Frequency of bird species using belt transects placed randomly between the Danby woodlot and grassland

The experiment was conducted on October 1st,2015 at the Danby Woodlot and Grasslands at York University between 2:30 to 5:30 PM EST. The weather consisted of sunny blue skies with an approximate temperature of 15 C. It is to be noted that the sudden drop in temperature over a 24 hour time period resulted in a significant decline in bird sightings which is evident in the data collected. The purpose of the experiment was to determine the frequency of bird sightings from 5 randomly placed belt transects at each site; the grassland and the woodlot. A total length of 30 m with a 10 m width was placed in random locations throughout the woodlot and grassland. A total of 10 transect data sets were collected. The observations collected included the species of birds which were later identified by using the provided guidebooks, the abundance of species, the wind speed using the Beaufort Scale( a range of 2-4 was provided by the TA which was later used to estimate the windspeed at the site, where 2 was light breeze, 3 was gentle breeze and 4 was moderate breeze) and the distance from the species in accordance with the field of view of within a 30 m parameter. Each bird species was identified visually and referenced based on the descriptions provided by the guidebook. The distance was estimated by having the experimenter(s) standing at the 0 m mark of the belt transect and estimating the distance of the bird species within the predetermined 30 m mark of the belt transect. The group members included Bavatharane, Azeb, Eman and Saraswatie.