Thursday Morning Old North End- Johanna Hamilton

Johanna Hamilton
2/8/2024
Germain Street/ surrounding cemeteries, Old North End Burlington VT
9:15-10:00 AM
Weather: Full sun, 35 degrees, no wind or precipitation
Habitat: Urban, quiet neighborhood with surrounding cemeteries and trees/yards

This morning I spent some time watching for birds in my neighborhood in the old north end of Burlington, VT. My neighborhood is calm and I live on a one-way street surrounded by cemeteries, which are very quiet! We were lucky to have a few sunny days so I hoped to see some good birds this morning. In general I noticed they were staying high up in the trees or in sunny spots, and not really spending time on the ground or near houses as they do in the summer. This made it pretty hard to observe the birds because I did not have my binoculars. The closest encounter I had was with some Black Capped Chickadees in a tree above me for a few seconds. I was able to identify them from their heads' color pattern. Later on, I identified some Tufted Titmouses from the shape of their heads. I heard a few calls I could recognize off the top of my head- Black Capped Chickadee, American Crow, and White Breasted Nuthatch. I also was able to identify several other species using the Merlin bird ID app: House Finch, Dark-Eyed Junco, and the Tufted Titmouse.
I witnessed a few different species’ flight patterns over the course of the session. The first I believed to be an American Goldfinch, because I only saw the yellow underside flying over me. It was flying at the same altitude across the street between trees. It was jumping up and down quite a bit trying to maintain the height for such a short distance. I saw a group of house finches also doing this, though they were much more streamlined, possibly because they were flying a longer distance and putting more effort into staying steady. Based on these two observations, I think how much the bird bobs up and down is dependent on the distance they are flying. Finally, I observed a larger white bird in the distance high up in the sky. It appeared to be a seagull but I couldn’t tell from such a distance. It was beating its wings slower and more powerfully and it looked very effortless. This supports my idea that the longer distance the bird is flying, the smoother it appears in flight. A different flight pattern I saw was an American Crow diving down towards the ground.
I was hopeful to see more birds up close this morning, but that didn’t really end up happening. I think it was because I was in an urban setting in the wintertime. It is a bit harder to get close encounters with the birds by just going outside during this time of year. I am excited to try a new location next week and see how it compares. It was very relaxing and fun to spot the different birds and identify them by looking at them. Previously, I wouldn’t have easily noticed the strong differences in their appearances and songs. I noticed this especially with my sketch of the Black-Capped Chickadee. I was unable to get any photos of the birds as they were too far away or high up in the trees.

Posted on February 9, 2024 02:30 AM by hjohannabug