Notice of Intent to Award

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THERE IS NO FULL ANNOUNCEMENT ASSOCIATED WITH THIS NOTICE. This is a Notice of Intent to award in accordance with 505 DM 2, 2.14 B (4) a Cooperative Agreement between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Carnegie Museum of Natural History (Powdermill Nature Reserve) for the purpose of analyzing sound recordings to index migrating bird abundance in the central Appalachians. Staff at Powdermill Nature Reserve will extract flight call data, sound recordings from each site-night are first scanned to detect sounds that potentially are bird calls (i.e., frequency and duration in the range of calls made by nocturnal migrants), using software developed by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology (Raven or XBAT); each recording is scanned twice, once to detect sounds made by sparrows or warblers, then again to detect the lower, longer calls of thrushes, tanagers, and other species. The spectrograms of detected sounds are then screened to eliminate non-bird sounds (generally insects, frogs, rain, and other weather-associated sounds). The Agreement is for limited financial support to complete processing of the Fall 2007 recordings. To expedite the work, detected sounds from one audio channel will be screened for each site-night, with detections from the second channel screened as time allows. This Single Source Award is being made in accordance with Department of the Interior Policy 505 DM 2, 2.14 B(4), which allows for award to an applicant who is uniquely qualified to perform the activity based on technical expertise. Substantial involvement on the part of the Service is anticipated for the successful completion of the objectives to be funded. In particular, the Service will be responsible for the following: Dr. Tim Jones will provide technical guidance for project through participation in monthly conference calls and project meetings. Service personnel will review and help select appropriate methods for statistical modeling of how the counts of bird calls relate to landscape metrics calculated from elevation and land cover data for the study are. Service personnel will disseminate products to partners in the Appalachian Mountain Joint Venture. In accordance with 505 DM 2.9 B the Service will be substantially involved.

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