Field Journal 3/3/2023
I went to the Burlington Waterfront on Friday, March 3, from 3:30 to 5:00pm. The temperature was 31ºF with low wind. The weather was calm and slightly overcast. The habitat was open water (Lake Champlain), and also the parking lot near the Echo Leahy Center, where eight Ring-billed Gulls were circling and vocalizing.
I walked south along the bike path to a green space a little past Perkins Pier. I saw a Common Loon in winter plumage, as well as five or six Common Goldeneyes and another four or five Common Mergansers. I also saw a pair of Mallards at the edge of the lake and a group of about eight European Starlings in a tree a little ways up the hill. It’s interesting how waterbirds form large groups in winter, probably because of limited open water and safety in numbers? Of course, waterbirds are well adapted to icy water and cold temperatures. Many of the birds I saw today were diving underwater to forage, which makes me wonder what they are eating at this time of year. I suppose there are still fish for the divers to eat, but what about dabbling ducks like Mallards? While many of the birds were feeding, one of the female Common Mergansers was sitting preening on a rock near the edge of the lake. One of the males was swimming near her. None of the ducks showed signs of moving to another place to spend the night, but I did not stay till full dusk to find out (the days are getting longer!).
The only snag I observed was a thick maple trunk at the edge of the water. It did not appear to have any large cavities, just a few small woodpecker holes. There was a noticeable lack of snags in the well-maintained parks of downtown Burlington. The lack of cavity-nesting space and foraging space that snags provide probably affects which species are able to live in Burlington. I imagine there are fewer woodpeckers in downtown Burlington, for example, than in neighboring forest.
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