yorku.grassland.woodlot.sept27-2016.csv

On Tuesday, September 27th, 2016, at 3:00-4:30pm, an experiment testing the total number of birds, number of species, and frequency of that species between the Danby Woodlot and the Grasslands was carried out. The weather was 17 degrees Celsius; the wind speed was 18 km/h, and mostly cloudy skies. This experiment was conducted at the Danby Woodlot and Grasslands area, located at the York University Keele Campus (43.7 degrees North, 75.9 degrees West), between York Blvd and Keele St. It was predicted that there would be a greater number of birds in the Woodlot than the Grasslands. It was hypothesized that the frequency of seeing different bird species would be greater in the Woodlot because birds have their shelter and food in trees, which is necessary for different bird species to continue thriving. This experiment was carried out by placing a belt transect that was measured to be 25m, and waiting 5 minutes to observe the total number of birds, the total number of species, and the frequency of the species within the transect. This was done for a total of 5 times in the Woodlot area, and a total of 5 times in the Grassland area. 45 minutes were both equally spent in the Grassland and Woodlot area. The hypothesis was proven to be correct; there were more birds in total, more species, and the frequency of birds in a specific species was greater in the Woodlot area than the Grasslands, but the confounding variables that negatively affected the amount of birds that were seen while the experiment was being carried out were the wind and cool weather.