| The Great Backyard Bird
Count
The Great Backyard Bird Count is a national ongoing database
that is a joint project of the National Audubon Society and
the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. 2003 is the sixth year they
have taken data from helpful birders across the United States.
2003
data from The Helen Patton Environmental Research Center
 |
| Hooded Warbler, Wilsonia citrina
(© Susan Roberts) |
The data was recorded from February 15-17 and, so far, The
Great Backyard Bird Count has received 48,446 checklists,
found 512 species, and counted 4,233,327 birds.
The research is to determine populations as they fluctuate
year to year, depending on cold winters and snow. Also, the
data is helpful in determining the range of species and whether
irruptive species are present.
The Great Backyard Bird Count will next take place February
13-16, 2004. For more information visit www.birdsource.org.
Successional Studies
Long-term research at The Helen Patton Environmental Research
Center is important to generations of students and biologists;
a legacy of information can be gathered and passed down for
further in-depth studies of our valuable resource.
One long-term project that is beneficial to the research station
(at minimal cost) involves successional plots for future ecological
research.
Succession is the gradual replacement, through time, of one
group of species in a community by other groups. It is caused
by a change in one or more abiotic or biotic factors that
benefits some species at the expense of others.
Proposal for Successional Plots (April 2003)
 |
| The lower pasture on
the research center's property is an optimal site for
the use of successional studies. (© Susan Roberts) |
Successional plots are ecologically important to understanding
the rate at which forests and communities re-establish themselves
within a disturbed area such as an agricultural field.
The lower pasture at the research center is an optimal site
for the use of successional studies.
The center’s vision is for three successional plots
(10 x 20 feet) erected over the next five years (2003-2008).
The first plot would be erected in the summer of 2003 and
left undisturbed. The second plot would be built two years
later in the summer of 2005; the third plot would be built
the summer of 2007. The second and third plots can be mowed
at different rates or left alone for comparison if needed.
Studies that can be preformed (not limited to):
• Comparison of arthropods between successional plots
• Plant diversity in successional plots
• Impacts of herbivory on a field
• Bird community comparison
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