User: | Open Learning Faculty Member:
Having wrapped up my data collection and started writing my paper, I can honestly say I’ve learned a lot about the design and implementation of ecological studies. My study design changed many, many times from my initial ideas to the one I finally settled on. I found my main problem in study design was aiming higher than my knowledge, skills, and available equipment would permit. Counting songbird species? “That sounds doable” I’d think to myself after reading a study on bird behavior during the initial brainstorming for my project. But then I’d go to my study site and realize I was in over my head. With limited experience identifying birds, I quickly realized that I’d need to narrow my focus to a couple easily identifiable species in order to maintain accurate, high-quality observations. (Even then, I suspect I’ve likely misidentified the odd duck or 2….females without males present are still tricky!)
Then came all the things I hadn’t considered in my initial design. What if a bird flys away in the middle of an observation period? What if they wander into the bushes and I can’t see them any more? What if there are no birds on the pond when I arrive? All these things I couldn’t plan for required little adjustments as I went along.
My replication targets proved overly enthusiastic as well and by the end of June I realized that I’d need to adjust my goals in order to complete my data collection in a timely manner. That said, I managed to collect 90 individual bird observations, for a total of about 3600 usable behavior observations. Its been fun playing with the data to see what patterns I can find, though without proper statistical analysis I have no idea if what I’m seeing is significant or not!
Reading studies that are similar in design to my own, but seeing how many more birds the authors observed for their data collection, gives me a new appreciation for the work that goes into these types of projects!
I really enjoyed visiting my study site. This artificial wetland is located about 5 minutes from my house but I’d never been before now! I’m used to walking through natural areas in a rush, usually while walking my dogs. I was amazed by the number of different bird species I saw when I finally sat down quietly and just observed. While adamantly not a morning person, my favorite observation period ended up being my morning hours. The pond was always so still and quiet, undisturbed by human presence. The songbirds were so loud!
Conducting this experiment has given me a different view of the natural areas I frequent for recreation purposes. I look forward to returning to my site in the future and being able to recognize the different species I’ve identified during my research observations!
