Capstone Survey

This last chapter introduces no new facts from outside sources. It asks you to use what the earlier chapters set out, planning a small survey of a local place, running it carefully and writing it up so someone else could repeat it. Every step points back to the chapter it comes from; the survey design itself is my own suggestion and should be adapted to your place and any scheme you join (check).

Step 1: Choose a Patch

Birdwatching Fundamentals 6 suggested a small place visited often, such as a park, a stretch of shoreline or a garden. Choose one you can reach easily and safely, and list its habitats. Check whether you need permission to be there (Birdwatching Fundamentals 7: respect private property).

Step 2: Prepare Your Kit

Step 3: Fix Your Method

Write down your rules before you start, as a project would (Birdwatching Fundamentals 9): the same route, the same start time and duration, and the same counting rules each visit. A simple scheme is a one-hour walk, once a month, counting every bird you can identify by sight or sound (Birdwatching Fundamentals 8 and 5), with the largest number seen at once for each species. Decide in advance what you will do with birds you cannot identify (record them as unknown, per Birdwatching Fundamentals 4).

Step 4: Run It

• Arrive at the same hour, preferably early in the morning (Birdwatching Fundamentals 5 notes that the dawn chorus is most noticeable in spring, in temperate countries).
• Use the five-step method (Birdwatching Fundamentals 4): impression, size and shape, field marks, behaviour and habitat, sound.
• Keep your distance from nests, do not use playback, and move quietly (Birdwatching Fundamentals 7).
• Record date, time, weather, and the birds, with numbers and whether each was seen or heard.

Step 5: Write It Up

For each visit, write the date, the conditions, the species list and numbers, and a note on anything unusual. After several visits, make a table of species against months, as the sample below shows. The numbers are made up to show the layout, not real observations.

Step 6: Share It

If you submit your checklists to an online scheme, submit complete lists (Birdwatching Fundamentals 8), and think before revealing the exact location of a sensitive species (Birdwatching Fundamentals 7). A local group or national organisation may also welcome a year's records (my suggestion; check).

Not Yet Verified, and Sources

• Sources. This chapter draws only on the earlier chapters, whose own sources and caveats apply. No new web sources were read.
• My own. The survey design, the table of made-up numbers and the advice to share records (check).
• Carried forward. The earlier chapters' "(check)" items still stand, including unconfirmed record totals and the sources read only in part.

Exercises