BIOLOGY 4142 – Ornithology

Bonus point exercise

Census of waterbirds on University Lake system

11-12 February 2012

Purpose: To improve your skills at independent field identification of waterbirds and to simulate a frequent task in applied ornithology, namely an "inventory."

Objective: Produce an inventory of the waterbird populations of the University Lake system. The inventory consists of a list of species observed, and an estimate or count of the number of individuals of each species.

Instructions: Pick either Saturday or Sunday morning and invest 1.5-2 hours in checking the main lake and adjacent ponds for waterbirds. Identify everything you find, and count or estimate the numbers of each species. Yes, the latter can be difficult, especially when birds are moving around; just do your best. Be sure to get an early start to minimize interference from traffic and joggers. Don't park illegally. If you can't do a survey on one of those days, do one the Friday or Monday on either side -- just beware that numbers of birds change daily, so these off-weekend counts will almost certainly differ from the official Sat/Sunday counts.

Rules: Your survey is a solo effort -- no teams. If you have a friend who wants to go along, that's fine as long as they are not a classmate and do not contribute to your survey.

Area: All water and shoreline of University Lake and City Park Lake (the section north of I-10), and associated smaller lakes and ponds, i.e., Lake Crest, Campus Lake, College Lake, and the unnamed lake along E. Lakeshore south of I-10. Use a city map or MapQuest; for the latter, just zoom in MapQuest on "University Lake" to see the names of the smaller lakes.

Birds: Count only "waterbirds", i.e., anything in Anseriformes, Pelecaniformes, Gaviiformes, Podicipediformes, Ciconiiformes, Gruiformes, or Charadriiformes, as well as certain aquatic species from mainly landbird families (i.e., Bald Eagle, Osprey, and Belted Kingfisher; only the latter is expected). If they are swimming on, resting near, or flying over the lakes, count them. Look for terns and gulls.

Beware of the many exotic waterfowl around the lake, especially various flavors of Muscovy Duck (see Peterson guide), various domesticated Mallard derivatives (usually oversized; often partly or pure white), and various domesticated geese (some pure white) derived from Graylag Goose or Chinese Goose (try GOOGLE image). You are not responsible for these; if you want to count them, fine, but otherwise you can ignore them. Just don't mistake them for wild species.

What to turn in (email preferred): A list of species observed, properly spelled and punctuated, with your estimate of the number present during your survey (all lakes combined, not broken up by lake or locality). No family or order names needed, just species names. Please put them in the same order as they appear on your lab sheets (so that we don't have to read through the whole list to search for a particular species). Date and start/finish times of your survey also needed.

How do I get my bonus points? If you come reasonably close to the inventory done by the TA or me on the morning you chose, you get all 10 points. Points are subtracted for botched IDs and English names, as well as obvious species overlooked. We are typically generous in awarding points. The person with the "best" inventory (i.e., closest to the staff inventory from that morning) from each lab gets additional points.

Due Date: by class time, Monday, 2 Feb.