Bird Count in Grassland and Woodlot

Variables <br> Frequency: The frequency refers to number of times birds came over the region marked with the transect<br> Wind speed: Was collected in km/h by a phone app and then converted into the Beaufort scale<br> Species: Number of different kinds of birds observed<br> Distance: An estimate of a bird’s distance to the ground directly below it Hypothesis<br> If it rains, then more flocks of birds would gather because worms surface to the top and they are a good source of food for the birds. I predict that due to the high amounts of rain earlier in the day that there would be more birds present in big groups on the grassland. Methods<br> The experiment was done on grassland and woodlots found on York University property on September 26, 2016 around 2:45pm.There was a light drizzle of rain and at the start of the experiment, the temperature was around 15 degrees. A transect was placed on the ground and was 9m long for each replicate. For each replicate, 5 minutes were allocated for watching above for any birds. After the 5 minutes, species, frequency of birds and distance were jotted down and the next replicate was started. The first 5 replicates, were from the grassland and replicates 6-10 were in the woodlots. Sources of error<br> In the data collected, no birds were counted over each replicate but big groups of birds were seen feeding in the grasslands. When observing the frequency and birds, we may have been too close to the transect which may have scared the birds away. Only one type of bird was seen (seagulls) majority of the time and this may be due to the cooler weather. The cooler weather would force smaller birds such as sparrows to shelter such that they can conserve energy.