Our purpose is to provide researchers, consultants, decision‐makers, and other stakeholders with guidance to methods and metrics for investigating nocturnally active birds and bats in relation to utility‐scale wind‐energy development. The primary objectives of such studies are to 1) assess potential impacts on resident and migratory species, 2) quantify fatality rates on resident and migratory populations, 3) determine the causes of bird and bat fatalities, and 4) develop, assess, and implement methods for reducing risks to bird and bat populations and their habitats. We describe methods and tools and their uses, discuss limitations, assumptions, and data interpretation, present case studies and examples, and offer suggestions for improving studies on nocturnally active birds and bats in relation to wind‐energy development. We suggest best practices for research and monitoring studies using selected methods and metrics, but this is not intended as cookbook. We caution that each proposed and executed study will be different, and that decisions about which methods and metrics to use will depend upon several considerations, including study objectives, expected and realized risks to bird and bat populations, as well as budgetary and logistical considerations. Developed to complement and extend the existing National Wind Coordinating Committee document “Methods and Metrics for Assessing Impacts of Wind Energy Facilities on Wildlife” (Anderson et al. 1999), we provide information that stakeholders can use to aid in evaluating potential and actual impacts of wind power development on nocturnally active birds and bats. We hope that decision‐makers will find these guidelines helpful as they assemble information needed to support the permitting process, and that the public will use this guidance document as they participate in the permitting processes. We further hope that the wind industry will find valuable guidance from this document when 1) complying with data requirements as a part of the permitting process, 2) evaluating sites for potential development, 3) assessing impacts of operational wind‐energy facilities, and 4) mitigating local and cumulative impacts on nocturnally active birds and bats.

Egg flotation was used to estimate incubation age and eggshell evidence was collected to determine nest fate at nests of 11 species of shorebirds on the Arctic Coastal Plain of Alaska during 2002–2004. We present egg‐flotation schedules for nine species to facilitate the estimation of nest age. We evaluated the predictive ability of an egg‐flotation schedule for Semipalmated Sandpipers (Calidris pusilla) and were able to estimate incubation age within ∼1–3 d of the assumed age. Patterns of eggshell evidence were similar across species, with eggshell fragments (1–5 mm) present at most successful nests (96%) and eggshell tops or bottoms present only at successful nests. We determined nest fate independently of eggshell evidence and then used discriminant function analysis to predict the probability of correctly classifying a nest's fate using different types of eggshell evidence. The use of eggshell fragment evidence resulted in the correct classification of the fate of all 11 species of shorebirds in 92% of the cases. Both the egg‐flotation technique and eggshell evidence can be used in future studies to calculate accurate measures of reproductive success needed for ecological investigations of shorebirds.

We examined relationships between Columbia torrent salamanders (Rhyacotriton kezeri) and biotic and abiotic habitat attributes at landscape and reach (within‐stream) scales in managed forests of northwestern Oregon, USA. In 2000, we found 851 torrent salamanders in 58% of 119 headwater (first‐order) streams from randomly selected 2.58‐km2 sections of the study area. Landscape‐level variation in torrent salamander distribution and relative abundance was related to abiotic landform features that included parent geology, elevation, and aspect, but variation was not related to age or composition of adjacent riparian forests. In 2001, we conducted a more detailed study of salamander occurrence and abundance within 179 10‐m stream reaches stratified by geology and gradient. The stream reaches were randomly selected from 40 streams known to contain salamanders. We recorded 1,224 salamanders from 92 (51%) of the stream reaches. Akaike's Information Criterion (AIC) model selection indicated that the global model containing all 23 variables best explained salamander occupancy in stream reaches, but a model containing only stream gradient also received empirical support. The stream‐gradient model was the best candidate model explaining reach‐level salamander abundance. Three other models explaining abundance (an abiotic landform model, the global model, and a physical substrate model) also received empirical support. Overall, our study suggests that variation in physical features of stream habitats may have an important influence on distribution and abundance of Columbia torrent salamanders at multiple spatial scales.

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