juliecal's Journal

This field walk took place in Norwich, Vermont from 3:00-4:30pm on April 25th. The weather was sunny and 40 °F. I walked on the Appalachian Trail where it passes through a wooded area in Norwich. The habitat was a mix of deciduous and coniferous trees of all sizes. The density was pretty consistent, about 70% tree cover most of the time. I passed several small streams and vernal pools.

For this entry I observed birds in Norwich, Vermont, on April 21st, 2020, from 8:30-9:00am. The weather was sunny and around 40 °F. I was in a grassy area between a main road and the Connecticut River. The area was down a small slope from the road, and had scattered trees, with a few clumps around the edges. There was a steep slope from the grass to the river which was covered in small brush/bushes. One side faced a wide area of stiller water where a stream meets the river, and there was a marsh-like habitat there. The bank across the river was forested.
I saw and heard a lot of Red-winged Blackbirds, which I expected since they like marshy areas. I saw seven males, but no females. I am guessing that there were females around, but they were probably in the vegetation around the marshy area, since they tend to stay lower and don’t try to attract attention like the males. I saw three geese on the water and four flying above the river. A juvenile Bald Eagle circled above the river for a minute, and then kept flying along the river and out of sight. I saw four blue jays total, two of which were together.
I think the Red-winged Blackbird songs were territorial behaviors in preparation for mating. The males perched in trees and on the grass and sang loudly and often. They were probably defending their territories where their mates were nesting. They usually nest in marshy areas or low vegetation, so it is likely there were some nests and females nearby. If the females were in the lower vegetation or shrubs collecting materials for nests, they would probably use grasses, stems, sticks, and other plants. Red-winged Blackbirds also use wet leaves, decayed wood, and mud to stick the nest together and shape it. They could find all of those in the marsh habitat, so if they were nesting there they wouldn’t have to go far.
Blue Jays, which I also heard singing, use different nest materials- mainly roots and twigs from trees. If the Blue Jays I saw were nesting in the nearby small trees, they probably wouldn’t have the prime habitat. This probably means that they have relatively low fitness compared to others of their species, since they are not able to claim and defend prime habitat. Nesting would be better near the marsh or across the river, where the trees were denser and larger, so they would have thicker and taller branches to build a nest on.

Link to sound map:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1AQCPVhh6MWnP2_6RvPCPPHgdRAcRSdmCMiI0ulT0xwU/edit?usp=sharing

These field observations were made on April 14, 2020, from 8:00-9:30am in Norwich, Vermont. The weather was sunny and around 40 °F. For part of the walk I was on streets bordered by trees and lawns, and I mostly found birds in trees. There was one house with a few bird feeders where I found six different species, which moved around on the lawn and nearby bushes as well as on the feeder. I also spent about 40 minutes walking around the edge of a field. The field is used for recreation so the grass was cut, and it was bordered by trees with a stream along one edge. Most of the birds were found in the trees, but I saw three American Robins out on the grass, an American Crow on a nearby tennis court, and two Eastern Phoebes flying in and out of a baseball dugout. I also saw a Red-tailed Hawk flying high above the field and being chased by a crow. There was also a small pool of standing water in the trees, maybe a vernal pool, where I saw an Eastern Phoebe perched on a branch sticking out of the water.

For this assignment I went to the Ballard trail in Norwich, Vermont on April 7th, from 1:30-3:00pm. The weather was sunny and about 50 °F. I walked through my neighborhood to get there, so the habitat for the first and last 10 minutes of the walk was a paved road surrounded by houses, lawns, and trees. I saw a Blue Jay at a feeder and I think I heard a Brown-headed Cowbird but I’m not certain. While I was on the street I also heard House Sparrows, Black-capped Chickadees (both call and song), Northern Cardinals, and American Crows.
The Ballard trail follows a stream through the woods. Most of the area I was in consisted of tall coniferous trees, with some scattered deciduous trees. I only heard a few faint bird sounds at first, but I think that was because the noise from the stream made it difficult to hear. The first birds I saw were three small sparrow-sized birds that were on the ground and then flew up into the trees when I approached. I was able to find one with my binoculars and it looked like an Eastern Phoebe. Later I saw four more small birds hopping around in the branches of smaller coniferous trees. Two birds, a Black-Capped Chickadee and an Eastern Phoebe, were perched right next to each other and pecking at the branch they were standing on. I think their sides were touching, which I was surprised about since we learned that birds like to have personal space. Both species eat insects, so maybe they had found some food on the branch that they were both trying to get to. I didn’t see any birds for a while after that but started hearing more. On my way back, when I was closer to the stream again, I saw a White-breasted Nuthatch and an Eastern Phoebe in a tree between the path and the stream. They moved up the trunk and along the branches for a couple minutes, and then followed each other to a few more trees along the stream before flying apart.
One of the year-round resident species I heard was a Northern Cardinal. Northern Cardinals are able to survive the winter without migrating because much of their diet consists of seeds, which they are still able to find in the winter. One behavioral adaptation they have for overwintering is that they forage in flocks during the fall and winter, rather than sticking only with their mate as they do in the spring and summer. Brown-headed Cowbirds are facultative migrants. The one I saw was probably coming from south of Vermont, maybe around Connecticut, and is probably heading to northern Vermont or Canada. Part of their diet includes insects, which are coming out now that it is getting warmer, especially snails because females need a lot of calcium due to the large number of eggs they lay. Eastern Phoebes also migrate, but they go farther into the south of the US and even Mexico. They are one of the first migrants to return, which could be advantageous because they get to pick out niches and overhangs for nesting before other species arrive. A drawback of arriving early could be that their main food source, flying insects, are still less abundant due to the cold. The migration of a Brown-headed Cowbird and an Eastern Phoebe together could total around 1,800 miles.

For this bird walk I went to Red Rocks Park in South Burlington, VT on March 3rd, 2020. I was there from 4:00-5:30pm. The temperature was around 45 °F and the weather was sunny for the most part but started getting a little cloudy around 5:00. There were a few inches of snow on the ground. The park is a mix of deciduous and coniferous forest with trails running through it. One edge of the park borders Lake Champlain.
I entered the woods on a wide, clear trail surrounded by mostly deciduous but some coniferous trees. The deciduous trees mostly did not have leaves so there was plenty of light. Walking on this trail I heard a Blue Jay call, but didn’t hear or see any other birds. I’m guessing this is because in the winter birds spend more time resting to conserve energy so they can keep their body temperature up, rather than spending energy finding mates and breeding. I started counting snags but didn’t keep this up for the whole walk because there were a lot and it was hard to pay attention to other things while counting every snag. After a while I turned onto a narrower trail, which ran near the road for a while. After it turned away from the road deeper into the woods I heard a Black-capped Chickadee song and a Tufted Titmouse song.
I found a clearing near the lake and spent some time there. I saw six ducks in the water but they were too far away to tell what species. They stayed together and moved slowly. They sometimes went fully underwater for a few seconds at a time, which makes me think they were diving ducks like the Common Goldeneye or the Common Merganser. I also heard two birds calling back and forth from opposite sides of the clearing, which sounded like Red-winged Blackbird songs but I’m not certain. I heard faint gull calls as well. Otherwise, there didn’t seem to be many birds near the lake. Staying deeper in the woods might be a behavioral strategy to stay warm in winter because the lake is colder and windier. I left the lake when a small flock of high schoolers came by playing music from a speaker, presumably scaring off any other creatures.
From the lake, I went back into the woods and walked off the path for a while. I saw three Great Blue Herons flying together in a straight line way above the trees. In an area with relatively small, short deciduous trees, I found a small bird high up in a tree that I am pretty sure was a Downy Woodpecker. It was too far up to see the coloring, so the main things I noticed were that it looked about the size and shape of a sparrow but had a long thin bill, and it made some squeaking noises. It then flew to a larger tree and pecked the trunk a little. I used the Merlin app to see what it might be and the closest match was a Downy Woodpecker, so I looked on the Cornell website later and found that the squeaking sounds matched what the website refers to as the “pik” of a Downy Woodpecker. Hairy Woodpeckers make a similar sound, and I was wondering if it might be that instead because the bill seemed long, but Cornell also said that Downys are often found on small, thin branches while Hairys prefer larger branches. The bird I saw started off on thin branches, and it was definitely small, so I concluded it was a Downy Woodpecker.
Next I entered a part of the woods that was mainly coniferous, which at first seemed denser but then I realized it was just darker because the trees had needles to block the light. While I was noticing how much darker it was, I was spooked- I mean, surprised- when a large bird suddenly flew out of a tree in my peripheral vision. But then I was very excited to see that it was an owl! Based on the size and the mottled brown and white coloring, it was a Barred Owl. The habitat also matched with a Barred Owl’s habitat: a forest with both deciduous and coniferous trees, near water. I wanted to see it better so I tried to approach it very slowly and quietly (which was definitely not effective because I was walking through crunchy snow). I was able to get a little closer, but once I got too near it calmly flew away. I’m sure it knew I was there the whole time (at the risk of too much personification, it definitely looked like it was judging me for thinking I could sneak up on an owl). When it flew away it was silent and mostly glided, not flapping very often. I tried to follow it but it disappeared in the trees. I spent the end of my walk trying to find the owl again and didn’t see any other birds. But I did hear a few more; the ones I could identify were Canada Goose calls coming from the direction of the lake, at least four Black-capped Chickadee calls, and one White-breasted Nuthatch call.
I saw a large number of snags, holes, and cavities during my walk. Some of the cavities in both dead and living trees looked natural, and some looked like they were made or at least widened by birds. I noticed that when there were very round holes that looked like they had been made by birds, there were usually multiple on the same tree. This might be because they are made by the same bird, or by a family group that stays together. Of the cavities I could see into, none had birds in them, and nothing came out whenever I tapped on one with a stick. Maybe there aren’t a lot of birds in cavities during the day. I also looked in the crevices of a large rock wall, thinking those would be good hiding spots for small birds, but didn’t see anything. It is probably too dangerous to be that close to the ground. Tree cavities are most likely used for nesting and hiding from predators. They are probably used mainly by small birds such as chickadees, nuthatches, and woodpeckers. I didn’t see any bird behavior that looked like a winter-specific strategy, but I assume that a lot of birds do hide in tree cavities when they are cold and at night. Additionally, birds can minimize heat loss by reducing blood flow to their legs and by growing more downy insulating feathers in winter.

I made these observations in Centennial Woods in Burlington, VT on February 18, 2020, from 4:15pm - 5:45pm. The weather was cloudy with occasional very light snow/rain and a temperature around 30 degrees Fahrenheit. The sun set around 5:30 so it was starting to get dark during the end of my observation time. The habitat was forested with snow on the ground.
I saw nine American crows flying out of the trees while I was entering the woods, and also heard a house sparrow chirp a few times but didn’t see it. The flight pattern of the crows seemed to be alternating between a few slower flaps and a few quicker ones. I saw another bird a few minutes later flying through the tops of the trees that looked sort of like a crow but a little smaller, with a smaller head proportionally. It was hard to tell the color of the bird from the distance but it looked dark. Its flying pattern was more consistent then the crows. I’m not sure what it was, but I used the Merlin app to try to identify it. The most likely options from that were common grackle, red-winged blackbird, or European starling, although the app said all of these are usually in flocks in the winter and I only saw one. About half an hour into my observation time I saw five more American crows flying low above the trees. These were the last birds I saw. I did hear some occasional chirping that I couldn’t identify throughout my time in the woods, but after the first half hour I didn’t see any more birds.
I think the reason I didn’t see any birds for the last hour was because it was cloudy and starting to get dark. I’ve definitely seen birds around Burlington at twilight/night before, especially American crows, so I was surprised at how few I found. They also might have been less active because it was cold. I wasn’t able to get a picture of a bird because I was writing observations at the beginning, and didn’t see any more birds after I took out my phone to take photos. I did get a sound clip of a bird at one point but couldn’t identify it. Next time I will try to go out earlier in the day to increase my chances of seeing more individuals and a wider variety of species.