My field data collection took place in Buttertubs Marsh Park, while studying the distribution of bird species across the park with note to potential human disturbance at each of the sampling sites. My sample sites included three locations across the park, one point count station along the western path, one near the north end of the marsh and one in the southeast area of the marsh. So far I have sampled 30 replicates over 20 days. I will continue to collect data increasing the number of replicates to provide more information to work with.
The implementation of my sampling design appeared to go well. For the remainder of my sampling I could see trying to conduct point count stations at busy times for the park may hinder my results, so going forward I am aiming for times with less foot traffic on the paths. Some ancillary patterns included weather, some rainy days led to lower counts, as well as pedestrian activity on the trails noticeably lowered the counts in select areas. Also due to the protected nature of the marsh, my sampling was limited to observations from marsh lookouts and the walking path, results may vary in other portions of the park.