Diario de emlapoin

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.

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.

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