ABI 150 Section A - Reaching a Whimsy Flow State in Stilt City (mostly unscathed but with slight heat damage)

Data Collection Day 2: Putting our Methods to the Test (again!)

Date: May 15, 2026

Location: Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area (Stilt City/Stilt Suburbs aka Lot H)

Morning Group: 6:30 am - 12:30 pm

Afternoon Group: 10 am - 4 pm

After last week's success with data collection in the field, we decided that continuing our morning and afternoon shifts were the right move. Thursday marked our second successful day of data collection on our favorite Black-necked Stilts! The main goal of this field day was to collect as much data as we could, while further refining our methods, and overcoming obstacles in the field, all while maintaining our sanity in the heat. 

From the increasingly bright city lights in Stilt City (the sun and the 90 degree weather) to the changing numbers in our groups, Thursday became another test to see how well we could adapt to new changes that we were not totally prepared for (spoiler alert: we did great!). Temperatures ranged from a low 53 degrees in the morning to a high of 90 in the afternoon. As our favorite TA/PhD student Ryan so eloquently stated, "ooo doggy."

Methods Overview: How to Achieve Flow State 101

Our focal species remained the Black-Necked Stilt. Since our numbers were not as even as previous weeks, we had groups of 3 rather than 4, but observers still focused on repeated interval sampling with one observer on distance and the other on both foraging and time budget, and there was only one recorder who really had to maintain flow state to keep our research from blowing up in our faces. Shoutout to all our recorders. Stilt City would be nothing without y'all.

Our data sheets included bird ID information (time, initials, day of month), foraging behaviors, foraging rate, distance/angle of bird and nearest neighbor, species of nearest neighbor, additional notes, etc.

Our equipment included binoculars, chairs, water jug - which was more so there for moral support and which kickstarted our lemonade stand research, rangefinders, clipboards, pencils, data sheets, and our phones where we used the timer and compass features. 

How we achieved flow state:

Our numbers were slightly off today so instead of groups of 4, we had groups of 3 (2 observers, 1 recorder). For both morning and afternoon, we remained in Stilt City and the suburbs (Lot H) because this is where most stilts were concentrated. Last class, we thought we would maybe include initial behaviors but ultimately discarded this since we would have no initial foraging behavior rates, thus skewing our data. Groups remained the same throughout the day so that flow state remained. We also divided based on comfortability of roles so that each person was able to achieve and remain in flow state throughout the day, which really improved efficiency and reduced confusion of who is doing what. 

Morning Group Notes: 

For those in the morning group (Sam, Samantha, Liliana, Heuijae, Riley, and Marshall), they completed 19 total trials. 16 of these trials were in Stilt City, with only 3 outside of this area. 

Afternoon Live Updates: Reporting from the Trenches of Stilt City

For those in the afternoon, we started off with Ryan, Carissa, and Tanya loading up the car! Literally us...(shoutout Guido from Cars and all my NASCAR fans)

10:01 - Everyone in the afternoon group arrived!

10:03 - Started heading to the Bypass!

10:09 - Our first crisis. We had to pull over because...we almost forgot...the RANGE FINDERS!!! But no worries, it was a false alarm. But hey, better safe than sorry.

10:21 - We made it to the Bypass!

10:34 - Met up with the morning crew in lot H, where we learned about the lore of Stilt City and Suburbs. This was our little meeting/shift change. We learned that they kept everything the same method wise besides the groups of 3 and eliminating initial behaviors and NN information.

10:48 - Developed new groundbreaking side research proposals... Do stilts like lemonade, do ducks like grapes, etc. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtN1YnoL46Q) #whimsy #newresearch #ducksong

side note...afternoon crew watching morning crew drive away while we prepared for war (the amazing California heat): 

10:59 - Said goodbye to the morning shift crew, became the official new mayors of Stilt City, and split into 3 separate groups 

11:21- We saw a lot of nesting behaviors and some mommies (a stilt and an avocet) on a cute little spa day in Stilt City #itreallydoestakeavillage

11:45 - We saw some dragonflies mating while we were trying to take observations. 

12:10 - Two stilts landed right next to us! Possibly our beloved Nasty Nathan...#flexiblelegs #celebritysighting (If you don't know the lore about Nasty Nathan, please ask)

12:30 - Lunch time/Checking in (Ryan skillfully reversed us all the way to the lot with the killdeer protecting her eggs) (Also learned that Harvey is conducting his own research with his explosive sparkling water Hydroflask!) (We had about 16ish observations at this time #huzzah)

12:49 - Still on lunch, but we got a nice BIS102 lesson from Josie (field ecology AND molecular bio...who are we?!?!) #proteinstructure #interdisciplinaryqueensandkings

1:19 - Back to the city life...saw some duckies and their babies. Morale increased significantly

1:48 - Spotted a singular Greater Yellowlegs for the first time in forever...thank goodness we didn't do our research on them 

2:00 - Got a little too steamy in Stilt City and no I am not talking about the two dragonflies mating...it was genuinely 90 degrees

2:10 - Met back up to do observations from the car

2:30 - Stilt observations from the car 

3:00 - Stop at Yolo Fruit Stand (shoutout Harvey and his peanuts...our very own Theodore) (Also had to conduct some taste-testing for our lemonade stand research later) 

3:20 - Back on campus 

3:33 - Ooo Doggy! We're back in class scanning data #angelnumbers

OVERALL:

Thursday was another successful data collection day for us. I think we have really gotten used to our methods and have become masters in our skills, so having a few odd numbers did not get the best of us and we adapted quickly. Our groups are becoming more efficient, confident, and we got a LOT of observations. You can tell that everyone felt better about today than any other day, despite the heat. Good work everyone. 

FOR NEXT CLASS:

- PLEASE MAKE SURE TO INPUT ALL THE DATA FROM BOTH OUR DAYS WE HAVE DONE SO FAR!

Things to Think About for Next Meeting: 

- Do we want to add nesting as a separate behavior or are we fully settled with our methods? How did your group categorize this behavior?

- Do we want to remain in groups of 3? Or do you feel more comfortable in groups of 4 still? If so, how would we feel about changing the data sheet format to include both rate and budget on one sheet for easier access?

- It is going to be extremely hot on Thursday, so we need to figure out shifts. 

- Juvenile vs. Adult (Let's make sure to ensure there's a distinction between the two, as this can be another variable changing their behavior)

Possible Schedule for Monday: (might change, but will update in Discord if needed)

10-10:15: Arrival/Check-in (How are we feeling, did we truly survive the heat of Stilt City, any lore updates, have we uploaded and double checked all data?)

10:15-10:40: What worked better/worse from first data collection day to second? Groups of 3 or 4? Data sheet changes - initial interval, add any new species we saw, juvenile vs. adult, etc.)

10:40-11: Thursday's schedule (how do we want to work out shifts?)

11-11:40: Possible R Studio tutorial

11:40-11:50: Blogger Talk