User: | Open Learning Faculty Member:
After collecting my initial field data, I noticed an issue with my methods. I counted the ducks 5 times in one day, at two hour intervals. I found that since ducks have the ability to walk and not stay stationary like plants, I had some trouble counting the ducks without error. I alleviated this problem for the most part by taking pictures of the areas and counting the ducks that way, but some could have been missed if they were in the bushes surrounding the water. I noticed that the ducks at the bridge preferred to be in the water around noon and 4pm but being in the shade or the sun didn’t seem to be a factor at these times even with the warmer water temperature, but at the other two study sites, there didn’t seem to be enough ducks to make a solid hypothesis, so I have decided that for my next data collection, I will count the ducks at 10am, 2pm, and 6pm to account for the changes in behaviour, and I will mainly focus my studies on the site of the moat with the bridge. I also believe that my initial hypothesis had too many variables, and the food source variable will be much harder to test for, so I decided to condense my hypothesis to just include water quality. In doing so, it made my study much easier to conduct. Overall, I do believe my systematic sampling method to work and though I found a few of my observations to be surprising at the time, looking back on them, they do make a lot of sense when I think about what I know about how ducks behave.
Hello ehansen! Your project seems very interesting. Ducks are finicky creatures; stay safe out there. I wonder how you are measuring shade vs. sun factor – do you have quadrants clearly laid out? Best of luck with the rest of your research.