Information about the UW study

General Description

Your participation will involve walking a standard route (see below) through the UW campus with a mask on. The walk should take you approximately 1 hour. There are 3 different masks (see below), so plan to take this walk on THREE separate dates. There should only be one of you walking on each date (ie, the crows should never see more than one person walking along this route per day, or even the same person with two different masks).

I. "General Information" that you will gather on your surveys:

When you start your walk, note the following information: time, who you are, date, weather, and which mask you are wearing (called "treatment"). As you are walking, you will be surveying the area for crows. Put the mask on before you leave the building (you will pick it up in Anderson Hall room 30, see below).

When you see a crow/crows, you will record the following information: identify individuals if banded (see below) how many birds you see, approximately how far away they are from you (both vertically and horizontally... you should practice estimating this ahead of time, I'm terrible at it!), and how they respond to you. Responses include: approach you, ignore you (neutral), flee from you. If they vocalize (see below), note that as well, trying to establish if it was a scold or a kaw.

Record your data on a spreadsheet that makes sense to you. I have placed some examples on reserve at the NSCC library, these are Dr. Marzluff's handwritten data sheets. The bottom section corresponds with the general information. The top section corresponds with the specific information, which I will summarize next. You can use this as a template, or design your own data record... it doesn't matter, as long as all of the information is there.

Later, enter your data onto the Excel spreadsheets that I will send you, entitled "General Survey." There is an example of this in the library, too. You should only fill out three lines (rows) on this survey sheet: one for each date that you walk.

II. "Specific Information" that you will gather on crow responses to you: as you are walking your route, you will occassionally see crows on or near the ground. This is when you want to gather more specific information about how they respond to you in the mask. You will approach the birds and record how they respond to you. Here's how to do it:

When you see 1-3 crows on the ground or low (easily visible) in a bush/tree, record the following information: 1. try to establish whether they are banded (see below). If so, record that information so that we know who the individuals are. Banded birds should be preferentially approached. Even if you can only see some of the bands, that's okay. 2. Be sure to note how many birds there are, banded or not. 3. And, note if they seem to change their behavior in response to you before you begin your approach. 4. Note the time your approach begins.

Choose a focal bird to approach and record. Keep a note of the other birds' responses, but now you are interested in your focal bird.

Then, nonchalantly approach the bird/s. The approach should be slow, and not involve direct eye contact/frontal of your face. Pretend like you are looking around going "hum dee dum" as you approach. You can take a few steps toward then stop for a couple of seconds, etc. As you are approaching, 5. record the birds' responses (see below) to you: scold, solicit, hop, fly. If they hop or fly away from you, note if they seem to keep a stable distance from you (ex, you move 2 feet toward them, they hop 2 feet further away but do not flee completely). 6. If they flee completely (and probably will at some point), note the CLOSEST distance you were able to approach. 7. Note the time the approach ended (birds fled).

Record these data on your own data sheet, however makes sense to you. Again, Dr. Marzluff's example sheet is available in the library, on reserve. You can use his, or set yours up how you like.

Later, enter your data onto the Excel spreadsheets that I will send you, entitled, "Specific Approach." Each row is reserved for a single approach event, so you could have several (or no) rows filled out per day. This sheet is a little more complex, so here is a summary of what the columns mean:

Start time and End time: these are of each approach attempt. They may last as little as 30 seconds, for example if the birds just immediately fly away, or as long as minutes if your approach is slow and they keep just hopping to a stable distance.

Observer: your name

Treatment: the mask you are wearing that day. There are 3: Dick Cheney, caveman, and upside-down caveman. See below to determine which you will be wearing on what day, and how to access these masks.

Location: where on the route the approach occurred. I have provided copies of the route maps on reserve at the library. There are numbers along the map, and you can use these to estimate where you are. You can also use descriptives, for example describe where you are in relation to a campus building, etc.

Band ID: the bands seen on the birds. Here is how the banding works: banded birds should have 2 bands per leg. 3 total should be plastic/colored, 1 should be aluminum. What is important for ID is which leg each band is on, and which band is on top/bottom. So, when you record the bands, it should look like (for example): right leg: dark blue over aluminum, left leg: white over red. Keep in mind that some of the color bands each have TWO colors. Yikes! So, for example, maybe the top band on the right leg of another bird is red and yellow. You might not be able to identify these bands exactly. Do your best to see as many bands as you can, and record which leg/s the bands you can see are on. For example, even if you can only see one dark blue band, that info is much more useful if you know which leg it is on.

Total Time: Just how long the approach lasted (start-end time)

Max Birds: What was the max number of birds involved in the approach (ie, maybe there were 4 to start, 2 flew away immediately but 2 stuck around for a while, 4 is your max for that approach)

Delta Birds: Actually, I'm not sure about this one. I thought it was a change in general behavior to your initial appearance, but it is recorded in numbers. I'm not sure if they have this coded as a number system. For now, why don't you guys treat this as a change in behavior to your initial appearance, and just write in notes. If I find out differently, I will let you know.

Min Dist: What is the closest distance you were able to approach

Response: Did the bird/s equilibrate (maintain a stable distance from you) or flee (leave)

Stable Distance: If the bird/s equilibrated, what was the approximate stable distance from you that they maintained?

Scold/Solicit: these are simply "yes" or "no" columns, if any of the birds did these behaviors. See below for descriptions of scolding. Soliciting simply means, did the birds actually approach you?

Focal Bird scold: again, yes or no, but specific to the focal bird

Total birds scold: how many of the birds in the area scolded, if any

ID of scolders: if you were able to ID any of them

Notes: anything you think might be important. If you are ever unsure about how to record something, if the bird/s do something you didn't expect, etc. More info is good, so feel free to make as many notes as you'd like. This could also help to keep the data consistent between observers, if we can get an idea of how different observers are interpreting what they see.

Info you will need

I. Getting the masks- go to Anderson Hall, room 30. There is a security pad there with numbers. I will send the code to you via email, since this is an unsecure site. The masks are in the little room up the half-stairway on the left.

For those of you who did not attend the meeting, I will assign to you which days you will wear which mask once you send me your schedule.

II. Vocalizations and other behaviors-

Kawing vs. scolding- this may be tough to get at at first. Kawing is generally quick, short calls, not directed toward a living creature. Scolding is more guttural, may be longer per call, and directed toward a living creature, like you or a hawk. It may also accompany tail flicks and other aggressive posturing (maybe even aerial attacks, of course then it would be really obvious!). I have placed on reserve at the NSCC library a packet of tapes provided by Dr. Marzluff. Feel free to sit at the library and take a listen. Also, he suggested a search for "crow calls," "crow scold," "crow kaw," etc. online.

If you are unsure, just make a note of it and try to describe how the crow/s look while they're doing it, how many are participating, etc. Certainly record any vocalization.

You may also experience solicitation. Here, the crows will be approaching, and possibly giving a begging vocalization. I can't even think about how to describe how this would sound... except that it's kind of more like what you'd expect from a baby bird. You should see unusual behavior accompany this, so your notes about this should make it clear if this is occuring.

III. The walking route-

Is available at the NSCC library on reserve. Grab yourselves a copy! Or, you can email Dr. Marzluff or Jeff (the grad student) to meet you when you start your first walk to get a copy from them.

IV. The schedule-

No two people may walk on the same day. I will post a calendar, many of the dates are already spoken for. Look over the open dates and get back with us as soon as possible to coordinate. Mornings to early afternoon are best, and the room is open at 8am. If you'd like to go earlier than that, you can pick up the masks the afternoon before, just be sure to send out an email to everyone so we'll know. If you do weekends, same thing, you'll need to pick up the masks Friday afternoon BUT you'll also need to coordinate with the student who is coming in Monday to make sure that student has access to the masks.

Here's who we've got so far:

The quarter ends on the 16th.

V. If you can't participate at UW for scheduling or other reasons, let me know. There's plenty to do for our own surveys, and also you may be interested in helping to coordinate the data sheets I receive from everyone.