Rainy Stroll in Centennial

I departed my house at around noon on the 8th of April. The sky was very gray and it had been raining on and off since the early morning. It was slightly drizzling when I left my house on Colchester Ave. The ground was very saturated with water. I arrived at the entrance of Centennial Woods around 12:20. The trail was very squishy and saturated.

In just a couple minutes I spotted a single Red-winged Blackbird perched in a tree high above the trail. I could identify it because of the red patch on its wing. I tried to snap a picture before it took off, but I was unsuccessful. On the Cornell website later in the afternoon I found a migration range map and discovered that Burlington was on the edge of the Red-winged Blackbird's year-round and breeding ranges. Its year-round range extends from northern Vermont all the way down into Mexico. Its breeding range extends from the northern states of the continental U.S. north through the southern territories of Canada. I speculate that this individual was traveling north for the breeding season. This push north could have been motivated by a number of reasons including temperature changes and competition for resources down south. I assume that species that have a year-round range which extends farther south than Mexico are starting to move north and competing with the Blackbirds.

For the rest of my walk, I failed to find any more migratory species. I spotted an American Robin, a Black-capped Chickadee, a Downy Woodpecker, and an American Crow. For this assignment, I will talk more about the Black-capped Chickadee and its ability to live here year round as opposed to migrating to warmer regions for the winter. I have noticed from my own personal sightings and photos online that the plumage on Chickadees and vary quite a bit. During the winter months, it was pretty clear that Chickadees' plumage is very puffed up to conserve as much body heat as possible to survive the cold months. Another significant thing I noticed about their behavior is that in the winter their diet consists of seeds and berries. These resources are certainly around in the winter so their normal diet isn't altered too much to need to move.

Posted on April 8, 2019 06:09 PM by