Blog Post #3 – Ongoing Field Observations

1. Identify the organism or biological attribute that you plan to study.

After visiting my study site several times over the last week, I am eager to focus my research project on bird species in some way.  Over the last couple days, my ideas for study subjects have been wide ranging. Amongst some of my ideas:

• attempting to sample the abundance of all individual bird species I encounter  at various points in the park (an unrealistic idea for someone with little to no working knowledge of bird identification, especially by song)

• Measuring the abundance of bird species at different times of day, to see when activity is highest. (an appealing idea, but again with little knowledge of various bird species this study would likely have a large bias due to my own inaccuracies)

• I then thought about grouping birds into groups (ie: songbirds, water birds, birds of prey) and sampling throughout the park at various times of day.  (Better, as I’m confident I can accurately tell the difference between these 3 groups, however the studies I looked at still put considerable emphasis on using bird songs to count species that have low visibility.)

I finally decided that water bird observations would be the direction I took as there are fewer species and each is fairly easy to accurately identify, even for an inexperienced bird watcher like myself.  They are also highly visible given their propensity for water and shore-based activities, so the need to identify based on song is eliminated. I will focus my observations on the 2 ponds in the park as I have not observed water birds outside of the immediate area of the ponds.

I knew I wanted to look at behavior patterns throughout the course of the day to see if I could discern any differences.  Once I thought more about bird behavior, I realized I would need to find a way to quantify these activities in a way that I could then interpret as data.  My admittedly limited experience in ecology prior to this course led me on a clumsy search through the library resources where I eventually stumbled upon the term “Time-activity budgets”.  This describes perfectly what I was hoping to sample and I’ve found several good papers describing techniques that would be feasible for the scope of this project.

I finally settled on measuring the time-activity budgets of 4 common waterfowl species at 3 different times of day (dawn, midday, dusk)

• • • Mallard
    • Canada Goose
    • Franklins Gull
    • Spotted Sandpiper

Note: This species list is still subject to change as I had not taken note of specific species abundance of waterfowl during my previous visits. I plan to use the 4 most common species present in the park and will finalize my list during a trial data collection period this weekend!

1. Use your field journal to document observations of your organism or biological attribute along an environmental gradient. Choose at least three locations along the gradient and observe and record any changes in the distribution, abundance, or character of your object of study.
   • I’ve noticed that some species (ie: the Gulls) spend a lot of time on the shore while others (ie: Mallards and Canadian Geese) are often found swimming in the open water. Therefore, the gradient I am using in my observations:  Shoreline (land) → shallows (estimated < 5 m from shore or visible foliage above waterline) →  open water
   • Sample Times: Dawn/midday/Dusk
   • Using the “Rule of 10” suggestion from the tutorials, I plan to collect data at my site on 10 different days (10 replicates).
     • 10 days x 3 times of day = 30 total sample periods
   • I plan to sample 3 individuals from each species at each visit
     • 4 bird species x 3 individuals/species = 12 individual birds/period x 30 sample periods = 360 individual birds analyzed.
   • I will be recording bird activities in a categorical nature (ie: Feeding, Resting, Comfort care, Locomotion, etc) every 15 seconds for 5 minutes, for each subject analyzed.
     • 5 minutes/bird, recording behavior every 15 seconds = 20 data points/bird
     • Each sample period: record data for 1-3 members (depending on abundance, goal=3) of each target species = 4-12 birds x 5 minutes each = 20-60 minutes= 80-240 data points/sample period
     • 10 days of sampling at 3 periods/day = 30 total sample periods = 2400-7200 data points collected
2. Think about the underlying processes that may cause any patterns that you have observed. Postulate one hypothesis and make one formal prediction based on that hypothesis. Your hypothesis may include the environmental gradient; however, if you come up with a hypothesis that you want to pursue within one part of the gradient or one site, that is acceptable as well.

I predict that the water bird species studied will display increased levels of higher-energy activities (flight, feeding, etc) in dusk/dawn periods due to cooler temperatures, and increased display of lower energy activities (comfort, resting) mid-day when temperatures are higher.

The null hypothesis would be that time of day has no effect on the time-activity budgets of water bird species.

In studying 4 different species, I also hope to detect differences in activity patterns between them. I predict that the larger species (ie: Canada Geese) will spend more time feeding than their smaller comparators due to the increased energy demands required by larger organisms.

The null hypothesis here would be that the size of bird has no effect on behavior patterns throughout the day.

1. Based on your hypothesis and prediction, list one potential response variable and one potential explanatory variable and whether they would be categorical or continuous. Use the experimental design tutorial to help you with this.
   • Response variable: behavior patterns (categorical)
   • Explanatory variable: time of day (categorical)

Based on the tutorial on experimental design, my study would be classified as a tabular design.

Sample data collection table that I have designed and will test this weekend:

L=land S=Shallows O= Open water