For my initial field sampling, I decided to use random area sampling. The biggest difficulty I found was how to choose my areas for the five different sampling locations in a way that would be unbiased and would work for the type of data I was looking to collect. To achieve this I added a grid and an x and y axis to a Google Earth image of my study area and generated random x and y coordinates, similar to what was done in the virtual tree sampling experiment in Module 3. From this I was able to add sample location points to a map and then I used Google Earth to generate these points into GPS coordinates, which I then used to find the exact site locations. I also used the grid on the map as my quadrat which was 10m x 10m. I went to each point and recorded all bird species seen or heard within each quadrat and spent 5 minutes at each site based on the Ontario Breeding Bird Atlas bird survey protocol (OBBA, 2001).
I was unsure if I should look at number of birds observed or bird diversity for this study so I recorded both during the initial field surveys. Going forward, I think it may be beneficial to look at bird species diversity and keep this as a categorical variable. The study I am conducting looks at the impact canopy cover has on birds. The sites that were randomly chosen have varying canopy covers due to various anthropogenic disturbances in the forest and it may be more meaningful to look at how these disturbances impact species diversity rather than quantity.
During the initial field survey, I observed that areas with mid to open canopy covers have more species of birds present.