yorku.grassland.woodlot.Sept27-2016.csv

The experiment was carried out on September 27, 2016 from approximately 3:30 - 4:25 pm. The weather consisted of cloudy but dry conditions. The wind speed was approximately 13-18 mph which corresponds to being a moderate breeze on the Beaufort scale. The experiment was conducted at Boyer’s Woodlot located near Ian Macdonald Blvd (Latitude 43.78, Longitude -79.50). It was predicted that there would be more birds found within the woodlot than in the grassland. It was hypothesized that there would be a higher frequency of birds spotted in the woodlot than in the grassland because the nests of various bird species are built within the woodlot. Also the woodlot provides shade, shelter from predators, and opportunity to find a wider variety of food which is ideal for birds. The hypothesis was consistent with the data as it was observed that there were only 15 birds found in the grassland as compared to 20 birds found within the woodlot. To conduct the experiment, belt transects were used to measure a total distance of 25 metres. A total of 5 transects were carried out for the grassland habitat. Each transect was 5 metres apart and birds that were spotted 5 metres of either side of the transect were counted. The experimenter stayed at each transect for a total of 5 minutes each and the experimenter recorded the total birds spotted, number of species, and the frequency of each individual species. The previous methods were repeated for the grassland habitat. The grassland habitat is defined as an open area at least 250m by 250m in size with few trees, disturbed open space similar to grassland in size but with more mixed vegetation and more trails/pathways for people such as a university open commons. The woodlot habitat is a forest on campus that consists of a concentrated collection of trees and shrubs. The latitude and longitude were found by using an online GPS on google.com. The total number of birds was the total number of birds observed within 5m of either side of the experimenters location recorded as a single value. The number of species consists of recognizable taxonomic units that were different from each other. For example, species one consisted of the sea gull species. The frequency of species is the actual number of times that each species was spotted.