User Training Videos

1. Training Materials

1. Recording Animal Observations

1. This mini-presentation will guide you through the steps of recording your observations of animals at your site.

   This information is also available on USA-NPN website at www.usanpn.org.

 

1. In this presentation, we’ll focus on recording your observations of animals using Nature’s Notebook.

 

1. As a part of Nature’s Notebook, you are invited to observe both plants and animals, though you may choose to observe only plants or only animals. Recall the difference in the way we ask you to observe plants and animals using Nature’s Notebook:

   For plants: Observe the same individual plants each time you visit your site. For example, observe the same red maple tree in your backyard all through the year.

   For animals: Create a checklist of animal species and look for all of them each time you visit your site. For example, if your checklist includes robins, wood frogs, and tent caterpillars on it, record whether you saw or heard each of those species anywhere in your site each time you visited.

   This presentation will focus on taking observations on animals.

 

1. Observation considerations

1. This presentation will cover things you will need to know to record animal phenology observations, including how to determine which phenophases to observe, how frequently to make observations, and how to deal with special situations.

 

1. We will also cover documenting details about each site visit on a Cover Sheet,

 

1. and how to use an Animal Checklist to summarize the animal species seen or heard at your site on each date.

 

• •Walking a single line through site 

• •Stationary at a single point 

• •Area search: multiple passes through site 

   

1. If you are observing both plants and animals at your site, on each visit, you might choose to focus on animals first and then check your plants.

   For observing animals: During each site visit, look and listen for any of the species on your animal checklist. You can do this by one of three methods:

• -Walking – making a single pass or transect through your site 

• -Stationary – standing or sitting at a single point 

• -Area search – Making multiple passes through your site. 

1. Try to spend about the same amount of time looking and listening for animals on each visit. We recommend spending three minutes each time you observe, but you can spend as much or as little time as you like.

 

1. Phenophases to observe

   Check animal profile page:

    http://www.usanpn.org/species_search 

1. To determine which phenophases to look for, you can check the animal species profile pages on the USA-NPN website. More information on selecting animal species can be found in the training movie, “Selecting plant or animal species”.

   Here is a screen capture of the animal profile page for American robin (Turdus migratorius). If you choose to monitor robins, we are interested in knowing whether you see active individuals, feeding, mating, nest building, or several other activities, or whether you hear calls or songs or singing males each time you visit your site.

   Several phenophases are listed for each animal species. You will probably not see most, or any, of the animals on your list during each visit, which is ok.

   You may wish to print out a copy of the phenophases from your species profile page to take with you to your monitoring site.

 

 

1. Here is a screen capture of what an animal datasheet looks like.

 

 

 

1. For each day that you observe an animal, record the date on your datasheet, and for each phenophase, record either:

 

 

 

 

 

1. It is very important to record your observations at each visit, even if nothing has changed since your last visit or if did not see any of your animal species. Knowing when an animal is not present or is not in a particular phenophase is just as important as knowing when it is. This information allows someone using your data to more confidently narrow down the exact date a phenophase began or ended.

 

1. The first phenophase you are asked to track for nearly any animal species is “active individuals” – that is, whether you see one or more individuals of this species within your site. If you do see one or more active individuals, you should indicate “Y” on your datasheet for this species.  

   If you see the individual animals engaging in a specific activity, like feeding, you should also circle “Y” for this phenophase on your datasheet.

 

1. Let’s try this out. Say you have added American robin to your animal checklist. Each time you visit your site, you will look and listen for robins.

   For robins, you are asked to look and listen for:

• -Active individuals 

• -Feeding 

• -Fruit and seed consumption 

• -Insect consumption 

1. -Calls or song

   -Singing males

 

1. You are also asked to look and listen for:

• -Mating 

• -Nest building 

• -Dead individuals 

• -Individuals at a feeder 

 

1. Say you visit your site on May 5 and begin your 3-minute observation period at 10:15 am. As soon as you begin, you see two robins sitting on a fence. You compare the phenophase descriptions for robin to what you observe.

 

1. First, you consider the phenophase “active individuals”. For robins, “active individuals” are defined as “one or more individuals are seen moving about or at rest.” You compare this definition to what you see on the fence. Indeed, you see one or more individuals at rest, so you are observing “active individuals” of robins.

 

 

1. After recording the two robins you observe resting on the fence, you hear (but do not see) another robin singing, but you don’t know whether it is a male or a female bird.

 

 

 

1. You continue to observe through your 3-minute observation period, but don’t see or hear any more robins.

 

 

1. For observing animals, we also provide an Animal Checklist for you to use as you make your observations. The Animal Checklist provides a quick summary of the animal species seen or heard at your site on each date, and was designed as a shortcut for recording your animal observations.

 

 

1. On your Animal Checklist, fill in your…

 

 

 

 

1. Next, list each of the animal species on your checklist that you are looking or listening for.

 

1. For each day you make observations, fill in the date.

 

1. As you observe, circle “Y” for a species if you saw or heard it. If you did not see or hear the species, circle “N”. If you are unsure about whether you saw or heard it, circle the “?”.

   For any species with a circled “Y” or “?”, you will fill out a column in your Animal Phenophase Datasheet to indicate which of the phenophases you saw or heard or were unsure you saw or heard. However, if you circled “N” for a species, you do not need to fill out a column in your Animal Phenophase Datasheet for that date. Instead you can refer to your Animal Checklist when entering your data online and click “Circle all no” at the top of the column for each of those species on that date, and all phenophases will be set to “No”. Using the Animal Checklist in this way can save you from printing out a lot of extra Animal Phenophase datasheets when you do not see or hear many of your species on each day you observe.

 

1. In addition to tracking the phenophases you observe for the animals on your list, we ask that you provide information about each visit you make to your site on  a Cover Sheet. The purpose of the Cover Sheet is to track the amount of time you contribute to the project, the time and method of your animal observations, and snow conditions at your site.

 

 

1. On the Cover Sheet, fill in your…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• •W = walked a single line through site 

• •S = stationary at a single point 

• •A = area search through site 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1. During each site visit:

• •Summarize animals seen and heard on the Animal Checklist 

• •Document any phenophases seen or heard for animals on your checklist on individual Animal Phenophase Datasheets 

• •Document site visit details on the Cover Sheet 

   

1. To summarize, each time you visit your site, you will:

• - Summarize animals seen and heard on the Animal Checklist 

• - Document any phenophases seen or heard for animals on your checklist on individual Animal Phenophase Datasheets 

1. - Document site visit details on the Cover Sheet

 

1. Bringing it all together: Another quick example

• •American robin 

• •Black-capped chickadee 

• •Bumblebee 

1. Let’s walk through one more example. Say you have three animal species on your checklist for your site:

• -American robin 

• -Black-capped chickadee 

• -Bumblebee 

 

1. Bringing it all together: Another quick example

   On your site visit, you see:

• •One robin flying through the site 

• •Two bumblebees visiting flowers 

1. And you hear:

• •One robin singing 

1. You travel to your site and select your central observing location. You stand still and look and listen for three minutes. During that time, you see:

• -2 robins fly through the site 

• -2 bumblebees visiting flowers 

1. And you hear one robin singing.

 

1. On your Animal Checklist, write the date you observed and then circle “Y” next to ‘robin’ and ‘bumblebee’, as you did observe these species at your site. Because you did not observe Black-capped chickadee, you would circle “N” next to ‘black-capped chickadee’.

 

 

 

1. Before leaving your site, you fill out your Cover Sheet. Write in the date at the top of the column.

 

1. Next, indicate the amount of time you spent looking for animals. Recall in this example you took observations for 3 minutes.

 

1. Next, indicate which method you used to search for the animals on your checklist. Recall that in this example, you stood still at a single point for three minutes. You would circle “S” for ‘stationary’.

 

1. Indicate whether there was snow at your site on this day. In this example, there was not snow on the ground, so you circled “N” for both questions regarding snow on the ground and in the tree canopy.

 

1. Next, indicate the time you spent traveling to and from your site.

 

1. Finally, indicate the time you spent observing. Recall, this is an indication of the total time you spent observing. If you were observing both plants and animals, this estimate would include the time you spent both looking and listening for your animals and also inspecting your plants. Because in this example you were only taking observations of animals, the total time you spent observing is the the time you spent looking for animals, plus 1 minute sharpening your pencil at the beginning and filling out the cover sheet at the end.

 

1. Another example…

• •American robin 

• •Black-capped chickadee 

• •Bumblebee 

1. That concludes the steps you would take to make your observations!

 

• •As often as possible 

• •At least once a week 

• •All observations are valuable! 

1. Visit your site and make observations of your plants or animals as often as is possible. Ideally you will be able to make observations at least once a week, but several times a week or even once a day is even better when things are changing quickly.

   Most importantly, you should record all the observations you make – your observations, no matter how often you make them, provide valuable data!

 

1. You should make observations at a time of day that is convenient for you. Because some animal species tend to be more active at certain times of day and plant activity can vary over the course of the day, it will be helpful if you make your observations consistently around the same time.

 

1. What if I missed a phenophase?

• •Make a note of it in the comments section of your data form 

 

• •Continue to watch 

• •Make a note of it in the comments section of your data form 

 

• •Often you will not see them 

• •Sometimes you will never see them 

• •This information is very valuable 

1. On most days, you will probably not see or hear most of the animals on your list. You may not see or hear some species all year. Even though it can be frustrating to look for animals that are not there very often, information about when and where a species is and is not is very important to scientists, so please continue to record that you DO NOT see phenophases for these animal species on each day you observe.

   In some ways the information about when and where a species is NOT present is more important than information about where it is, because these observations are more rare. This is why we suggest that you observe species from the Nature’s Notebook animal list that occur in your state, even if you do not see them often, if at all.

 

1. Once a phenophase has ended you should continue to look for signs of it and record whether or not it is occurring again. Many phenophases may occur two or more times in a year. For example, many birds lay a second clutch of eggs in the summer after the first clutch has fledged.

 

1. Also, climate change is changing the timing and frequency of life cycle events, which is extremely important to capture! For example, as temperatures warm and growing seasons get longer, many species are reproducing more frequently. Some birds are having more broods, and insects like butterflies and dragonflies may go through more generations in a single year. These responses are very important to capture!

 

1. This concludes our presentation on making animal phenology observations. Thank you for your time and interest in our program!

 

File Type	application/vnd.ms-powerpoint
File Title	Slide 1
Author	Theresa Crimmins 2
Last Modified By	Alexis Lincicome
File Modified	2011-04-22
File Created	2009-08-21

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