Field Bird Biology Lab, BIOS 337 (1 credit)
Pre-requisites: BIOS 211, 213, or permission of the instructor
Instructors:
- Dr. Cin-Ty Lee - ctlee (at) rice.edu, 324 Geology
- Dr. David Queller - queller (at) rice.edu, 209B Biology (Anderson Labs)
- Dr. Joan Strassmann - strassm (at) rice.edu, 209C Biology (Anderson Labs)
Course Description:
The Houston area and the Texas coast offer some of the greatest avian diversity in the world. This course will take advantage of this diversity by introducing students to birds, teaching them how to observe and monitor birds, with an introduction to avian ecology, behavior and conservation. The course will be centered on field trips and student projects.
Course Material:
- Bird book: Sibley’s on Eastern N. America is good, but others are all right too like the National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America: Revised and Updated (Paperback), Jon L. Dunn
- Binoculars (you must buy good waterproof binoculars)more info
- Field Notebook and checklist (to be discussed at second class period)
- Much of the visual aids for the lectures will come from www.surfbirds.com, a grassroots website and photograph archive that Professor Lee helped to start and maintain
Some Good Websites:
- National Wildlife Federation www.enature.com
- United States Geological Survey http://www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov/
- Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology http://www.birds.cornell.edu/
- Birding websites www.surfbirds.com www.americanbirding.org
Requirements and Grading:
Attendance at all 4 field trips or special field make up if any trip is missed. Grades will be based on field lab book (10%), attitude and participation (15%), a power point presentation of a project (15%), a project (20%), and four bird identification quizzes (40%).
We will meet 3 Fridays at 3:30 pm for an hour and a half in 130D:
January 22, January 29, and February 5
We will have 4 field trips: Sunday - January 31, Sunday - February 14, Friday-Sunday, March 12-14, and Saturday - April 18.
We will have one evening with dinner at the Strassmann/Queller home (Feb. 9) for PowerPoint presentations by students on bird families (more detail at the first class).
The project will involve field work of some kind, reading and a write up.
Spring 2010 Course Schedule
| Date | |
|---|---|
| January 22 - 3:30PM | Lecture - Introduction to birds What is a bird? Form and function. Evolutionary history. Survey of bird orders around the world |
January 29 - 3:30PM | Lecture - Introduction to basic field identification skills. How to take field notes including identification, counts, behavior Sketching and painting birds in the field Identification of waterbirds (example of PowerPoint) |
| January 31 | Field Trip 1. Introduction to birds. Location: Brazos Bend State Park |
| February 5 - 3:30PM | Lecture - Bird behavior Group interactions and vigilance on winter grounds Mating systems Parent offspring behavior |
| February 9 | Dinner meeting & presentations |
| February 14 | Field Trip 2 - Water birds of the upper Texas coast. Location: Brazoria Wildlife Refuge |
| March 12-14 | Field Trip 3 - Overnight Trip - Lake Corpus Christi State Park |
| April 18 | Field Trip 4 - Spring migration , High Island, Anahuac NWR |