Bird abundance in a grassland and woodlot on York University campus

Data was collected on York University campus in the grassland adjacent to Stong Pond and in the Saywell Woodlot between 2:40pm and 5:00pm on September 28, 2015. The temperature was approximately 20 degrees Celcius and it was overcast. 0.2mm of rain had fallen in the past 24 hours. Bird abundance was estimated by walking 5 transects in the grassland and 5 transects in the woodlot. Each transect was 30m long. The experimenter placed each transect randomly by using a random number generator to generate a number between 0 and 100. The experimenter walked the random number of steps along the edge of the grassland or woodlot, then placed the transect. The experimentor estimated wind speed using the Beaufort Scale, then walked each transect for 5 minutes, stopping every 3 steps to look left, right, and above for birds. Each time a bird was observed within 25m of the transect line, the species and estimated distance from the transect line was recorded. Species were identified using a guidebook. In the event that a species could not be identified immediately, a description was recorded and the bird was identified after walking the transect. For each transect, the number of birds of each species, the total number of birds, and the number of different species observed were recorded.