Yesterday I worked on adding up how many bird species I observed here at the Hermits’ Rest last month. I was happy to have seen 126 different species as the migration season drew to a close. I was wondering if there was a seasonal pattern, because I intuited that the spring and autumn migration seasons would bring in more species.
I don’t remember exactly what I did, but somehow Excel asked me if I wanted an analysis of the data. Well, yes, I did, because data analysis using spreadsheets is not one of my skill sets. I had all kinds of questions that I’d like answered, like what were the most common species, which species have been here every month, etc.
Suddenly, BOOM. a new tab opened on the spreadsheet. It had all the answers. Something had analyzed my spreadsheet. Oh no, I found a use for AI! Damn! I couldn’t not look at the results. I really wanted to know.
Right on top, there was a summary of my ranch bird data:
The sheet is a month-by-species presence matrix: an X means a bird was recorded in that month. Coverage spans Dec-23 through May-26, with 2,804 total monthly presence marks. May-25 is the richest month (129 species); Jul-24 is the quietest (60 species). 18 species appear in every month, suggesting reliable year-round residents. 30 species appear in only one month, highlighting possible migrants, one-off observations, or rare sightings.
That’s all the stuff I wanted to know! To top it all off, there were tables and charts! Look at this.
I was wrong about the seasons. Winter, with all those sparrows, has the second most sightings, after what I expected…that spring gets the most.
This one is probably my favorite. I wonder, though, how we got so many species last June, when the previous June, July, and August were so low (and this June is starting off pretty slow). What I really think is that I need another couple of years of data to see these patterns better. Here’s another graph:
These are the 18 birds we see every month, with two that occur almost every month. I am not at all surprised at the species I see here. I wasn’t sure that Eastern Bluebirds were here every month. I don’t see them every day, but I guess they are here. Okay, one final fascinating thing.
These are supposedly the birds we’ve only seen once. That’s pretty interesting, but look! There are weird spellings on the birds, which I assure you are spelled correctly on the original spreadsheet. I probably shouldn’t have asked for a red border. I wonder what a Swalver is? And I think those last two are both Virginia Rails. But it appears only once on my list. I went too far.
What are my conclusions? In summary, AI is helpful upon occasion, but AI always does weird stuff to the data. Here’s the actual data of birds that were only seen once.
- American Golden-plover
- American Tree Sparrow
- Barn Owl
- Bay-breasted Warbler
- Black Capped Chickadee
- Black Tern
- Black-and-white Warbler
- Black-necked Stilt
- Boat-tailed Grackle
- Canada Warbler
- Caspian Tern
- Chestnut-collared Longspur
- Chuck-Will’s Widow
- Common Raven
- Crested Lark
- Greater White-fronted Goose
- Hooded Warbler
- Indian Peafowl
- Lark Bunting
- Olive-sided Flycatcher
- Pyrrhuloxia
- Rough-winged Swallow
- Semi-palmated Plover
- Semi-palmated Sandpiper
- Spotless Starling
- Thick-billed Longspur
- Tricolored Heron
- Virginia Rail
- Western Wood Pewee
- Yellow-green Vireo
Dang, I’m ambivalent. But now I know stuff about my bird data. I am pleased about that.
I was not quite so pleased when I sleepily ventured onto the screened porch to guzzle some coffee before my 8 am standup (once again it went 30 minutes over). I went to set my coffee down and spotted a snakeskin on the arm of my chair. You know I’ve lived here a while, because all I did was ask Lee if he put it there. Nope. I set the skin on my big turtle shell where it looks quite decorative.
I guess the rat snake left the way it came in when it realized there were no birds or rodents to snack on. Ah, it’s always something!
The Hermits' Rest 