Field Journal #3: 2/3/2020

It is 2:30 in the afternoon, and today’s date is March 3rd, 2020. Today, I am conducting my bird walk around the natural areas of Trinity campus. The weather is really nice today. There is not a lot of wind, the sun is out with blue skies, and the weather is 35°F. I would classify this habitat as an edge habitat, as there are tons of academic and residential buildings in the surrounding area. I notice that there are a lot of coniferous trees and some oaks around this area.

I have seen quite a few smaller sized birds nearby today. I have seen some American Robins, Black-capped Chickadees, among a couple of other species I was able to identify. Towards the beginning of my bird walk, I noticed some American Robins on the ground by an oak tree. It looked like they were trying to eat something, I could not get close enough to see what it was, but I think they were some seeds. I noticed one of the robins was holding its leg really close to its body, and I immediately recognized this behavior from what we’ve covered in class. I was able to infer that the robin was standing on one foot in order to mitigate heat loss and stay warm, especially since it was on the ground standing right on some snow and ice. Birds stand in specific ways in order to preserve body heat during the colder months, and this was a perfect real-life example of this behavior that I was lucky enough to get to observe.

A little later on in my walk, when I was approaching the area that has more tree coverage, I spotted some Black-capped Chickadees up in an oak tree. I also saw that there was a hole in the oak tree not too far from where they were standing. Based off of what I have learned in class, I think it is safe to infer that maybe that hole in the oak tree I saw is used by birds in the area to overnight in. Unfortunately, I am a vertically challenged individual, so I was unable to get a look inside of the hole in the tree as it was too far up. However, the fact that these chickadees were just hanging out on the branch by the hole I saw, I think it is pretty safe to say that the hole might be where some of the smaller local birds overnight in.
Unfortunately, I was unable to find any “snags” on my bird walk that were being used. I saw some fallen logs; however, when I tapped on them no birds showed themselves. This could be due to a couple of reasons. The first reason I thought of could simply be that the birds that occupy the snag were out and about foraging for food and stuff since it is a clear day, not too windy, and the sun is out. Another potential reason that no birds might occupy that snag is that the snag is potentially way too close to the edge of the habitat. Maybe the birds that generally occupy snags prefer habitats further away from people and buildings, which could explain the empty logs.

I was really excited that I got to see a couple more species than I saw during my last bird walk. I also was really proud of myself for being able to identify most of the birds I saw during my walk. I think the next time I go on a bird walk, I am going to try and come back to this area because I really want to follow up on those logs to see if any new birds come occupy them. Overall, I found this bird walk very enjoyable again, I love getting to go outside for my homework!

Posted on March 5, 2020 05:29 PM by emilyw603