Wednesday April 22nd
Today I went down to the Intervale in Burlington, VT. I walked north along the Winooski on the Calkins Trail and looped around McKenzie Field walking back on the intervale road. It was a cloudy day, the temperature was 39 F and the wind was blowing 17mph making the temperature feel more like 30F. At 4:40pm I saw a robin at the trailhead. Walking closer along the bank I saw 2 eastern phoebes flitting around in the trees. Perhaps it was a male and female showing spring courtship behavior. At 4:50 I saw a male downy woodpecker – I have seen a pair of downy’s in that same spot before. At 5:04 I saw a gull overhead and again at 5:05. At 5:22 I saw two house finches. Neither had red chest so I guess they were two females. At 5:23 I heard a son sparrow. I emerged from the forested path and a path ran alongside a field and some edge buffer to the river. I saw many house finch and song sparrow. Many of them would be in the field, overturned ground and fly into the more covered shrub habitat as I walked by. At 5:36 I saw another gull. At 5:38 I saw 3 robin hunting in a mowed area. At 5:40 I reached another wooded part of the trail and saw a downy woodpecker, and some robin. At 5:45 I heard an American crow and 5:47 a double crested cormorant flew over. At 6:08 I heard a song sparrow and heard another woodpecker. I saw three ducks fly over and then a peregrine falcon (I am pretty sure) fly over. At 6:12 I went around a field and saw song sparrows scuttling around in the field, some gulls fly overhead. In another mowed area I saw three more robins around 6:20.
I did not hear as much singing today as I have been on past walks but that was likely due to the cold. I did see many more nests that I have in the past. There were many propped up in the nooks of trees and others closer to the ground. I also noticed downy woodpecker in similar territories as I have seen them in the past. I am not sure if it is because it is spring or if I am now more aware but I feel like I have been seeing more birds in pairs. I haven’t directly seen any nesting occurring, but I have been seeing a lot more nests. There are two cardinals that I think are paired that live next to our house and I always see them and hear them sing.
There is a robin nesting right outside our kitchen window at our house. I check on her throughout the day and we were reflecting how perfect the spot seems for a nest. It is built on a tiny ledge that comes out of the side of the wall right in the eaves. The roof provides protection from any predators seeing the nest from above, and protection from wind and rain. The sun also hits the wall and likely warms it providing extra warmth for the nest. This nest is in a spot that is in stark contrast to some of the little nests I saw at the intervale. One of these nests was perched in a small dead plant in the middle of a field. It is completely open to the elements from all directions (no wind or weather protections). And it was at about hip height meaning that animals could access it. It is also not hidden at all from other potential predators. I am not sure why a bird would choose to put its nest there.
Where I was walking, in the intervale, there are very few/ no evergreen trees. The main habitats are deciduous forested, edge, riverbank and field. All of these areas are also prone to flooding in the spring, as the rains increase and the river flows. The nests I have been noticing have been all in edge habitat. But this is also likely due to the fact that I was also walking on the edge. I same three littles nests and four larger ones. The lower ones were the smaller ones. I am not sure why that is, maybe due to what the bird eats or if it is more well suited to hide in grasses.
These two nests are both cup nests and neither are cavity nesters. It is obviously hard to see cavity nests as they are hidden from view. When looking at nest types on All About Birds it seemed that a lot of the cavity nesters didn’t need to have quite as much structure and were more focused on the insulating factors of the nest. Their nests seemed to include more leaves and less mud.
I have not seen much defense of mating ground within species but while I was walking, I did watch the defense of habitat and life as a peregrine falcon showed up. I hadn’t been hearing many birds but then all of a sudden, I heard the crows start to call and then one by one it felt like species all began to sing and defend their area from the intruder. After the birds began calling then I saw the falcon. With this defense you could clearly tell that the falcon was the top of the food chain, the other species coming together to ward it off.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1trBGb3L51tTOgDY6kXoFPF059XEceb8Z/view?usp=sharing
What a beautiful day! Partly cloudy but the sun is shining brightly through the clouds. There is very little wind. It is 52 degrees. I biked down to the Intervale and walked into the woods on the path near the river. I chose a spot on a large log where I could see the river. The woods were mostly composed of deciduous trees. There were some people fishing and people going for a walk or run passing by (6ft away!). Since March we have gained about two hours of daylight which has felt like a ton! We have also begun to have more consistently warm days and nights that are no longer (or rarely) dipping below freezing. I guess the sugaring season is likely over. If I, a human confined to my room, staring at a blue light screen for far too many hours per day feel as if the seasonal changes have been drastic the past few weeks, I can only imagine what the birds are thinking. Another change in the landscape has been the increase in pollen. Just being outside for 2.5 hours, my eyes are all runny from the pollen in the air. I bet this means that there are new things (like buds and bugs) ready for the birds to eat.
The first bird I saw was a Tufted Titmouse at 4:06. I always notice how fluffy and cute titmice are, but the fluffiness isn’t to look cuter but really to provide warmth and insultation for the winter. Then I thought I heard a gaggle of geese coming in for a landing but turns out it was a TON of seagulls overhead. At 4:08 I saw an American Goldfinch. Even though these birds are in VT all year that was the first time I had seen one. I left my spot at 6:20 and the Goldfinch was still on its same tree that it initially landed on singing. How do they sing for so long? Do birds ever go hoarse? At 4:10 I saw a pair (M + F) of Downy Woodpeckers. They too stayed in the little patch that I was sitting in for the whole afternoon, hopping around from tree to tree, often following each other. I wonder what a Downy Woodpecker territory map would look like. At 4:30, 13 Common Mergansers floated down the river, and then swam back up it. There seemed to be a reasonable balance between males and females. At 4:40 I saw a White Crested Nuthatch jumping from tree to tree. At 4:42, two mourning doves flew across the river and landed on the other bank. At 4:52 I think I heard an American Crow. At 5:05 a Double Crested Cormorant flew overhead. There seemed to be an increase in bird chatter but I am not great at distinguishing calls so it was too difficult to determine what I was hearing. At 5:47 I saw 2 Black-capped Chickadees. A mallard floated by at 5:51. At 6:21 5 ducks flew overhead but I couldn’t confirm that they were mallards. On our way out of the woods I saw a grouping of Northern Flickers. Their tail feathers were so yellow!
Species that stay in Burlington have picked up a few adaptations to stay warm in the winter. Some of these adaptations include becoming hypothermic at night to preserve calories as well as adding feathers and puffing them up to increase insulating qualities.
I didn’t see many migrating birds while I am observing. The only migrators I saw were the Northern Flicker, Herring Gull, Double-crested Cormorant and Mallard. All of these migrators are short to medium distance migrators. The minimum distance they cumulatively migrated was 1300 miles to a maximum of 7500 miles.
For most species the increasing daylight hours were a signal to start their northern migration. While arriving earlier in the season has some potential territorial advantages it does mean that they could still experience some weather that is basically still winter weather meaning if they are not prepared to endure the cold they might be in danger.
