Field Ornithology 2021 - Day Three: Forests

The date is May 26, 2021, and today I headed to Freetown Fall River State Forest and Southeastern MA Bioreserve to be on the lookout for some forest species. My session today lasted from about 7:20 until 11:30, and the majority of that time was spent walking along the trails through the forest, only taking brief pauses if I heard a certain song I didn't recognize or if there was a lot of activity in a certain area. The weather was pretty mild in the early hours of the morning, starting out at about 60˚ before reaching around 80˚ by the time I left, and it was mostly sunny for the entire outing with little to no wind. While I was excited about getting a clear identification for the Ovenbirds I was hearing, I quickly learned how difficult it can be to hear any other species when the Ovenbirds are really singing. In the mostly deciduous forest areas, I heard a Veery for the first time in person, as well as an Eastern Wood-Pewee. Although not listed on our list of forest species, I was very excited to identify that I was hearing a Prairie Warbler, which was also a first for me. As I walked through the mostly coniferous habitats, species were more limited to those such as White-throated and Chipping Sparrows. Overall, I found it more difficult to bird in a forested area like today because I still need to refine my ID by ear skills, and with the trees being so tall in some areas it was hard to spot birds at all. However, this forced me to take a lot of "unknown recordings" and do some research of my own, and although I had found slightly fewer species than past days, it was still a successful outing!

Publicado el mayo 26, 2021 07:10 TARDE por bethanysmith512