March-Carrillo

Blunn Creek Nature Preserve

March 31, 2014

Start time- 1:54 pm

Ending time- 3:05 pm

Temperature: 82˚F

“For us of the minority, the opportunity to see geese is more important than television, and the chance to find a pasque-flower is a right as inalienable as free speech.” (Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac, vii).

Sitting on the edge of the rocks overseeing the creek I heard in the distance, a little song being sung. To my surprise it was no song, only birds chirping in the distance. I decided to walk down the trail and listen to see if I could possibly count the number of birds through their distinct chirps. The reason for this sudden curiosity was due to the fact of my own personal question if constant human interaction reduces the biodiversity of animals around them. Considering Blunn Creek in right in the middle of a neighborhood, high school, busy street, and University I thought it would be a very good place to possibly answer that question. I started at the beginning of the trail, and every bird had their own sound. You could perfectly distinguish every individual which I found pretty shocking. I had a paper and pen and just marked every bird I heard or thought was different. At the start of the trail the birds were loud I marked 10 right off the bat. As my walk continued, it got quiet towards the middle and I heard rustling in the bushes and smaller trees. I saw two little birds on the ground so I added them to the count now at 12. I continued my walk and I heard more chirps some in a distance and some closer to me in the shrubs. I added another 7 to the count, totaling 19. I walked more towards the higher ground of Blunn Creek and there was more silence than noise. I heard more birds as I headed down the trail adding another 11. The unique things about these birds was how only a few were near the trail and many were in the distance closer to the roads and houses surrounding the preserve. Another uncommon thing was that most of the birds were in the canopy of the trees. Only a few were heard on the ground and in the brush. As a furthered my walk, I heard more birds that seemed to be “talking” to each other, adding another 6 to the total making it 36. By the end of the walk I counted 43 birds that I had counted depending on the area I was in and their distinct sounds that were unique to each of them.