joeg170's Journal

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.

I am back in Rhode Island for the weekend so I decided to take the opportunity to go birding down here. I was hoping I got to catch a glimpse at some species that I haven't seen in Vermont yet.

When I left my house the temperature was 60 degrees. It had been on-and-off raining for a couple hours at this point in the morning so as soon as the rain subsided for a moment, I hurried out the door to try to avoid getting soaked while birding. The sky had 100 percent sky cover and it was fairly windy.

When I got to Tuckertown Park I immediately heard and saw many American Robins on the grass. This is very common for southern Rhode Island. For the rest of my birding excursion I kept hearing and seeing more and more Robins.

After about 20 minutes, I saw a flicker of blue fly through the edge of the woods near where I was sitting. I sat for a few minutes trying to location the perched bird. Eventually I spotted this individual. At first I thought it was a Barn Swallow, but noticing its relatively shorter tail I decided to mark it down as an Eastern Bluebird. While watching it fly from perch to perch alone the edge of the woods, I noticed it was traveling closely to another Eastern Bluebird. I assume this was a mating pair I was observing. Them flying in pairs could be a common mating behavior or possibly a means to more efficiently search for food. I presume that there nest must be close by the edge of the woods where they were flying. Along with simply being a mate, I think that being with another individual increases defense as well. I noticed that they would both jump from one perch and fly to another at the same exact time as well. This could be a type of mating behavior or a means to increases defense.

A half an hour later I observed a pair of Tufted Titmouse flying and feeding on buds in close proximity to each other. In the same general location I saw a small group of European Starlings.

During my "Sound Map" I heard at least 12 different types of calls. I could identify the Robin, Starling, and the Tufted Titmouse, but the vast majority I could not identify.

I spotted so many species that I didn't know during this birding excursion and wasn't able to get pictures of them to look at them closer. I will try to go out tomorrow and identify more.