First Observation of Project




Data Collection





Ruddy Ducks snoozing

After strolling around the Arcata Marsh and Wildlife Sanctuary today, I noticed that there were not too many waterfowl present, even less than the last time I came. The Green-winged Teal that were present a couple of days before had nearly vanished. So, maybe my study plan was not going to work out as well as I planned. So, I devised a new one with the two most highly populus ducks at the Arcata Marsh right now, the Ruddy Duck and the Bufflehead. My design was basically going to be the same, I was going to obtain activity budgets of these two ducks and see which diving duck forages more, sleeps more, is more aggressive and so on. It was a successful first day, windy, but thankfully the sun was out and there was no need for a rain jacket.

Scaups with their rumps in the air