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The organism I plan to study for the field research project are birds. On March 8, 2019 I observed bird species along Jack Pine Trail, a forested trail located in the Ottawa Greenbelt. I chose three locations along this trail based on the distance from the Moodie Drive.
I started my observations at Location 1 at 1000 hrs. The ambient temperature at the time was -11°C, it was sunny with no overcast. Initially, I was to identify species of bird both by visual observations as well as auditory. However, I was unable to identify species based on their calls, thus I decided against identifying species on auditory observations.
Location 1 yielded three species. Namely the Black-Capped Chickadee (Poecile atricapillus), the Pileated Woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus), and the Downy Woodpecker (Picoides pubescens). This location was at the entrance to the trail and as such was a heavily trafficked area and was nearest to the adjacent highway (i.e., Moodie Drive); I observed significant noise pollution at this location. I left this location at 1015 hrs.
My observations at Location 2 began at 1017 hrs and ended at 1032 hrs. Location 2 only yielded one species. Namely the Black-Capped Chickadee (Poecile atricapillus). I observed some bird seed on the trail itself which may have attracted the species to this location.
My observations at Location 3 began at 1033 hrs and ended at 1048 hrs. Location 3 yielded the most species with a total of four observed. Namely the Black-Capped Chickadee (Poecile atricapillus), the Downy Woodpecker (Picoides pubescens), the Blue Jay (Cyanocitta cristata), and the Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis). The Black-Capped Chickadee was the most abundant with approximately eight individuals observed over a 15-minute period. Location 3 was the most diver location due to the bird feeder that was installed by a local not-for-profit organization.
As warming temperatures are on the horizon in this area it would be interesting to observe whether temperature fluctuations have an impact on bird diversity at Location 3. Although Location 3 is influenced by the bird feeder, I believe that results would be best observed at this location as there is a mechanism of attraction to observe as man bird species as possible.
As such, my hypothesis would be: Temperature influences the diversity of bird species on Jack Pine Trail. Thus the null hypothesis would be: Bird species diversity is not influenced by temperature.
Based on this hypothesis, my response variable would be the number of bird species observed while the explanatory variable would be ambient temperature. The number of bird species would be a discrete variable while temperature would be continuous.
