To date I have made two trips to my study area, which contains three different habitat types (ages of forest). I surveyed all three habitats for bird species on both trips, and each was done using a point count along a transect. Each transect has 6 points.
| Cutblock | Regeneration stand | Mature CWH forest | |
| Day 1 | n = 6 | n = 6 | n = 6 |
| Day 2 | n = 6 | n = 4 | n = 6 |
| Day 3 | Not yet completed, plan is n = 6 | Not yet completed, plan is n = 6 | Not yet completed, plan is n = 6 |
Table 1: Replicates collected in each habitat type as of March 30, 2022.
On my second survey day the rain and wind increased leading me to suspend my survey for the final two points so that I was conforming to the RIC standard for weather. I haven’t had much trouble, other than sometimes on the walk between habitat types there are other interesting things to see. I need to be mindful that I need to complete my observations before well before noon. In other words, I don’t have time to explore until the end of the full survey!
Interestingly, one thing I have noticed is that my prediction may only be partially correct. I had thought there would be more bird species richness in the regeneration stand than I have observed so far. On my final survey day, I will take some time to reflect on why this might be while I am in the area and can explore the habitat a bit more.
As an aside, I also managed to get some recordings of some of the songs including a Brown Creeper and a Pacific Wren. An iPhone will capture the sounds quite well even when I couldn’t see the birds!