As the first group members to use the Song Meter SM3, Sarah Kearsley and I were not only the first ones to read through the manual and set the program, but we were also the first members of our group to choose a set up location for our device to record night flight bird calls.  The location of the Song Meter SM3 is very important to our research because it needs to be in an area that exists as a habitat to birds, is removed from extraneous noises, and high up enough to catch the bird calls.  In addition, because this recording device is very expensive and university owned, we wanted to place the Song Meter SM3 in a safe area on campus where the honor code is enforced.

We began by brainstorming many different places around grounds such as the top of Observatory Hill, outside of our house on Madison Lane, in the garden area atop Carrs Hill, in the wooded area by the Dell Pond, and even on the Lawn.  Slowly though we began weeding each area out.  The Lawn and the exterior of our house on Madison Lane experience a lot of pedestrian traffic, which could potentially lead to extraneous sounds on the recording device, as well as the possibility of being stolen.  Next we removed the idea of placing the device by the wooded area near the Dell Pond.  This is because the Dell Pond is too close to the busy street of Emmet Street, which is a University Bus Route and would cause too much extraneous noise from the vehicle traffic.  Our final options were the top of Observatory Hill and in the garden area atop Carrs Hill.  Because we planned to research two separate areas around grounds, we chose the location of the garden area atop Carrs Hill because it was closer to our house, a more unique space, and more secluded than other surrounding areas.  This location can be seen in the satellite image below, designated by the red arrow.  In addition to the map below, I have also included some images of the sound recording device as we secured it in the tree with a thick string between two branches.

Post by Sarah Riedel