Blackboard INaturalist assignment
For today's excursion I participated in the field trip led by the TAs in ornithology. Overall it was a fairly okay day outside. With it being 100% overcast and a constant light snow throughout the ninety minutes we were out. We were out from two to three thirty and recorded twelve different species of birds, with some interesting variety among them. The temperature was a constant twenty eight degrees fahrenheit with little to no wind which made it a better experience. Even though we walked all across campus: from Aiken to the medical center all the way to Redstone, a lot of the birds we saw were around Redstone.
While walking in redstone we saw A LOT of Robins flying around, and they had a very interesting flight style. They seem to have an undulating flight pattern, where they’d flap their wings to gain a bit of altitude then drop again, but other times they would fly straight without any dipping. Maybe it was because of all the food they were acting so peculiar. Most of the birds we saw on campus had elliptical shaped wings, which are used for quick movements. This makes sense in the residential area UVM is based in, as quick movements are needed for all the obstacles that are often in the birds' way (whether that be buildings, plant matter, cars, etc). Flight patterns you can use to identify a group of birds, some of them you could probably be identified solely on flight patterns if it is incredibly unique, but I think flight patterns more narrow it down to a group of birds where you then can use other characteristics to narrow it down to a specific bird. The flight characteristics can help you identify a group or a species of bird because on many interesting flight ideas: the way it flies (direct flight, gliding, soaring, etc), and usually the flight pattern is influenced by the birds wing shape as since most hawks and vultures have fairly broad (passive soaring wings) wings which influence them to often be soaring above. Similarly, a lot of songbirds have elliptical wings which are perfect for fast maneuvering which you can see with how fast they move, and the fact they use undulating flight patterns where they need to constantly flag and then fold them in in order to create the rapid movements.
The medical center/central area had little to no birds, and I theorize it is because of the constant traffic that happens in that area. Cars are constantly driving to and away from the medical center, and central is a huge walkway for students which is also more human traffic which could keep the birds away. It would most likely be better to look for birds earlier in the morning or when it is warmer out in order to get less human/car traffic involved.
The bird sketch activity is a very interesting idea and showed me just how many identifying characteristics there are on a single bird. Some birds are a lot more simple to identify than others (whether that be due to simple coloration or bright markings that immediately draw the eye too). Overall this activity was a very smart idea and really got me thinking at bird characteristics you may see just while out looking around for things.
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