Creating a Northeastern Interior Motus Array

Phase I - Completed September 2017
 
Thanks to generous donors, and with funding from Pennsylvania DCNR, we installed a line of 20 Motus towers from southeastern Pennsylvania to Lake Erie, which were operational by September 1, 2017. This array, maintained by a variety of partner NGOs, educational institutions and agencies, has already intercepted migrants moving out of eastern Canada and New England along the Piedmont, Appalachian ridge-and-valley system, Allegheny Front and Appalachian Plateau.  

Phase II - Completed 2018-2019
 
We aimed to expand the statewide Pennsylvania network, totaling roughly 40 towers, by the end of 2018. Tied in with a local cluster of towers operated by Powdermill Avian Research Center in southwestern Pennsylvania, we established 12 Motus stations in western PA through a grant provided by the Richard King Mellon Foundation. We then added 7 new stations in northeastern PA as part of a USFWS Competetive State Wildife Grant (CSWG).

Phase III - Completed - 2019-2020
 
The third phase, scheduled for 2019-2020, would see the installation of 40 additional towers in Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey and New York, creating a more diffuse network across the mid-Atlantic inland region. In all, these steps would represent a dramatic expansion of the Motus project both geographically and in terms of its research and conservation potential. As we have done with the Pennsylvania cross-state line, we propose working with a variety of researchers, agencies and institutions throughout the Northeast who will agree to take on responsibility, for a set period of time, for the ongoing maintenance and data management of their individual towers or tower clusters.
 
Although our goal in creating a Northeast inland Motus network is to greatly enhance ongoing work in studying a wide range of migratory species at the hemispheric scale, all three organizations in the Northeast Motus Collaboration have a particular, long-term interest in the migration of northern saw-whet owls, the smallest owl in the East.  Once a minimum threshold of stations within the overall network has been achieved, we will begin to deploy nanotags on nesting and migrant northern saw-whet owls at Project Owlnet cooperator stations in New England and eastern Canada, allowing us for the first time to track their movements in real time across continental scales. By lengthening the pulse rate of the nanotags, it is possible for the transmitters to enjoy more than a year's battery life, permitting us to capture full annual-cycle movements. 
 
Birds Canada continue to provide all of the metadata support, including Motus web presence, data management and system technical development.