bicke1359's Journal

This excursion happened the morning of Saturday, 7 March 2020, in Telluride, Colorado. It started around 6:20am local time. The weather was cold, around 30˚F, and was mostly sunny with very few clouds. The sun was providing some light, but was not yet in full effect over the surrounding mountains yet. There was very little to no wind to speak of. I was located on a path next to a beaver pond and some condos. I was moving between various groves of trees along the path. There were no other people out that I could see during my excursion. I also could not get any good pictures on this excursion, but was able to get a few good audio recordings of birds’ calls.
While on my excursion, I didn’t really see any birds moving/flying around. Pretty much all the birds I encountered I could only hear, and not see. When I approached a tree where I believed I heard a bird singing from, I still could not see it. The birds I heard seemed to be in living coniferous trees. On my path, I did not come across any snags, so I didn’t get a chance to see any birds in any snags. Although I was looking for snags as well as birds, the only trees I saw were all living, with pine, spruce, and aspen trees mostly. I think the birds which I heard really only were in coniferous trees because they are the only trees with needles/leaves at this time of year. I think the birds use those needles and leaves to maintain their body heat in the frigid winter air in the elevation.
I also noticed that there seemed to be more birds that were actively singing as time went on. I think this might be because the air was continually warming up as the sun shed more and more light on the area, and the birds were waking up. Since nighttime is the coldest part of the day, I think the birds sleep during that time to maintain body heat and not spend too much energy warming themselves up when the temperature is the coldest. The birds I heard could also have been feeding, but I am not sure because I couldn’t see any of them. I’m guessing that those coniferous trees, as well as insulating heat, could also provide some food for the birds, with berries, insects, etc. This is probably different in warmer seasons, where the birds could hunt for food in more open spaces, with less or no snow on the ground. The ground now is completely covered in snow, which restricts the birds from hunting for food on or in the ground. The snow on the ground could also provide easier sight of these birds from predators.

This excursion happened on March 22nd, 2020, starting at around 2:15pm, in Weston, MA, near my home. The weather was slightly chilly, probably mid-high 30’s (Farenheit) with a light breeze. It was also very sunny, with very few thin clouds in the sky. There were no other people around while I was out, just some sounds of occasional cars on nearby roads. I was in a wooded area behind my house, which was also adjacent to a few other people’s properties as well. I was walking around this wooded area, but every time I thought I was getting close to the birds I was hearing, I could not see them. They seemed to notice me coming and move away. I was able to get some audio recordings of the birds calling, although I was not completely sure of all of my identifications.
I could only really hear one, maybe two individuals of each species I encountered. Of the birds I heard, it seemed that the individuals were mainly sitting in one area, and not moving around very often, or at all. I believe that the individuals I heard were mostly trying to notify their neighbors of their presence, laying out the land of their home territory. I feel like the various species of birds I encountered were not in the same few trees, or very near those same trees, so I believe that they were trying to tell each other to not come near each other and to find their own territory. They also may have been trying to find and communicate to other individuals of the same species, to see if any other individuals of the same species were around the general vicinity.
Since I did not actually see any of the birds I encountered, I could not see any of their plumages. But of the birds I heard in the area, it appeared that the birds did not move unless they really needed to, i.e. when there was a danger in their vicinity (like me), or if they needed to defend their territories from other birds and species. For example, following the Blue Jay that I encountered, I followed its call to where I heard it, but when I entered its territory and stopped walking to listen, I noticed that it was no longer in its territory, but moved away to where I was not walking from. When I left its territory to find another bird, I listened behind me and noticed that the Blue Jay may have moved back into its original territory after I vacated it.