Observations taken May 14 from 12-2 pm. Weather windy, sunny and 14 degrees Celsius.
I used quadrats at 10’x10′ to look at the instance of chokecherry connection to lesser burdock (wild rhubarb) in a region next to the creek running through the town of pincher creek. I am trying to see if there is a pattern of the barbed burdock growing beside popular feed spots for deer, as the seed would be transplanted by their movement. Im predicting that I will predominantly find the lesser burdock only around chokecherry plants in the area (or other flowering bushes that are easy to eat) *in my last observations there were less leaves and I identified my main plant as possible swamp rose. Now that the plants are more grown the identification is chokecherry, a rose plant that produces sour fruit. This plant makes more sense to attract deer. Once flowers are on the plant I will be able to fully confirm species.
My sampling strategy worked fairly well except I had assumed I would do a 5’x5′ quadratic and as soon as I arrived I realized that was way too small and I increased to 10’x10′. Going forward I think this may be a good size, I may even go a little bigger.
I also used the haphazard approach which may have some bias. Going forward I think I will grid out the area and choose a little more randomly where I am studying.
I think my variable worked out ok, but I am not totally sure Im measuring the right thing and I just think a much larger sample size will give me a better picture of what data to pull, also once I implement the grid and random assignment then I will get a different picture. That being said I could change and look for something a little different with the plants. I think the random assignment may find things I didn’t come across that could really change the picture of what Im seeing.
One exciting this is that I found a full grown wild rhubarb from last season that had barbs and it was close to the water along a deer trail and close to chokecherry plants. Before this I had only found new growth wild rhubarb and so wasn’t quite sure where the original plants were. This was so interesting.
Birds seen today were: male and female mallards, Robins, house sparrows, and brewers blackbird.
Things are growing and the birds are arriving! Its spring.
