Journal Entry #1
On Wednesday, February 14th, I went on a bird walk to Centennial Woods. I arrived at the entrance at about 2:30 PM. It was mostly sunny with occasional clouds and about 37 degrees Farenheit. I hoped that the warmer weather would draw out more birds, but this did not seem to be the case.
As I entered the forest, the first thing that struck me was the abundance of bird calls. All around me I could hear the familiar songs of Black-capped Chickadees and Tufted Titmice. Then a pair of American Crows flew over head making a loud "caw" call. Over the course of my walk I observed several more groups of American Crows.
As I reached Centennial Brook, I stopped in a clearing, hoping to see some smaller song birds. I was rewarded by a quick stop by some Black-capped Chickadees that landed in a thicket and stayed around for several minutes. After they took off, I kept walking through the forest eventually straying off the trail for a bit. I arrived at a stand of hemlocks and at the top of a distant tree I spotted a Downy Woodpecker. It stayed there for a few minutes before flying off.
I continued on and arrived at the wetland area of Centennial where I saw a Broad-winged Hawk fly by. I found its flight pattern interesting in that it would flap its wings several times and then coast. This was a great contrast to the constant flapping of the chickadees. The hawk was able to maintain a constant level moving forward while the chickadees dipped down and then went back up. The hawk also had much broader wings than the chickadees. This suggests that the hawk is adapted for longer flight and steadier flight than a chickadee. The hawk flew across the wetland and then back into the trees where I could no longer see it.
On my walk back to the entrance I heard some more calls from the same species. I had hoped to find more diversity on this trip but hopefully future bird walks will yield better results. I believe that going in the mid-afternoon was a major reason for only seeing a few species and in the future I will try to go out at a time when more birds will be active.
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