The area I have selected to observe is the property in which I live on, located two kilometers west of Nelson, BC. The property encompasses a North facing area of 4.56 acres and falls within the Interior Cedar Hemlock dry-warm (ICHdw1) biogeoclimatic zone (BEC). The property is surrounded and contains various tree species, large areas of wild grasses and some landscaping such as maintained lawn and decorative shrub species.
I chose morning and evening chorus for sample times of approximately 30 minutes each in the month of mid-May. There were generally rain showers throughout the night and day, however I did sample when raining lightly and this did not seem to affect my results as much as I thought it would.
I chose to keep my questions simple. They are as follows: 1) to observe and identify the bird diversity that is within my yard, 2) compare species from morning to evening point count surveys to see if there is a difference in species, 3) to work on my bird call and visual identification skills. I started with the intention of sampling twice a day for two weeks, however my work schedule changed and I only collected 9 days of point-count data instead. I also caution that what I recorded may have a large margin of error given that my bird skills could use substantial amount of improvement.
