Pilot Study

My bird research is still going on. I thought I would test all 12 of my potential mitigation measures this year but time is not on my side. 

I chose to test only two of the methods, artificial trees and fake poles. They will both act as alternative nesting structure for the birds as opposed to real powerlines. 

I will spend the nest 6 weeks in the field doing a pilot study that will determine the design and plan for the main study. The pilot study will:

• Find out whether or not the species under the study are territorial birds. 
• Assess the vegetation around the area where the birds' populations are highest, since I hypothesize that the reason birds nest on powerlines is because there is a lack of suitable trees. 
• Find out distances between nests in order to determine the extent of intra- and inter-specific competition. 

The result will then tell me in what manner I should plant dummy trees and poles in the field during the main study.

See images below for a dummy tree and dummy poles respectively.