Experimental Design Diagram for My Study Area

6th and last post!

Today is Monday November 28, 2011. It is 40˚F and I sat out from 3pm to 3:30 pm. It is cold outside and the squirrels can feel it as well as I can. All the squirrels holed up for the day I concluded as I did not see a single one today. I took a picture of the view I have in front of me as always. As I was sitting there I kept hearing birds making noise around me and I could not figure out in the trees where they were until I looked directly up. I saw what I was hearing. There was 9 birds flying around above my head all in a group. These were the only animals I saw in this time I sat there. I could not get a good picture of the birds but I will put it on the blog.

5th Visit its Getting Chilly!!!

Tonight 11/21/11 I sat out in 37˚F weather looking for animal movement out in my study area. I sat out from 4:45-5:15. This is one half hour. I keep having to sit out earlier and earlier due to the time change and the days are starting to get shorter. With a cold crisp in the air and the sun close to setting I sat out and all I saw was one squirrel. I thought it might be easier to spot animals because the trees are so open now and the leaves are crunchy so you can ear the animals moving, but at the same time it is nearing winter so most of the birds have flown away and it seems like some of the squirrels are starting to hole themselves up. I saw an old birds nest and took some pictures of squirrels nests and the picture I always take looking straight out into the environment. I only saw one animal tonight.

4th visit, cold, but many more to come

6:30-7:00pm, 46 F˚ Monday October 31, 2011.






Walking out to my field study area I could see and smell that fall is in the air. As I was walking out a large  bird flew out of the trees. It could have been a hawk or a big crow. I went and sat at my normal tree and decided to take a couple pictures to pass the time. I am going to take a picture of the viewing area in front of me and watch it change from month to month.

As I sat out I saw 2 squirrels, a finch, and a red cardinal. They all seemed to be enjoying the fall air and the fact that the leaves were turning color and falling to the ground. Tonight was halloween and the animals were definitely on the move! They were also making a ton of noise. Birds were making noise all around me, but I could not identify where they came from. Have a happy halloween and expect more blogs from here on out.

3rd Visit Nice Day

Squirrel in tree

It was a nice day today on 10/24/2011. The day was quiet and warm after the previous week of rain and chills. The ground was dry and covered with crispy leaves despite the rain in the early morning. I think that the animals were still hunkered down into their nests in the forest by my house. I did not see as much movement as I would have hoped for such a beautiful day. Early on while my friend was out there helping me take pictures we spotted a squirrels nest high up in a tree and I planned to keep a look out on it. Sitting there for 15 minutes I saw a squirrel in the trees running around and could not get my camera up intime to snap a picture. Instead I got a picture of the nest that it went into that I had spotted earlier while my friend was out there still. About 20 minutes in I saw another squirrel in the trees right out in front of me a ways (As the squirrel nest was to the left of me). Right as a I was leaving to go to my house  and meet back up with my friend I saw what looked like to be a small finch flying around, but i could not get a clear picture of the little thing. I have pictures here of me sitting next to my control variable of my sitting tree and the view it gives me straight forwards. Also I have pictures of the squirrel nest and the other squirrel I saw. Over all I got some good data today and I hope you look forward to seeing my next post on 10/31/2011; hope you are looking forward to it.

Squirrel nest in tree. 

Controlled variable of my sitting tree

Forward view of my sitting tree

Second visit in the rain?!?!

My second visit was yesterday 9/29/2011. It was not a perfect day. In fact it was quite the opposite. Going out in my camouflage clothes I sat at my tree on the very wet ground. It was smelling fresh and like the fresh fallen rain. Under the trees it was almost like it was still raining instead of the slight drizzle that was still in the air. At 6:30 pm to 7:30 pm the day had taken a turn from pretty nice to wall of black cloud that totally blocked out most to all light. Going out to my field study area there was just enough light to see the trees in front of me. Around me I could hear dripping and the rustle of leaves. At first I thought this was animals, but instead it was just the dripping off the leaves. Sitting out here for an entire hour I did not see one animal. For me this just shows that animals can sense the weather and they went and holed themselves up for the night. This was a peaceful visit, but it did not allow me to gather any data due to a unfortunate fact that the rain drove the animal movement down to a zero.

First Visit

My first visit to the woods was today, tuesday 9/20/2011. I went out onto the nature trail right behind my house and walked out to my field study area. It was a crisp clear night and I sat at the base of a big tree. I sat there from 7pm to 8pm. This will be my set time to go out to my study area and take data along with the day being tuesday. As I sat out there it was still bright and there was birds singing everywhere. I knew it was only a matter of time until the area around me would begin to settle down after me walking through it. Not even 10 minutes passed and I heard rustling and a chipmunk pops out of nowhere and runs past me. Aslo a little later I saw a squirrel and a bird in trees running around. As it got closer and closer to 8pm more insects and their noises came with them. As it got close to going inside I noticed everything around me. The slight yellowing in the leaves and also how they were rustling in the leaves. This is my first visit and there is going to be many more in the future!