היומן של dalybrian8

Field Journal #4
4:20-5:30pm Centennial Woods
Partly Cloudy, 26 degrees
Streamside woods habitat

I set out for Centennial Woods this past Sunday and got to the entrance closest to campus at 4:20. I carefully walked down an iced over path to get to an open, sunny spot where I had seen birds before. I packed a sandwich and I was hoping to find a log or rock to sit on with a view of good perching branches above the brook. As I started down the hill towards the brook, I heard many birds and saw some bouncing around the area. As I crunched through the snow many fled the area. I crossed the water and turned a corner to go to the other side of the clearing when I spied a tree well with many American Robins picking at the exposed ground. As I got closer with my camera they unfortunately flew away. I estimate that there were about 6 in the small space underneath the tree.

I continued on the path and found a perfect log at the base of the hill. I put my bag down and sat. Many of the birds that were in the area had left when I approached so the area was pretty quiet for a bit. Soon some woodpeckers were active looking for food high up in the trees above me. While I was sitting in the quiet I tested out the psssshh sound to no avail. I also tried making the sound when a Black-capped Chickadee was nearby but I noticed no change in behavior. I could see how the sound could mimic another sound associated with food or a mate. This is often how calling turkeys or game birds works. The quiet was disturbed by a dog that barked at me all the way down the hill until its owner came close to me. After this I moved to find a better area that wasn't just disturbed.

I walked up the hill and found a few birds moving around. As I came around one corner I found a puffy black and white bird on a sideways tree. It puzzled me because it looked like a woodpecker but was missing a red patch and was very round. I didn't realize until later on that it was likely a female Hairy Woodpecker. After watching this bird for a bit I kept moving through the woods until I reached a different exit. I then began walking up the hill and I spotted a herring gull in a parking lot. I would have tried to take a picture but it was moving a lot and my camera had trouble capturing a stationary bird that was only 10 yards from me. I also saw a large group of robins darting across the road and perching in different trees above me. I caught one cool picture of a perched robin and one in flight next to it.

On this excursion I noticed many birds were focusing on searching for food. This was most obvious with the first batch of robins in the tree well. Likely, that area of ground was the first to melt and they were finally able to reach the ground, where robins often search for food. Robins are often associated with the first days of spring and these birds embodied that. There were at least 5 robins in the same square meter ravaging the ground searching for grub. I assume they were trying to stock up as much as possible after a long winter with less food availability. When I saw the puffy woodpecker I guessed that it may have been stocking up food for laying eggs or the remaining cold days. The female plumage definitely is harder to pick out than a white, red, and black male.

Field Journal #5
11:20am-12:10pm Intervale Trails/Winooski River
Partly Cloudy, 37 degrees
Riverside woods habitat

For this bird walk at the Intervale I was expecting to see lots of bird species and have a lot of cool sightings to report. Unfortunately many of my sightings were very common. I parked my bike at one of the Intervale Trailheads and began walking to the river via trail. Immediately there were lots of chickadees flying around me and getting spooked from the bushes. There were also some songs that I did not recognize before I got to the shore. I found a log to sit on for a minute by the river and I waited for any movement. The river happened to be extremely quiet so I just decided to keep walking. I was expecting to see kingfishers because I had seen them there before.

As I continued along the trail I heard many songs and saw more birds. I observed a woodpecker which I assumed to be downy, because of its small silhouette, directly above me in a tree but I failed to get a good picture. I also heard the distinctive descending tone of a Northern cardinal and followed the sound to see the bird on a branch far away. These pictures also turned out very poor. As I continued on I kept hearing the same sounds and as I walked the trail I saw a flash of red a few yards ahead of me and realized the cardinal had followed me. I also heard geese above and later spotted them on a sand bar in the river. Once by the shore a pair of mallard ducks floated by and promptly flew away when I tried to get closer. On the way out robins were darting in and out of the brush alongside the dirt road.

American Robins and Geese are the farthest migrators I was able to see. Both species can sometimes be found year round in Vermont. Their wintering zones are both not too much farther south. I would estimate that in total the species had traveled 400 miles to get back to their summer zone. Many of the species that stay in VT year round such as the chickadee and woodpeckers are very active during the winter. They have small bodies which don't require much energy, they have very good insulation and they are very good at finding food. These adaptations give them a leg up on larger species that need to follow their food.