Eight lab "synopses" (25 points
each) will be produced by students in Ornithology. These "synopses" will
serve as summaries of the results of exercises we will conduct as a
class. No dates have been assigned to these exercises, as they are
highly weather-dependent. Each synopsis will be the equivalent of a
"Results" section from a scientific paper, consisting of a written
description of the results of the exercise as well as the data
collected, summarized in either table or figure form. It will not
include any introduction, methods, discussion, or literature citations.
Please refer to the sample synopsis shown below for general format and
expectations. Synopses will be due one week after completion of each
exercise.
The following exercises will be conducted during lab periods, and data
gathered will form the basis for each synopsis:
- Screech-owl
winter diet analysis - pellet examination
- Winter
bird census - City of Winona
- Nest
box
selection by Eastern Bluebirds - wood vs. PVC
- Wood
Duck
use of wood and metal nest boxes
- Waterfowl
community
comparison - Lake Winona vs. Mississippi River
- Red-winged
Blackbird
territorial behavior - purple loosestrife wetland
- Woodland
bird
habitat use - upland forest
- Woodland
bird
habitat use - floodplain forest
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Sample Synopsis
Results
During
a 4-week period in April-May 2011, I observed 215 territorial behaviors by
American Robins and 777 territorial behaviors by Chipping Sparrows. (Please
note that the preceding sentence is a TOPIC SENTENCE. It begins
the paragraph, and all other material within the paragraph relates to
it.) Observations spanned 26 days, averaging 8 territorial
behaviors/day for Robins and 30/day for Sparrows. Behaviors included
singing by territorial males (usually from a prominent perch such as a
tree branch, house roof, or fence post), flying or running toward an
intruder but stopping short (charge or threatening posture), chasing an
intruder (usually in flight), and one-on-one fights (both birds pecking at
and beating their wings against the other bird, usually with considerable
vocalization). (In this
paragraph, I have presented introductory information to begin the
Results. This information summarizes the data collected into
convenient pieces that are easy for the reader to comprehend. It
explains some simple things and gets the reader thinking in the
direction that you want them to think. Please note that I did not
dive right in to the “hard data” in this paragraph, saving that for
later.)
Territorial activities of both species were dominated by singing, with
this behavior accounting for 89 and 95% of all territorial behaviors by
Robins and Sparrows, respectively (Figure 1). (Again
note the topic sentence to start the paragraph. Also notice that I
have drawn the reader’s attention to the figure where this information
is depicted graphically, but I did so parenthetically. I did not
waste words by using a separate sentence to point out the figure [e.g.,
“This pattern is shown in Figure 1.”]) All other
territorial behaviors each represented <5% of all observations in both
species, with these other behaviors typically observed only once or twice
per day per species. (Here
I got the point across that all other behaviors were used less
frequently, without having to mention all specific numbers.)
Chi-square goodness-of-fit tests demonstrated that both American Robins
(Chi-square = 466, df = 3, P <<0.001) and Chipping Sparrows
(Chi-square = 2033, df = 3, P <<0.001) used singing more frequently
than other behaviors while defending their territories. In addition,
a Chi-square contingency table test (Chi-square = 23.4, df = 3, P <<
0.001) indicated that Chipping Sparrows used singing more frequently and
other behaviors (especially charges) less frequently than American Robins
when defending their territories.
(The previous two sentences presented the results of 3 statistical tests
without wasting words unnecessarily. The significance of the tests
was explained within the two sentences, and all test details were
included parenthetically, not distracting from the sentences.)
Figure 1. Territorial behaviors observed in American Robins and Chipping Sparrows in suburban Winona, MN, during April-May 2011. Sample sizes: American Robin = 215; Chipping Sparrow = 777. (This description clearly explains what the graph depicts, and includes all details such as location and time period. Note that the first “sentence” really isn’t a sentence, just a sentence fragment. Anything depicted in a graph and not explained by the graph would need to be explained here. For example, if I had used abbreviations to stand for the behaviors or the species, I would need to explain those abbreviations here.)
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