Ornithology Field Journal Entry 4

Date: March 25th, 2024
Start Time: 7:20 am
End Time: 8:10 am
Location: Parking lot of Jeanne Mance

Weather: day high of 46, low of 16, currently 27, the sun is rising and the sky is very blue. There's snow on the ground.
Habitat: Urban setting, the parking lot of my dorm building that is actually off campus. There are neighboring house lawns and a small patch of trees with some older growth. A few Pines, large Oaks, messy undergrowth.

Unfortunately I’ve had quite a lot of work to do recently, and haven't had as much time to get out as much as I would like. To help this, I’ve begun to start my mornings by bundling up, going outside, and feeling the sun on my face before going back up to my room and getting ready for class. This morning felt relatively warm, the air was pretty still and the sun was shining as it rose higher and higher above the neighboring houses. I walked out to a sunny patch of snow covered grass in the parking lot of my dorm building, and, making sure I was sitting on my waterproof coat, soaked in the sun. It was still quiet out, cars could be heard from the road on the other side of the building, but no one was around and luckily (and unfortunately unusually,) today was free of nearby construction. Well, no people were around. The birds however, were bringing in the sun right there with me. Crows were flying overhead, spreading out after their nightly roost. These overwintering birds come together in the cold winter nights to keep each other warm, as well as share food tips and such. Chickadees and Juncos were fluttering around in the small trees and vines around the gates of the parking lot. And up high, way at the top of a tall pine tree, in a neighboring yard, a bright red cardinal was calling out across the sky. Strikingly red against the cloudless sky, perfectly silhouetted on the tallest branch. He was calling for a little lady to join his song, and soon after beginning his mating song, a partner began to respond, and for the remainder of my time outside the two sang a beautiful duet that brought me hope and excitement for the progressing spring.
The morning was filled with Burlington regulars, the birds who stay year round and I can hear outside my window almost every morning. European Starlings and Tufted Titmice were at the lot this morning, and I heard many of the same calls. But the sounds are changing. The songbirds have begun their spring songs. The Cardinals I heard this morning sang their mating songs, and the chickadees are singing theirs as well. The breeding season for many of these birds has begun, and it comes with such beautiful music!
These birds successfully survive the Vermont winters through many means. They are all species who can survive off seeds, either changing their diets in the winter or already being primarily seed eaters; they fluff up their feathers; they shiver and go into states of hypothermia and torpor; they’ve all evolved to live in the cold, eliminating the need for migration. Migrating birds have begun to return to Vermont, after flying south for the winter, not having the same adaptations as the overwintering Vermont birds. A bird I saw today that I haven’t seen in a while is the Ring-Billed Gull. This gull may migrate a bit farther south for the winter, and they’ve now increased in number in Vermont as the weather warms. However, some migrants may have been fooled! March is a common time for big shifts in temperature, with warming days but still freezing nights, but climate change has made these weather patterns even more erratic, and false spring hit many parts of the Northeast hard this year. Over spring break, I visited home back in Brooklyn NY, and it was 70 degrees and sunny! Multiple days! Many flowers had begun to sprout and trees were beginning to bud. Now it's back to low temperatures and back in Brooklyn, cold rain. Up here, we had a large amount of snow and freezing temperatures, bringing us right back to winter. The plants that have broken soil, the growing buds on so many of the trees, and the birds who decided the weather seemed warm enough to move back up north, perhaps were in for a rough time with this cold weather. Some may have just not been ready. It is still quite cold here in Burlington, hopefully those far-distance migrants won’t be arriving for a little while and are still enjoying warm sunny beaches. I will welcome the warm breezes they bring with them under their wings, and the sounds of summer that are beginning to ring through the sky.

Posted on March 26, 2024 02:51 AM by allieableman