Dickcissel Night Flights | Home | Spring 2000 | Spring 2001 | Spring 2002 | Spring 2003 | Spring 2004
Data correction/estimation
In each season of monitoring some nights are missed at some locations due to equipment or operator error. However each station tends to have consistent trends in the number of Dickcissel calls detected in relation to neighboring stations. This allows us make a rough estimate of the number of Dickcissel calls that would have been detected at a station on a night when the station malfunctioned and no actual data was logged. The graphs below indicate how this data estimation affected the quantitative timing of the flight in spring 2000 and 2001. The colored numbers in the linked spreadsheet below each graph show on what nights the estimated numbers were inserted. By inspecting the graphs it is evident that these corrections do not significantly change the annual character of the quantitative timing of the Dickcissel flight in either year. In other words, the conclusions that the 2001 flight was roughly a week later and more protracted than the 2000 flight still hold. Such corrections should become more robust as additional data and understanding of the Dickcissel calling patterns in south Texas are gained.
