Hypothesis: As the number of people present at the beach increases, we will see fewer bird species at the beach.
Where did we sample: North and South Lido Beach. We chose two separate beaches because one is a preserve park (South Lido) and further away from the hustle and bustle of the tourist-centric St. Armands Circle. While North Lido is only about a hundred meters away from St. Armands Circle.
When: we sampled around 3:00 Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday. We sampled each site twice a week. Each beach was sampled once during the week and once on the weekends. We did this to compensate for weekend crowds at the beach.
Assumptions: we assumed that people would not be as prevalent on the beaches during the week, thus giving us a good comparison.
How our data may have been skewed: Apart from plain mathematical human error it is possible that we could have miscounted the people on the beach or misidentified species since some of the gull species look remarkably similar when juvenile, first winter, or a different color morph.
Below you can find a GIS map of the species we found at North Lido and South Lido as well as a table representing the different weather conditions.
Our results proved insignificant because we did not have enough data. There was also an important outlier. The weekend of easter both beaches were packed. Though we did not have enough data to be significant, anectodally it was very clear that the fewer people on the beach the more species diversity in birds was apparent. Normally we saw more people at North Lido than at South Lido.
Species Observed: Laughing Gull (the most common species, appearing at every observation), Herring Gull (2nd most common), Ring Billed Gull (3rd most common), Sanderling (also 3rd most common), Willet, Double Crested Cormorant, Vulture (Turkey), Crow (unidentified between Fish Crow and American Crow), Brown Pelican (all seen in mating plumage), Least Tern, Royal Tern, Sandwich Tern, Common Tern, Great Blue Heron (regularly seen at South Lido where we believe at least one heron to be roosting), Snowy Egret, White Ibis, American Golden Plover (female only), Black Skimmer, and Mockingbird.
Misidentification: The species likely misidentified were female American Golden Plover vs Sanderling and Laughing Gull, Herring Gull, and Ring Billed Gull juveniles.
The highlight of the experiment: Observing at South Lido and seeing a large group of Black Skimmers, Sandwich Terns, Royal Terns, Least Terns, and Common Terns all making a ruckus. Below is a picture of a flock of Black Skimmers.
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