Journal 4

Emma Brophy

Date: March 25, 2024
Location: Main St, Burlington, VT
Time: 10:40am- 11:40am
Weather: 33°F, clear and sunny, 6mph wind S, no precipitation.
Habitat: Residential area, large trees next to road, residential yards

Species:
1 Black-capped Chickadee
1 female, 1 male House Sparrow

10 American Robin
1 American Crow

On March 25th, at 10:40am I took a walk down Main Street and South Williams Street in Burlington, VT. During my excursion I saw a Black-capped Chickadee, a common species that I have seen throughout the winter. Black-capped chickadees and other year-round species can eat seeds in the winter, giving them the ability to forgo migration. Black-capped Chickadees have specific behavioral and physiological adaptations that help them survive in the winter. Some behavior adaptations are sleeping in cavities in trees and shivering themselves awake. One physiological adaptation they have is facultative hypothermia, which decreases their internal temperature, slowing down their reflexes and saving energy while they sleep.
As the weather starts to warm, I have started to see large groups of American Robins. American Robins can be year-round birds and facultative migrants. Facultative migrants migrate based on weather and temperature changes. Over the past few weeks, the weather has started to warm reaching to the 60 degrees, even though there was a large snowstorm on Saturday. During the winter American Robins, they can be found in the southern part of North America. They can also spend the entire year in their breeding range, Northern North America, but they are mainly roosting in trees during this time. The American Robins I observed were very active, eating berries on trees.
Migrating in April to Burlington, Vermont can be difficult for birds do the extreme unpredictable weather patterns as we have witnessed over these past few weeks. Temperatures will increase and then decrease followed by snowstorms, poorly effecting birds that are not adapted for snow and cold temperatures.

Mini Activity: 1,745,706.76 miles from Florida to Burlington Vermont. American Robins are facultative migrants that can winter in Florida. American Robins were the only migrant birds I observed.

Posted on March 26, 2024 03:19 AM by epbrophy