Ornithology Field Observation #1 - Morse Park

This birding trip took place on February 17th, 2020. It took place in Morse Park in Monkton, Vermont. I arrived at around 9 am and was greeted by clear skies and sun. The only downfall of this day was the large amount of wind that made the air hurt my face. Morse Park has a large open field with scattered farm homes of local residents. Short trails are lined with deciduous trees, barren of leaves. The main attraction of the park is the large pond that was frozen over with about 10 inches of ice. The open and closed areas provide different types of habitats for birds, which is why I chose this area to go birding.
The first crow I noticed flew overhead of me as I approached a large open area with a frozen over pond. The bird began by circling the perimeter of the pond, but after making it ¼ around the perimeter, it perched on the branch of a leafless tree. The crow flapped its wings up and down as it circled the perimeter of the pond, rarely gliding in flight. The crow seemed to have an elliptical wing shape; rather short and a large amount of spread feathers at the tips. It was extremely windy this day, so the induced drag from the large amount of feathers probably was working to the crows disadvantage. If I was looking to identify this bird in the future, I might be able to tell it was an American crow by the distance it traveled at a high altitude.
The trail that I followed was between a field on the right hand side, and a series of deciduous trees on the left hand side. I saw two blue jays perched on a branch of a tree and observed their wings. They often sat there and shuffled their wings so fast that I could barely see it happen. I believe that they had the “elliptical” wing shape from the way their feathers spread at the tips. I sat and watched them for about ten minutes before they flew away. The bird spread its wings out on the upstroke and seemed to then bring them into the side of its belly on the downstroke. As it approached another branch, it glided and then perched. If I was looking to identify this bird in the future, I might be able to tell it was a blue jay by the unique tucking downstroke.
From what I could decipher, the American crow and the blue jay had the same wing type. However, the American crow had much larger wings than the blue jay. The flight style of the crow was much different than the blue jay as I never saw it gliding through the air. This is probably due to the different habitats I saw the two birds in. The American crow was high up in the air around an open area, while the blue jay was much closer to me and traveled a short distance between trees.

Publicado el febrero 18, 2020 04:17 TARDE por g_underhill