ESRM 452 Field
Ornithology
Professor:
John Marzluff
Office:
123 E Anderson Hall
Phone:
206 616 6883
Email:
corvid@u.washington.edu
Class Meets Mondays 8:30-11:20 at various
field locations (see schedule) and Fridays 2:30-4:50 in the Burke Museum
(location TBD). We will also have 3 additional field trips. First, October 12, 13, 14 we will travel to
eastern Washington departing at 2pm (or earlier per your schedules) on Friday,
camping Friday and Saturday night, and returning Sunday by late afternoon. Second, on Saturday, November 10, we will
depart at 7:00 am for full day field trip (expect to return mid to late
afternoon) to Nisqually Wildlife Refuge and points between. Finally, on December 1 (Saturday) at 7:00 we
will depart for the Skagit Valley for a second all day field trip (late
afternoon return). The camping trip will
depart from the c10 parking lot behind Bloedel Hall,
the day trips will depart from the Greenlake Park and
Ride at 6601 8th Ave NE (basically under I-5 where 65th
Ave NE intersects).
Course Learning Goals are to (1) develop your ability
to find and identify birds by sight and sound that occur within Washington, (2)
teach the principles of scientific classification as revealed by avian
systematics, (3) explore and build an appreciation for the variety within and
between bird species, (4) expose you to the avian collections at the Burke
Museum, and (5) kindle within you a lifelong passion for bird watching and
scientific bird study. During our
explorations afield and in the lab you will have the opportunity to learn
nearly 200 species of Washington’s birds.
A list of those you will be exposed to can be found here. A checklist of these species for use during
our field trips is available here.
My Teaching Approach is to lead you to rich sources
of information and guide your exploration of that information. Here I will do this in the lab as we study
bird specimens and artifacts as well as in the field as we search for birds and
learn to identify them to species by their habits, calls, and appearance. This
is a hand’s on, practical, field-based class.
I Expect that you will come to class
eager to learn, study the information and readings, work with CDs, phone
applications, and imagery to learn calls and physical appearances of birds, and
share your knowledge and enthusiasm with others in the class. It is important that you be on time and
prepared for each field trip and stay with the group on the trips so that no
one’s time is wasted unnecessarily.
Required Equipment and Texts include a paper and digital
field guides. For field guides I
recommend either The Sibley Guide to western birds, or the National Geographic
guide to birds of North America. In
addition to a paper guide you will need a source for sound recordings of bird
calls. The best sources are field guide
apps for computer or smart phone. I recommend the Audubon Birds app, but there
are others that go with your field guides that would also be fine. Just make
sure they have photos as well as songs/calls of birds. You can also purchase from Cornell University
Press a set of CDs that has the recordings of Birds Songs of the Pacific
Northwest, but if you can use an app you will find it more affordable and a
nice addition to your paper guide.
Due to
a grant from the UW Student Tech Fee Fund, we are able to supply you with high
quality Swarovski EL 10x42 binoculars for use during the class!
COURSE GRADES will be determined by a
combination of field and lab identification tests, your field journal, a life history
report, and a short field study.
FIELD
EXAMS (these will occur during filed excursions and will total approximately
150 Points). I will point out a bird or
a call and you will have to identify the sight or sound to Order, Family (for
Passeriformes), and Common Name.
LAB
EXAMS (1 Final worth 200 Points). The
final exam will be in the lab and will test your ability to identify birds from
museum preparations, photographs, and sounds.
General questions will also be included about bird identification,
behavior, and ecology.
FIELD
JOURNAL (due at end of quarter, 30 accounts for 60 total points). While on field trips or birding on your own
you will be required to keep a field journal documenting your sightings. At a minimum you must include the bird, date,
weather, landscape setting, specific habitat surrounding the bird, habitat
elements used by the bird, and distinguishing features of the bird. For example, an account entry for a recent
Pileated Woodpecker sighting is as follows:
Species Pileated
Woodpecker
Date September
1, 2009
Weather Overcast,
calm winds, 55 F, no rain for > 1 week
Landscape
Setting Suburban
neighborhood approximately 40km NW of Seattle, WA
Specific
Habitat Remnant 2ha
patch of 80-year old second growth Douglas-fir
Habitat
Elements Foraging on
20m tall, broken top, fir snag with peeling bark and shelf fungus; also fed on
red huckleberry and on suet
feeder
Distinguishing
Features Large size;
red crest; black body and white contrasting wings; loud calls; red malar stripe
(male); rectangular foraging
holes for ants in tree
LIFE
HISTORY REPORT (DUE Nov. 10; 50 points).
For the species of bird of your choice you should prepare a 1 page
summary of its life history. The
American Ornithologists’ Union’s Birds of North America online resource is a
recommended starting point. In the page
summarize what is known about the bird’s evolution, morphology, behavior,
ecology, and conservation concerns. Then
IN A SECOND PAGE provide a summary and bibliography of recent research done on
this species (articles published in last decade). Discuss any changes to the previous life
history account that the new information would suggest is needed.
FIELD
STUDY (Due Dec. 7; 100 points). Spend
about 10 hours on your own observing a bird species, population, or community
of your choice. This can be the same
species as you selected for your life history report. Provide a field notebook of your observations
in chronological order as “raw data,” and then synthesize your findings to
raise questions, describe activity, or report on the community composition and
the species’ responses to land use, land cover, and human activity. Relate your observations to what is know
about the species in the scientific literature.
Pose questions for future study.
No more than 5 pages in length, not including references.
Grades
are assigned as follows, based on a grand total of 460 points:
95% and higher = 4.0
90% = 3.5
80% = 2.5
70% = 1.5, etc.
Activity
Schedule
|
Date
/ (Time) |
Meeting
Place |
Event |
Notes,
Handouts |
Assignments |
|
Monday,
Oct 1 (8:30) |
Anderson
Hall Room 30 |
Common
Birds of Campus |
Birds of UW
Campus, UW Bird List Draw
1 bird and ID it |
|
|
Friday,
Oct. 5 (2:30) |
Burke
Classroom |
|
Orders Anseriformes, Galliformes,
Gaviiformes, Podicipediformes,
Procelleriformes; Pictures |
|
|
Monday,
Oct. 8 (8:30) |
C10
Parking Lot (SEFS Building Lot) |
Walking
Field Trip of Campus, especially Montlake Fill |
Waterfowl
and Gulls on Campus |
|
|
Friday,
Oct. 12 (2:30 or earlier) through Sunday, Oct. 14 |
C10
Parking Lot (Forestry Building Lot) |
Field
Trip to Cascade Mountain Loop |
|
|
|
Monday, Oct.
15 |
NO
CLASS |
|
|
|
|
Friday
Oct 19 (2:30) |
Burke
Classroom |
Orders Pelicaniformes,
Ciconiformes, Falconiformes, Gruiformes, Charadriiformes; Pictures |
||
|
Monday
Oct 22 |
C10
Parking Lot (Forestry Building Lot) |
Walking
Field Trip of Campus, especially Montlake Fill |
|
|
|
Friday,
Oct. 26 (2:30) |
Woodland
park Zoo |
Birds
of the World |
||
|
Monday,
Oct. 29 (8:30) |
NO
CLASS |
|
|
|
|
Friday,
Nov 2 (2:30) |
Burke
Classroom |
|
Orders Columbiformes, Cuculiformes, Strigiformes, Caprimulgiformes, Apodiformes, Coraciformes, Piciformes; Pictures |
|
|
Monday,
Nov 5 (8:30) |
C10 Parking
Lot (Forestry Building Lot) |
Walking
Trip to Arboretum |
|
|
|
Friday,
Nov. 9 (2:30) |
Burke
Classroom |
Order
Passeriformes: Families Tyrarnnidae to Turdidae; Pictures |
||
|
Saturday,
November 10 (7:00) |
Greenlake Park and Ride (6601 8th
Ave NE) |
Field
Trip to Nisqually Wildlife Refuge and Urban Parks |
Life
History Report Due |
|
|
Monday,
Nov. 12 (8:30) |
Holiday
No Class |
|
|
|
|
Friday,
Nov. 16 (2:30) |
Burke
Classroom |
Order
Passeriformes: Families Mimidae to Passeridae; Pictures |
||
|
Monday,
Nov. 19 (8:30) |
C10
Parking Lot (Forestry Building Lot) |
Walking
Trip to Montlake |
||
|
Friday,
Nov. 23 (2:00) |
No
Class--Thanksgiving |
|
||
|
Monday
Nov. 26 (8:30) |
C10
Parking Lot (Forestry Building Lot) |
Netting
Demo |
|
|
|
Friday,
Nov. 30 (2:30) |
Burke
Classroom |
Review
All Birds |
||
|
Saturday,
Dec. 1 (7:00) |
Greenlake Park and Ride (6601 8th
Ave NE) |
Field
Trip to Skagit Wildlife Recreation Area and coastal areas |
|
|
|
Monday
Dec. 3 |
No
Class |
|||
|
Friday,
Dec. 7 (2:30) |
Burke
Museum |
Review
All Birds |
Field
Study Report Due |
|
|
Tuesday,
Dec. 11 (12:30) |
Burke
Museum |
Final
Lab Exam |