The purpose of the BWC team’s annual Mulberry Tree Survey is to determine what species of animals, particularly birds, utilize our tree and eat its berries.

This is accomplished by regular, visual observation from June to July, when the berries are ripe. A log, specifying date, species, and a tally of the number of individuals observed, is kept on the refrigerator for easy, efficient recording throughout the day. A red pen is used for an individual seen eating a berry, otherwise the tally mark is made in pencil. The total numbers are found by counting all tally marks accordingly.
It is important to note that, for example, just because 100 squirrels are recorded it does not mean 100 different individual squirrels visited our mulberry. It just means a squirrel was seen 100 times, which is most likely a group of neighborhood squirrels that love hanging out on our tree day after day. Therefore, this study is not about the number of actual individuals of a species that come on our tree, but rather about the frequency a particular species is seen on our tree.

The data and information gathered from this study is giving us insight into the ecology of particular plant situated in our backyard in the midst of a suburban landscape, and this plant’s influence on the wildlife around it.