration dynamics and migration ecology. Motus allows us to see specifics about how birds migrate that we haven’t witnessed before. This technology will reveal exact migration patterns, stop-over locations, and travel speeds. In addition, all this data will improve conservation. This data will enable us to identify and protect critical land for birds’ survival and respond to changes that these migrators make due to our changing climate. There will also be extensive educational opportunities, allowing us to better conserve and create a real-world understanding of how migration works. The data is available to everyone allowing all to see what birds are depending upon the Reserve, your backyard, and our protected lands for food, breeding, and migration.

Motus has been implemented extensively throughout the Northeast to great success, with over 600 towers lining the east coast. Until recently, there have been few towers in the Midwest. The lack of Midwest towers is changing with several states investing heavily in the technology, putting up towers across their respective states. Unfortunately, Wisconsin has yet to get behind the effort to implement this vital new technology. This leaves it up to local nature centers and universities to fill the void. Only seven towers have been set up in Wisconsin, all by nature centers and universities. 

Beaver Creek Reserve has the opportunity to get ahead of this technology by installing a Motus tower right here on our property. The Reserve is on the Midwest Migration Network’s list for goal locations to build a tower. We are also an essential area for migration, given our proximity to both the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River. The Chippewa Valley serves as a critical migration conduit to the sub-boreal forest located north of us. 

Ecology research is becoming increasingly complicated, but a Motus tower is a relatively simple concept that most people can understand. All Motus data is available for the public to see online, with birds being tracked in real-time. It will allow us to connect a broader audience with nature and create a better understanding of migration dynamics for the public. A Motus tower will keep the Citizen Science Center from falling behind and prepare for 21st-century science.

Beaver Creek Reserve’s goal is to create operational towers starting summer 2022. Our staff will attend trainings this spring to learn how to build and operate the towers. After the trainings, we will implement our plan to partner with the Midwest Migration Network and erect a tower near Beaver Creek to add to the Midwest Motus goals Then through partnerships with private landowners, conservation organizations, and universities we hope to find the support and locations for additional towers covering the region from Beaver Creek Reserve to the Mississippi River. We hope the local community will get behind this project to expand Beaver Creek Reserve’s ability to connect people with nature.

We are now accepting donations to construct a Motus tower right here at Beaver Creek Reserve! To donate to this project, please see our website for more information. Donations will help support construction of the tower(s), research projects, and educational trainings for our staff.

Reference-

Kendrick, Sarah.(2021, December 4) Motus: Tracking Birds with New Technology[webinar]         Missouri River Bird Observatory