Diario de emlapoin

5/1/2020, 7:45-9:15am, temperature 52 degrees, overcast with low wind, very rural wooded backyard habitat. The recording that I have linked to the house finch features a few different bird calls, but I could only link it to one species. One call in particular that I could not identify is the whiney, monotone "caw, caw, caw" sound that I was not sure of. It was less throaty than a crow call.

Burlington’s Old North End, 4/22/2020, 7:30-9:00 AM, weather conditions overcast and snowy, temperature around 25 degrees. I saw 2 separate mated pairs of cardinals, one female seen with twigs in beak flying into a hedge. Her male partner was perched in a tree next to the hedge and singing, which may have been territory defense. In an urban area like Burlington, this hedge seemed like a decent place to nest; it was very dense and I couldn’t make out the nest or any activity going on inside it unless I got very close, so it seemed to be good for protecting young. It was, however, close to the road and a bit exposed. I would imagine that urban cardinals may prefer backyard hedges to roadside ones, as they are a bit more out of the way. I’ve been noticing a lot of cardinal activity in and around hedges in Burlington which makes me think that these are one of their favorite places to nest. However, the location of those hedges in proximity to roads or buildings may be an indication of fitness. Birds with greater fitness would be more likely to score nesting sites further away from human activity or urban sprawl. I Heard the two toned black capped chickadee mating call, another song I have been hearing a lot lately. I haven’t observed any nesting activity from them, but I did some research on where and how they build nests. These birds either locate a natural cavity like a woodpecker hole, or they excavate a nesting cavity in which to lay their eggs. The female lines the cavity with moss and other coarse material and then covers that layer with softer material like fur or hair. These are materials that can be found pretty much anywhere throughout Burlington, mainly in people’s yards or from natural areas and parks, but also just along street sides. There are a lot of medium/large sized nests around Burlington that you can see high up in roadside trees, similar enough to all be made by the same species. I am unsure what species they belong to though. In the two that I photographed and posted for today, you can see that shreds of plastic shopping bag have been incorporated into the nest. This made me wonder about the ecological consequences of using plastics and other non-organic materials in nest building. I also spotted a few European starlings that are beginning to lose their speckles and transition into their breeding plumage. At the end of my walk, I sat for 10 minutes on my front porch to create my sound-map: https://docs.google.com/document/d/18LjV3knLOl4CC4jbsNJdEe5XtBX_-5TWX9JwqrHTQpo/edit

7:30-9:00 am, April 15th, bright and sunny morning, but cool (37 degrees), urban habitat (The Old North End). I saw five different nests today and a lot of mated pairs! One species I noticed (but could not identify) was nested between the bricks of a house, and I could hear her babies chirping from inside. She was calling out to (I assume) her mate, but when another bird approached (also could not identify this species) she attacked him! I wish I got a recording because the vocalizations during the interaction were crazy.

I've been under the weather lately (thankfully just with the regular flu) so I couldn't go very far for this week's journal. I decided to sit on my back porch and see what came by. We don't have any feeders out, but we do have some hedging that seems to attract small song birds. I observed four different species: one mated pair of Northern Cardinals, 3-6 Black-Capped Chickadees (hard to count in the hedges), two American Robins, and one Blue Jay. Cardinals and Chickadees year-round residents of Burlington. Robins and facultative migrants that sometimes winter in places like Florida and Northern Mexico, but it is my understanding that most of the Robins in Vermont are year-round residents. I noticed that all the birds I saw were all looking nice and fat, the winter residents likely still carrying some of the weight that they had put on to survive the cold temperatures, and bulking up for mating season as well. The Blue Jay was the only other migratory species I observed, but I did a little research using Cornell's All About Birds site and found out there is still a lot that is not understood about Blue Jay migration. I found out that most Blue Jays in the Northeast actually stay there year round, so there is a good chance that the one I saw is a Vermont resident. I did, however, learn that Blue Jays are facultative migrants, and thousands of Blue Jays migrate in flocks along the Great Lakes and Atlantic coasts. According to Cornell, ornithologists have yet to figure out why Blue Jays migrate when they do. Some Jays remain present throughout winter in all parts of their range, and research suggests that young Jays may be more likely to migrate than adults.
Frequent flier activity:
Blue Jay: approx 2,000 miles! (from farthest point in wintering range)
American Robin: approx 1,500 miles (from Florida)
Black-capped Chickadee: Year round VT resident, 0 miles.
Northern Cardinal: Year round VT resident, 0 miles.

I decided to do some birding around Burlington's North End, as social-isolation makes it difficult to go too far from home. Immediately when I stepped out of my house, I took note of an American crow perched on top of a pine tree across the street. He was cawing loudly, and there were no other individuals in sight, so I would guess that this was a long-distance call being used to summon other crows. I continued about three blocks down the street, and a Seagull (unsure exactly which species) glided silently overhead. I took note of the way he pitched his wings to create a corkscrew-like motion, and wondered what the purpose of this behavior might be. I found it interesting to compare the sleek black plumage of the American Crow to the stark white Seagull. Both birds are a similar size and body shape, and yet have such different coloration. I would imagine that the Crow's darker plumage evolved to make them less noticeable in heavy tree-cover, whereas the Seagull's white plumage may have evolved to allow them to blend in with the white caps of waves from afar. The difference in their plumage therefore emphasized the way that environment, and the advantageous effects of camouflage influence plumage color. For the rest of my walk, I didn't have any more bird sightings, but heard a few songs that I couldn't identify, but sounded like songbird chatter. When I rounded the corner back to my apartment, I heard an American Robin calling, and spotted him perched in a tree. He was also alone, and seemed to be performing a long-distance call. I spent the last part of my birding excursion on our back deck, and sat for about 30 minutes. I could hear several chickadees chirping, but it took me a few minutes to spot them. There were four or five of them inside of the hedges and fencing that separate my backyard from an adjacent house. I watched them hopping around in there and chattering with each other. I attempted spishing at them, but didn't notice any major changes in their movement or vocalizations. However, I have made successful spishing attempts in the past, and I think this sound works to attract or deter small birds because it resembles the sound of a large flock of small birds chattering with each other, and will either draw the individual to the group or drive it away in fear.

This afternoon from 12-2:30 I went for a hike on some cross country ski trails behind my parent's house in Richmond, VT. The temperature fluctuated from mid to lower 30s as a gained a bit of elevation and the day wore on. The habitat the entire way was heavily forested without any real clearings, but when I reached the highest elevation point there was a ledge that looked out over a valley with a road, a large pond, and a few houses. Looking out over this ravine for a while, I spotted a pair of Gulls (unsure whether they were Herring or Ring-billed, as they were too far away for me to tell), an American Robin (identified by its call), and several smaller, songbird-type species that I couldn't quite identify flying in groups of 3-5. On my descent, I remembered to pay attention to dead snags, and saw many that had been revealed by the recent snowmelt. I tallied 13 potential bird hiding spots in total, and noticed that (typically) the larger the snag size, the larger the cavity size. However, even after rapping on a couple snags with a stick, I didn't observe any birds hiding out in there, but did manage to disturb a few mice. I think species most likely to utilize these hiding places would be ground-dwelling species such as Pheasant or Quail, which I would regularly see on past hikes with my dog in this area (she used to love flushing them out). About halfway through my descent I spotted a streak of red through the trees, and a male Northern Cardinal came to roost not far from me. I managed to snap a picture, and was really excited to see such a bright bird against the dark backdrop of tree branches and overcast skies. Overall, I didn't see as many birds as I had hoped to during this walk, but I assume this had a lot to do with the high winds and threat of rain today. Many birds were likely staying unexposed to the winds in order to conserve their body heat.

Today I went to Shelburne Farms in Shelburne, VT to look for some birds! I was there from about noon to 1:45, and the weather conditions were bright and sunny with some light winds, temperature about 30 degrees.
Immediately when I entered the farm I heard Black-capped Chickadee calls coming from a bush outside of the farm's gift shop. I got closer and counted five individuals hopping/flitting in and around the bush. Occasionally, one would flit down to the ground and would appear to be looking for seeds/other food.
I walked about a quarter mile down the road and took a side trail off to my left that led into some denser tree cover. I immediately heard multiple American Robin calls, and as I moved further into the woods I began to see them gliding from one tree to another, swooping very low to the ground and then increasing their angle of attack to rise sharply up into the next tree, almost like a pendulum swinging.
As I walked further down the trail I heard and observed two White-breasted Nuthatches, one American Crow, and a large group of European Starlings that showed very distinct non-breeding plumage with beautiful speckles. I listened to the Starling's distinctively weird chattering for a while, but couldn't get a great audio recording. I decided to move off-trail into the woods a bit and found myself a place to sit down and try to take some pictures. I was sitting for not even two minutes when something went WHOOSH right by my head, and when I looked up I saw that it was a Pileated Woodpecker that had glided right by me not even five feet away. I watched it maintain that glide for a noticeably longer length of time than the American Robin's did (which makes sense as its wingspan is much larger) and then incline sharply upwards into a tree, take roost, and start pecking. This was a large male with a beautiful bright red crest. I watched him feed for quite a while, taking note of how he moved up and down each tree and between different trees. I got very lucky to have a handful of very different species concentrated in one area, as it made it easy to compare the movements between them. Comparing the similar-yet-different flight patterns of the American Robin and the Pileated Woodpecker really drove home how wing physiology has been adapted for different feeding techniques.