wsn802's Journal

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: 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!