Journal 2: Hiking in Richmond March 2nd 2020

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.

Publicado el marzo 2, 2020 09:30 TARDE por