I have chosen to conduct my field research project in my backyard, located in Fort Simpson, NT. It’s a space approximately 100ft x 40ft, with a side yard approximately 30ft x 100ft fully fenced with a 6ft wooden fence. It contains a variety of trees and shrubs including black spruce, choke cherry, crab apple, black poplar, wild rose, red osier dogwood, and caragana.
It’s February 13, 2024 at 9am with a temperature of -22C, no wind, a beautiful crisp Northern morning. A group of four ravens are jumping among the trees and squawking to torment my two dogs. We live on a relatively busy street in a town of 1200 people so there are vehicles driving past regularly.
I wonder how much snow will we get for the rest of the year? Did I provide enough cover for my perennials to make it through the winter? What types of song birds visit the yard and what do they look for to eat?
Backyards can work for sure, you have to think of questions that will allow replicates at that scale. You also need to think about what sort of gradient you have in your yard. As you work through the next few modules you will work on more questions. The first two questions you have here are not really for a study along a gradient.