wsn802's Journal

Date: April 29th, 2024
Start time: 12pmish
End time: Around 1:00pm
Location: Redstone Green
Weather: Slightly Cloudy
Temperature: 50s
Wind: A bit breezy
Precipitation: none
Habitats: woodland edges, suburbs

Date: April 21st, 2024
Start time: 12:20ish
End time: Around 1:30pm
Location: Centennial Woods
Weather:
Temperature: High 40s
Wind: A bit breezy
Precipitation: none
Overall cloudy and gray
Habitats: woodland edges, suburbs, roadsides, mixed hardwoods, streamside, conifer stands, etc.

Today was an okay day to go birding. It was pretty cloudy, but fairly warm and not too windy. Compared to the last time I went to Centennial Woods, there were less planes and cars polluting the forest with sound, so it was a bit easier to hear and differentiate birds. However, it seemed that most of the birds were pretty high up in the pines, so I wasn’t able to get a good look at them.
The behavior that was most noticeable today was that nearly all of the birds were singing. Singing can be for both territory protection and mate attraction. I could also tell that the forest was much louder this time than last time. Of the nests I saw, most were on the forest’s edge. Some birds require more shelter for their nests, and make their nests in tree hollows or other more protected spots. I’m not sure that I specifically saw a bird defending a territory, but I saw a Black-capped Chickadee mainly hovering around one tree. Considering that the tree was relatively small and not sheltered by other larger trees, I would say that it is a poor territory (indicating poor fitness). For a nest-building bird, American Robins build their nests with twigs, grass, and mud. Conveniently, Centennial Woods can be a place to acquire all of these materials. Otherwise, they are commonly found basically everywhere.

Date: April 7th, 2024
Time: Around 4:45
Location: Near the Patrick Gym
Weather: Cloudy
Temperature: 40s
Wind: Very little
Precipitation: None
Habitats: suburbs, roadsides, urban

For my observations this week, I wanted to walk around Athletic campus to see what species could be found this close to people.

Date: March 24nd, 2024
Start time: 11:30am-ish
End time: 12:30pm-ish
Location: Near the Redstone Commons/WDW
Weather: Sunny, relatively clear
Temperature: 30ish
Wind: 7mph or so
Precipitation: None
Habitats: suburbs, roadsides, forest edge, semi urban

Today was a great day to go birding. The wind wasn’t too bad, so I hoped that I would be able to see a lot of birds. When I went last time, the constant noise from planes and cars near Centennial Woods made it hard to both hear and get recordings of various species, but this area was a little quieter. The openness of the area also let me spot and identify the birds more often. Mostly, I saw Black-capped Chickadees and American Robins.
For the main prompt, I’ll consider the Black-capped Chickadee. I’m going to guess that they don’t migrate because, when most of the other birds leave, there is more food left for them. They also are small, and don’t need much food in comparison to other birds (though they do need to eat a lot relative to their bodyweight). For the facultative migrants, I’ll choose the Red-tailed Hawk (Google says it’s a facultative migrant). I’m going to guess that they could be leaving Burlington, since other places are also warming up in this odd winter. We also got a lot of snow recently while other places haven’t, so they may be going down South to where there is more food. I’d say the disadvantages to one arriving here would be that the weather has been quite odd recently, so its food supply is probably unstable. It would also be tough to find good shelter.
Since the two species I encountered were the American Robin and the Black-capped Chickadee, I’ll calculate the distance for those. However, Black-capped Chickadees don’t migrate, so they don’t count. For the American Robin, the nearest wintering location is Florida, and it is about 1300 miles from UVM to Florida!

Date: March 5th, 2024
Start time: 10:00am
End time: Around 11:00-11:15am
Location: Centennial Woods
Weather:
Temperature: High 40s, low 50s
Wind: A slight breeze
Precipitation: none
A somewhat cloudy sky, but very blue and the sun was out
Habitats: woodland edges, suburbs, roadsides, mixed hardwoods, streamside, conifer stands, etc.
Today was a beautiful day to go birding. I wanted to make an effort to go slightly earlier than usual, as the past few times I felt like I missed the early birds because I went too late in the afternoon. The temperature was very high even though it’s only early March, and the sun was also out. As I approached Centennial Woods, I heard many birds, and was excited that I’d actually be able to see a few. Unfortunately, there was so much background noise today that there wasn’t really a quiet moment.
With regards for bird-bird interactions, I saw a White-breasted Nuthatch(?) trying to court a female. It was making its call and doing a few movements (bowing, swaying). It was trying to say “look at me!” but since the female flew away that didn’t really work. I did get a recording of a White-breasted Nuthatch’s call though, and I was pleased that I could identify it easily.
The two birds I saw today were White-breasted Nuthatches and American Crows. The main difference between the two plumages is that White-breasted Nuthatches have differently colored feathers, while American Crows are entirely black. Having differently colored feathers probably helps the White-breasted Nuthatches with camouflage and identifying each other. Being only one color might help the crow blend in at night, but since it isn’t a nocturnal bird-and therefore not active at night-I’m not sure. Focusing on the White-breasted Nuthatch, it was trying to court a mate. I’d imagine that trying to find a mate takes up most of its day, as it is almost spring. Since it’s warming up, they don’t have to spend so much time looking for food, so they can look for a mate instead.
I wasn’t able to find any Chickadees to try “spishing”, but I’ll think of it when I do. I believe the sound is effective because it sounds like food falling to the forest floor?

Date: February 3rd, 2024
Start time: 12:00pm
End time: Around 1:00pm-1:10pm
Location: Centennial Woods
Weather:
Temperature: High 20s (Fahrenheit)
Wind: Only an occasional slight breeze, direction unknown
Precipitation: None. The air was dry and cold
Habitats: woodland edges, suburbs, roadsides, mixed hardwoods, streamside, conifer stands, etc.

I went birding for the first time on February 3rd, 2024. We (I went with two other people) started around 12:00pm, and ended roughly an hour later (by 1:10pm or so). We truly began to focus on our objective once we reached the start of the main trail of Centennial Woods, our chosen location for this expedition. As we walked down the trail, what little breeze there was diminished until it felt like the air was mostly still within the forest. Additionally, it was a relatively cloudy, bleak day, which made the woods slightly darker than outside them.
We ended up seeing most of the birds at the beginning of our expedition, in a habitat I would classify as “woodland edges”; However, saying that we ‘saw’ birds is a bit of a stretch, as we couldn’t see most of them, and only heard them. We mainly heard Black-Capped Chickadees and White-Breasted Nuthatches, and even caught a glimpse of a White-Breasted Nuthatch fly from perch to perch. It seemed like its flight pattern was somewhat unique, as it started flying from a vertical perching position. I believe that this observation could be useful for identifying more White-Breasted Nuthatches (even with only a glimpse of it in flight), as seeing it go from a vertical position to fly provides an important clue. However, I wasn’t able to get close enough to the White-Breasted Nuthatch (or any other bird) to really study its flight patterns and wing flaps. At best, we saw some Black-Capped Chickadees (identified by it momentarily poking its head out and seeing the black cap) flying from branch to branch far away and up high, but this proved too far to study anything important.
I think that we didn’t have much success in getting close to birds because of the weather. I’m not sure if the reasoning is sound, but I believe the birds were generally up higher to get away from the sinking cold air, and to be closer to the sun (as opposed to it being blocked by branches above the bird). I think that I would have more luck if I chose a sunnier, warmer day. Overall, I would consider this a successful trip, as we heard many birds (and saw a few), and we were able to identify a couple of them.