Field Data Collection: I systematically chose a 10m long transit line though my in-ground perennial garden bed. A placed 1m2 quadrats alternating at 1m intervals (for a total of 10 quadrats) I collected plant data in each quadrat to determine the plant density. Then ranked the quadrants from least to most dense (with plant material).
Each quadrat was then used as a point count station for the species I am observing: The house sparrow. So far I have collected 5 replicates in each of the 10 point count stations, I plan to collect 10 replicates of each station.
Problems: I haven’t had any issue implementing my sampling design, although the plant density counts of each quadrant took much longer than I anticipated. I believe some external factors may also be influencing the patterns of the sparrows, such a temperature and wind. So far most of the replicates I have collected have been days with similar temperatures and wind.
I have not noticed any ancillary patterns.