EEB 287: Ornithology Laboratory

Western Sandpiper; drawing copyright Bridget Keimel

Basic Course Information

Spring 2008

Meets: Fridays, 8 a.m. to 12 p.m, TLS 371

Instructor: Dr. Margaret Rubega Office: PharmBio 500

Office Phone: 486-4502 Office Hours: By appointment

Email: margaret.rubega@uconn.edu

Your emails to me MUST contain the phrase "EEB 287” in the subject line; email received without that phrase, and especially those with a blank subject line, will be DELETED without being read.

Teaching Assistants: Susan Meiman (susan.meiman@huskymail.uconn.edu) & Jason Hill (jason.hill@uconn.edu) Office: PharmBio 310 Office Phone: 486-3005 Office Hours: (Sue) MW 12:00 - 1:00 pm, (Jason)Th 11 am -1 pm

Required Texts

MANUAL OF ORNITHOLOGY (Yale Univ.), by N.S. Proctor and P.J. Lynch

BIRDS OF STORRS (Natchaug Ornithological Society) by G.A. Clark, Jr.

SIBLEY GUIDE TO BIRDS (Knopf), by D.A. Sibley.

Class Schedule

(very subject to change; check back before every lab)

Date	Required Reading	Subject	Meeting notes, and other resources
Jan 25	P & L p. 274-281,286-287; Sibley p. 9-14; Clark p. 1-19	Tools of the Trade: Optics, Field Guides, Field Notebooks
Feb 1	P & L p. 22-37, 47-65, 263-265; Sibley p. 15-21; Clark p. 21-40	North American Bird Orders; topography & field marks	CHECK UNIVERSITY WEB SITE BEFORE LEAVING HOME in case of class cancellation and BRING YOUR FIELD NOTEBOOK
Feb 8	Handouts	Field Techniques: Survey Methods
Feb 15		Birding, whole class	BE ON TIME! WE LEAVE AT 8 AM!
Feb 22		CANCELLED DUE TO SNOW
Feb 29	Handouts	Birding First, then Opportunities in Ornithology - You Mean I Can Get Paid For This Stuff?	Be on time! We leave at 8 am! Bring your resume, if you have one, for the second half of lab. If you haven't looked at it yet, check out: Jobs in Ornithology, the job board for the Ornithological Societies of North America.
March 7	P & L p. 81-105	Birding first (BE ON TIME!) then Feathers & Aerodynamics	Meet in Front of Torrey; we leave at 8 am
March 14		NO CLASS - SPRING BREAK - GO BIRDING!
March 21		MIDTERM EXAM - Birding After
March 28	P & L p. 66-77, Chap. 5	Feet, Beaks, and Body Form; Anatomy - Skeletons
April 4	P & L Chapters 6 & 7, 205-209, 219-226	Anatomy - Musculature and Internal Organs
April 11	Sibley; herons, gulls, and ducks	Coastal Birding	4 hour field trip -- we'll be out of the lab from 8-12.
April 18	P & L p. 266-273	Weather & Bird Movements
April 25	Handouts	Field Techniques: Behavioral Observations
May 2		Carry overs, catch ups, birding
May 5	8-10am	FINAL EXAM in TLS 371

Grading

Grading in this course is done on a straight percentage-of-points basis, i.e., to obtain an A, you need to earn 90% or more of the available points. The grades will not be "curved", and there will be no opportunities for "make-up" or "extra-credit" points. Attendance on the field trips is required. If you miss a field trip, you lose 10 points. If you miss a test, you will receive a score of zero. If you have a legitimate reason (click here for a sample of legitimate vs. lame excuses) to miss a field trip or test, you may be excused (at the discretion of the instructors) IF AND ONLY IF you provide written documentation (for example, a doctor's note documenting illness; an obituary documenting a death in your family). In cases where the instructors determine you have a legitimate excuse, there still will be no make-ups administered: you will be graded only on the basis of the points contained in the field trips and tests you did complete. NOTE that this method reduces the number of points you can afford to lose and still do well in the course.

These policies have been developed over years of teaching this and other courses, and are designed to ensure fair treatment of everyone by eliminating discrepancies in testing and evaluation, and by eliminating differences in the amount of field and study time available to students. I am very willing to discuss my reasoning for these policies, but if you try to talk me into making an exception to them for you, you will fail, and probably make me grumpy to boot.

Point Structure for Grading

COURSE POINT TOTAL 300 POINTS

Test 1: 50 points, March 3

Final: 100 points, May 5 (50 points for post-midterm material, 50 points for from material from the WHOLE COURSE)

Ebird Set-up Document: click here

Field Notebook: 30 points

Independent Field Observations: 70 points and Point Count Protocol and Point Count Datasheet

Independent Field Observation Locations: Map of Hillside Environmental Education Project

Field Trips 50 points (Field trips are required: you lose 10 points for every missed trip, 20 if you miss the all day trip. Note that field trips are VERY subject to change, depending on birds, weather, circumstances, and whim. Don't assume you know what you are going to miss.)

Academic Rules/Conduct

All students should be aware of the guidelines on academic integrity contained in the Student Conduct Code. The Conduct Code is available at http://www.dosa.uconn.edu/student_conduct.html.

Questions

If you have questions, by all means collar me or email me and ask. I will post both the questions (questioners will be anonymous) and answers here.

Useful and Amusing Links

Bird Rehabilitation Internship Opportunity!

Feather Identification Resource Online! The Feather Atlas of North American Birds provided high-resolution scans of flight feathers of the major groups of birds; useful for comparison with found feathers whose origin you aren't sure of.

Jobs in Ornithology, the job board for the Ornithological Societies of North America. THE central clearing house for field research internships and jobs.

David Sibley's Blog, wherein the field guide guy riffs mostly on the finer and philosophical points of bird identification, and reports his experiments in window treatments to prevent bird strikes.

NPR piece and song by Sufjan Stevens about the Ivory-billed Woodpecker "rediscovery", and the effect on Brinkley, AK. See also this recent NY Times article on the effect in Brinkley as hope has faded that the bird is actually there. (Thanks to Kevin Burgio for the link.)

North Coast (Oregon) Diaries Comments on photo documentation versus detailed notes. See also the March 2 post on Ugly Gulls (browse Main calendar).

ECOLOG-L listserve postings Job postings, other miscellaneous information and discussions about field ecology.