Over the past month, we have been working on calibrating, setting up, and recording data for the wildlife acoustics project at Wild Basin. This project has been a lot of fun and very interesting since day one, when we first learned about the purpose of the project. The Wildlife Acoustics SM4 units are set up to record sounds in the morning and at night in hopes that we get a cool variety of bird songs/calls and frog calls. They record for one hour at sunrise to capture the “dawn chorus” of all the birds singing, and another hour after dark when frogs and toads are most likely to be vocalizing.
Olivia and I have continued practicing and quizzing ourselves on bird songs and calls so that when we listen to the recordings, we are better able to identify the bird.
There are four sound units we have placed along an east-west transect along the riparian corridor of Bee Creek in Wild Basin. The transect runs perpendicular to the highway and urban area on the western edge of the preserve, and the recorders are set up at increasing distances from the anthropogenic noise. We also take measurements of anthropogenic noise at each location of the sound unit, using an iPad app and a small microphone. Some of the areas are noisier than others, and with this, we will be seeing how, if at all, noise or any other factors will affect the bird songs, frog/toad calls, or the diversity of species. I have really enjoyed helping out and participating in this study. Some sound units are in more complicated spots than others and a little more tedious to get to with shrubs, branches, thorns, and the occasional spider web to the face, but it’s all a part of the field work and a very cool study.