Bird Watching 2/19

Date: 2/19/2020
Time: 12:00 p.m.
Location: Red Stone Lofts, UVM
Weather: Sunny, Windy, 10 degrees F
Habitat: Small wooded area (shagbark hickories, pines, basswoods, maples). Edged the country club so there was a lot of open space.

I wasn't able to find many birds, and I believe that was due to the location. I was at a small wooded area next to the country club. Since the country club has no trees on its golf course, the wind was able to pick up and rush right into the trees. Due to the large amount of wind I believe it wasn't suitable for many birds to be present because it would be too cold. I believe those woods would have been much more abundant with birds with the day wasn't so windy.

The two most prominent bird species that I saw today was the black-capped chickadee (spotted/heard 4) and the European starling (spotted five), so I will be comparing these two species during this journal.

Flight pattern (black-capped chickadee): the flight pattern for the black-capped chickadee was hard to identify mainly because it kept hopping from tree to tree. I wasn't able to see the black-capped chickadee fly for a distance. When it was hopping from tree to tree I able to see that it flapped its wings more frequently than other birds. The black-capped chickadee also seemed very agile during its time in the air. The bird would start going one way and then change direction very quickly.

Flight Pattern (European starling): I did not get a chance to see the European starlings up close, but they did fly overhead. When I saw them they were gliding between short burst of flapping. They were going in a relatively straight path, South to North. They were flying with the wind, which leads me to believe that they were not flapping their wings as much as they usually do; they let the wind aid them.

I was not able to get a good view at the birds wing shape because the European starlings were too far away, and the black-capped chickadee was too close and moving to fast. The one thing I can say about the European starling wing shape was that the feathers were in a very neat curve.

Identifying European starling: I would use its flight pattern AND the wing design because the flap, glide, flap pattern is a good indication of European starlings. The European starlings also have a very distinct body silhouette that helps to identify them.

Identifying black-capped chickadee: based on what I saw today, I would use site and sound. I was not able to find a good descriptor for their flight pattern because they move from tree to tree very quickly.

Posted on February 20, 2020 02:13 AM by