cdenagy's Journal

I went for a walk around campus and the neighboring streets on April 8th around 4 pm. It was cloudy and the temperature was around 35 degrees. It started to snow later into the day. As I began my walk around campus starting from my house, I saw an American Robin which was on walking around on the grass until I was close enough that I scared it away. I then continued my walk up to campus and entered the waterman parking lot on the South Williams Street entrance. Here I saw an American Crow pecking (maybe eating) at a tree and later saw it fly from on tree to another with a small stick it seemed to playing around with. I thought this behavior was very interesting to observe. After a while I decided to move along and my next bird encounter was seeing a flock of European Starlings fly about 200 feet in front of me then quickly disappeared over a rooftop. My next sighting was slightly off main campus on a residential street where I heard then saw multiple House Sparrows in a hedge/bush chirping away. It looked like they were getting ready for the night at this point and gathering in a safe place. They were very interesting to listen too and watch bounce around as soon as I would get too close. I then ended my walk with seeing two Mourning Doves in my backyard along with three Dark-eyed Juncos in a small/medium side tree/bush.

I was surprised I didn't see any spring time migrants on my walk. My next walk I hope to set off in the mourning so that I can catch the birds at a more active time in the day. My one suspicion as to why I haven't seen any spring migrants particularly facultative migrants is because the weather has taken a dip and has snowed later into "spring" than expected. Thus, this could through off or delay these facultative migrants into returning. The birds I did see however were some on the same ones I have been seeing all winter. I believe that these birds have adaptions that allow them to forgo migration. Some of these adaptions might include a wide range of diet that is available in all seasons or perhaps warmer down feathers to add onto the physiological adaptions that allow for birds to keep warm during the winter months. This would probably account for when I did the mini activity I didn't see a migration pattern or line because these birds all have migration maps depicting that they are there all year round.

I went for a bird walk in centennial woods on Thursday April 17th at 11 am. It was cloudy but bright and 40 degrees.

I went for a bird walk around the house I was dog sitting in Shelburne, VT on Saturday April 29th around 2pm. It was warm and bright and around 60 degrees. The houses were set back from the road and neighboring large fields behind them. I first could hear a Black-capped Chickadees singing their usual song but could not locate them in the neighboring trees. I then continued my walk around the area to see if I could spot anything else. That is when I noticed two European Starlings walking around and pecking at the ground. I thought it was very interesting to observe two of them together because I can probably conclude that they are a mating pair due to the time of the season. I then concluded that they could be nesting in the shed like structure that was located in the neighboring yard because these birds are cavity nesters. They will line their nest with pine needles, grass, and other materials the can find. They can find this all with in the neighborhood which is a great resource for these local dwellers. This may be different from other species like an American Robin who nest in trees and use twigs, mud, and other other materials to build a nest in the branches. They could gather there materials needed from the ground located close to their nesting site because small twigs and leaves are generally found under trees or bushes.

As I continued my walk I came across an American Robin singing so I stopped to listen to it for about 10 minutes to do the mini activity. The strongest song was the near by Robin and I began to hear other birds that were further away and I could not detect exactly what they were. The robin was standing tall and singing so I am assuming from this behavior that this bird could be potentially attracting a mate. I think if it was defending its territory I would have seen it move around more and sing in different directions to defend its territory. If this specific robin was defending its territory, I would consider it prime territory because it is located by a house with a bird feeder on the porch.

Nearing the end of my walk I noticed House Finches in the bushes along with what looked like a bird of prey flying over head but I could not ID it because it was too bright and I wasn't wearing sunglasses.