# Frequency table and plots for bird observations

#### rgilson

##### New Member
Hi,
It's been several years since I last used R and I have what I hope is a simple problem. I am helping to create frequency plots of bird observations over a 40 year period. Here is a sample of the data:
name count date month day period
1 Acadian Flycatcher 3 3/19/1961 3 19 3.2
2 Acadian Flycatcher 1 3/27/2002 3 27 3.4
3 Acadian Flycatcher 1 4/18/2011 4 18 4.3
4 Acadian Flycatcher 3 4/26/2011 4 26 4.4
5 Acadian Flycatcher 1 4/30/2012 4 30 4.4
6 Acadian Flycatcher 1 4/23/2013 4 23 4.4
7 Acadian Flycatcher 1 4/28/2014 4 28 4.4
8 Acadian Flycatcher 1 4/30/2014 4 30 4.4

Ultimately I would like frequencies for each species for each period and then be able to plot those frequencies.

I have tried:
> table(meckbirds_data$name,meckbirds_data$month) -> meckbirdsprop
> prop.table(meckbirdsprop) -> meckfreq

These commands did produce a frequency table, but I feel as if the results are not quite right (the frequencies are very small). Is this a good way to find what I am looking for? Am I missing something?

How would I go about plotting the results? So far I have created a pivot table in excel that works but I would a more visually appealing representation of the data.

Thank you in advance for any suggestions.