Diario de carterl

I started my birding at 10:30 in the morning on February 2nd. It was 30 degrees F and mostly sunny. There was almost no wind and for about a half an hour it was snowing very lightly with full sun and some scattered clouds. When I had initially walked out of my door in West Dover, Vermont I heard a Black- capped Chickadee in the woods in the distance. I followed the sound but it would stop when I got too close because of the crunching of the snow. So I would stop moving for a bit and listen to find which direction i could walk in. At first I tried to record the sound it made but it was still top far for the phone to pick up. I waled almost directly under them, as they were high up in a pine tree, then they completely stopped making their calls. I sat on a tree stump covered in snow for almost 10 minutes till the they had started their calls again and then I finally got a good audio recording. I could see them fly from one tree top to the next but there were too many branches and the birds hid too fast for me to get a picture. I kept walking in a wooded path to a swampy area and the whole time I was walking there I would stop occasionally and listen only to hear complete silence. When I had got to the the swamp I could see some chickadees in edged of the forest by the swamp moving from one tree top to the next usually followed by some more. The chickadees would appear as if they stepped of the branch of the tree and dip down and back up landing on a branch of equal height. If they went to a further branch they would do the same repeated dip in the flight and manage to fly themselves back up until they reached their landing sight. If their flight patterns were traced it would look like wide- stretched "U's" when moving to locations of similar heights over a distance. After staying at this frozen over swamp for a half an hour I walked up to an open golf course where I sat on a patch of exposed grass to watch for any birds. This golf course was completely empty. Not only did I not see any birds flying at high altitudes in the distance or in the tree tops I also heard nothing - complete silence besides the one or two planes that flew by in the far distance. Finally on the walk back on the quiet road by where I live I hit the black- capped chickadee jackpot. At first I heard many of them calling back and forth and I quietly walked closer to see that there were about or 6 of them scattered all over the tree branches and snowy floor of the wooded area. When moving to the ground from a high or low branch the chickadees would almost dive and then glide back up then back down as many times as needed till they reached the ground. I used my monocular phone attachment to get a picture of some of them and then I had turned around to see the real reason there were so many birds there. There was a hidden bird feeder filled with seeds in the front yard in the house across the street. The birds would fly across the street in a similar way but it was almost more direct ant the "U's" of their flight had less dip to it and more flapping. They would fly to a close tree then when the coast was clear take a direct graceful flight to the bird feeder. While I was standing the I saw a 2 unidentified Brownish looking birds with some white on the tail feathers fly over head across the street. Overall on my field observation I saw some bird tracks on the ground, heard at least one northern cardinal, heard an american crow in the distance, saw/ heard at least 10 black-capped chickadees and 2 unidentified light brown birds one after another fly a few feet over the tree tops to another tree in the distance.

As seen on the first observation a chickadee has more of an elliptical wing and has a powerful down stroke to gain elevation and does that a few times and then will glide while loosing elevation. When walking on another field observation I saw a herring or ring-billed gull flying overhead. This sea bird has a high Aspect ratio wing and is great for gliding. The gull would flap a few times generating enough power to glide for a while. These 2 different birds have different wings that are useful to its habitat and behaviors. Since a chickadee will only move short distances it doesn't need a wing for gliding but also has a wing that will produce enough power quickly if needed to escape a dangerous situation since they sometimes feed on the ground or feeders where they run the risk of predator. For a seagull traveling long distances over the shore or ocean a High aspect ration wing provides the lift necessary to glide and saves energy by reducing the number of wing strokes.