Walk Around Ethan Allen Homestead in Search of Chickadees (3/21/19)

I woke up early this morning and drove over to the Ethan Allen Homestead on the Winooski River near the new north end. The reason I chose to go there again was because the past couple times I have taken walks here, I have been successful in finding plenty of Black-capped Chickadees. The mini-activity this week included Black-capped Chickadees so I wanted to be sure I would find some.

This morning it was about 35 degrees Fahrenheit and overcast. The previous day had gotten to 50 degrees so when I arrived at the homestead and started walking around, I noticed a lot less snow in the field and a very saturated field.

When I first started my walk around 7am, I noticed a small flock of black birds (about 10 individuals) chirping and chatting in a nearby tree. After taking a closer look with my binoculars, I identified these birds as European Starlings. A couple days before this, I noticed these birds out my window as I woke up. They were in a massive flock (maybe 60 individuals) and chirping with a similar call. At first I had trouble identifying these as Starlings from my window because I have only ever seen pictures of these birds. My roommate informed me that they were Starlings and after this I started to recognize their unique call. These birds I saw this morning were making a similar call. They were trilling and chattering in a very high-pitch tone. I guess that this flock is communicating with each other about food because they quickly all fly away to a distant tree.

Last time I was in this location I observed Black-capped Chickadees in the woods about a half mile from the homestead parking lot, so this is where I ventured next. As I entered the woods, I caught a quick glimpse of a Downy Woodpecker before it jumped off the tree trunk it was perched on. I was able to identify it by its small beak size in comparison to its head size.

I continue searching around the forest for Black-capped Chickadees and after a short while I find a group of three bouncing around from tree to tree. I assume these little guys were searching for buds or seeds on these branches. Every time I see a Chickadee early in the day (before noon) they seems do be exhibiting this same behavior of jumping from branch to branch in small groups. I assume that this is a common activity for the early hours of the day for Chickadees.

Comparing the plumage of Downy Woodpecker to the Black-capped Chickadee, the Chickadee is shaped more circular and appears to have a fluffier and pump molt than the Woodpecker. Maybe this is because the Woodpecker has more body mass and therefor needs less feathers to maintain a healthy body heat.

While observing these individuals carry-out their routine morning foraging, i tried to "push" at them. At first I started soft because I was worried about scaring them away. To my disappointment, when I got louder they flew a few trees away from me. I tried again but wasn't able to get any successful results. Later I researching this "fish"ing and found that people have noticed that this attracts Chickadees. I will definitely have to try this again on a future birding excursion and see if I can get successful results. I'm thinking that a reason why this may work is that the "fish" sound sounds pretty similar to a hard wing beat. Maybe the Chickadees are interested in investigating loud wing sounds in search of food.

I left the wooded area around 8:00 and walked back to my car. While walking back to my car, I spotted what I thought was an American Crow fly overhead and captured a pitiful photo of it as it passed. I was wondering if someone could identify it from my terrible photo. It turns out what I saw was a Turkey Vulture. I am assuming that the person that identified it noticed the profile of its outstretched wings how how they angle forward a bit more than a Crow's wings. I'm really surprised and happy that people from the community came forward and helped me identify this individual.

Posted on March 21, 2019 05:59 PM by joeg170