IMPROVING PRAIRIE POND COUNTS WITH AERIAL VIDEO AND GLOBAL POSITIONING SYSTEMS

Technological advances in tools available for habitat surveys have occ urred since the inception of the Aerial Waterfowl Breeding Ground Popu lation and Habitat Surveys in North America (BGS). We developed a meth od using aerial video, a global positioning system (GPS), and an optic al disk recorder to assess pond numbers in the Prairie Pothole Region. We analyzed low altitude near infrared video for 12 air-ground segmen ts and 30 29-km transect segments that are part of the annual BGS in s outhern Saskatchewan. Video interpretation was done with a combination of manual and automated procedures. Average omission and commission e rrors for the 12 air-ground segments were 0.21 and 0.22, respectively. Estimating omission and commission errors was confounded by changes i n the presence and level of water between dates of video and ground BG S. Use of GPS automated the organization of the video by transect segm ent on the optical disk recorder, thus reducing labor required to proc ess video images. The time required to interpret the number of ponds f or a 0.2- x 29-km transect segment ranged from 9 to 59 minutes and var ied with pond abundance, size, and contrast with background. The syste m enabled a rapid and accurate assessment of the average number of pon ds. Video imagery can be used to estimate other habitat attributes (e. g., pond area) and is a valuable source of data for analysis of habita t trends.