ABI 150 Section A: Focused Observations in the Field

    On Thursday, April 23rd, the bird ecologist of section A split down the middle and loaded up to head to the Yolo Bypass. With our final proposal selected, we divided and conquered to cover as many possible sites within the bypass to use for our study. Sam, our MC for the day, provided a printed outline for our field notes and observations, which was drafted by proposal group #5, which wrote the winning proposal! It provided a great outline for how we could possibly collect and classify data by providing time stamps, species, interactions, behaviors, and locomotion!

    After participating in a wild goose chase to track down Marshall's van (Van 1), the two groups separated to begin their preliminary observations. Initially, van 1 was set to scout out Lot A, but due to the lack of birds, they moved to Lot F. Ryan's van, van 2, was then moved to focus on Lot H. 

    The goals for todays observations were to attempt to gather data on the proposed species, the Greater Yellow Legs and the Black-necked Stilts. We need to gather focused data on interactions between these two species and those classified as larger, such as the Greater Egrets and Great Blue Herons. We were looking to find any relationship or patters associated between the smaller species behaviors and how they changed in the presence of a larger species. 

    With everyone spread out and broken into smaller groups of 2-4, a variety of insightful observations were made from 11am to 11:50. The vans then met up in lot H for lunch following this observational period.

    With a preschooler joining us for the day, it was only right to have some circle time! After everyone had finished eating, Sam had us gather in the parking lot for some directed reflection on our initial observations.

Everyone shared their thought in an open discussion. Here is a short summary of the points made:

General Observations:

• Minimal Yellow Leg sightings
• Minimal "large" bird sightings
• Some antagonistic behaviors exhibited between stilts - chasing, vocalizing, wing flapping 
• Stilts tended to congregate together

What Worked:

• Buddy system 
• Small groups of observers
• Having assigned abbreviations and categories for behaviors
• Counts - beak dips into water, how many times beak is opened when calling
• Timed observations

What Didn't Work:

• Keeping focus on 1 individual and note-taking simultaneously 
• Distance from observer to subject
• Classifying distance between groups or individuals
• Classifying a "group" 

Things to Consider/Suggestions for Next Round:

• What makes a "group"? How many individuals? Species dependent
• How much distance separates the groups
• When do we stop observing an interaction
• Water depth and distance of observer or other species to study group measurements
• Getting clickers
• Focus on groups or individuals for our study
• How many observers do we want on one group/individual
• Time budgets
• How does the number of observers in a group change the observations we make
• Listen to calls and how others react
• Multiple observers, but watching unique behaviors on 1 bird
• What area will we use for observations - 10x10 patch, or area around 1 individual/group
• Have a team of observers switching off, one observers one takes notes

    

    Following the productive sharing and brainstorming discussion, the vans loaded up again and headed to new sites for a second round of observations. Van 1 made a pit stop on their way to lot C along the road between B, C, and D to observe a flock of Pelicans resting on a small grassy island in the middle of a wetland. They continued down the road, looping around towards lot C and pulling off onto the road at the wetlands, where they completed their second round of observations on the stilts in the nearby wetlands. Van 2 spent time at lot B doing time budget observations on sandpiper foraging behaviors. They continued looping around to Van 1's location and finished a second short round of behavior time budgets on stilts. This was performed by grouping into pairs, one keeping their sights on a stilt while the other recorded the observation on a data table at set time intervals. It was noted that there were a couple of stilts mixed in amongst a large group of ibis. Both vans finished their observations and decided to head back to campus to wrap up our final thoughts.

                                                                            Pelicans

                                                                                   Ibis

                                                                            Sandpipers

    After arriving back on campus, we walked over to Briggs Hall, where we did a final discussion on our observations and where to focus the future direction of our project. To summarize our discussion, we decided to swap the Greater Yellow Legs species for the White-faced Ibis due to the minimal sightings of the yellow legs. Since White-faced Ibises are more abundant, focusing on this species will maximize our chances of making consistent observations when we begin collecting data. We were left to then determine if we wanted to focus on interactions between these two small species or group these together and include larger egrets and herons as well. We ran into some more limitations during the second round of observation, like determining water depth and losing track of mental counts. Luckily, we also determined some solutions, like using clickers to track counts, range finders to determine distance, and visiting the Museum of Wildlife and Fish Biology to get measurements on our target species by using specimens. This would allow for water depth measurement, gauging how much of the birds' legs were submerged in water. Lastly, for today, we were left to decide which behaviors or relationships we wanted to focus on. We observed several social behaviors within each species, as well as antagonistic, foraging, and locomotory behaviors. There were also interactions between the ibis and stilt species, which could be a direction to follow as well.

    We thought the voting was over, but it seems we still have more difficult decisions ahead. To narrow down and refine our question further, students were tasked with a few prompts as discussed in the closing moments of class. Based on the observations each individual made today, take the draft a revised research question. This should include the species of interest and the behavior or relationship you observed and would like to study this quarter. Here are some detailed instructions.

To-Do by Monday 4/27 Before Class:

1.  In the creature report channel, please post your focused research question. Below it, include your system, the species you’d like to study and the interaction, behavior, or influence exhibited by it. List the observations you made today that lead to this question. Please also include how we could categorize the behaviors you found from your paper in Zotero.

2. Find a paper that relates to this relationship or behavior that could be of relevance to your question and that we could use in our research. Post the paper to Zotero. Ideally, the study should have some way to categorize or quantify the parameters associated with your revision of the initial research question. Lastly, note if there will be any materials that we would need to purchase!

    Using the proposals provided by all of you, we will be able to have one finalized study system to focus our efforts on, and we will be ready to begin preparation for field data collection!

Monday's Tentative Agenda:

• 10-10:15 -->  Review proposals in Discord
• 10:15-10:25 --> Vote!
• 10:25-11 --> Discuss, research, and define variables
• 11-11:30 --> Draft data tables
• 11:30-11:40 --> Final discussion, any last thoughts/suggestions
• 11:40-11:50 --> Preparation for Thursday - MC Harvey