Diario de jridge1821

Place: Burlington (Open ‘fields’ (golf course), swampy areas, residential areas)
Time: 2-330pm
Temperature: 30 degrees (19 degrees with windchill)
Wind: 12 mph winds. Mainly coming from the Northwest.
Weather: Partly cloudy to fully cloudy the entire time

It was a pretty cold day, with a strong wind constantly blowing and it being overcast led it to staying constantly cold. The occasional times the sun came out made it nicer outside. We walked along the UVM campus right next to the Redstone pines, into redstone campus and then onto the golf course that is right next to campus. We mainly walked around the golf course and that is where we saw a majority of our birds. We saw multiple full year round species like the American Crow, Common Raven, and Northern Cardinal. Which makes sense considering they are very adaptable to the climates they are in. Some may migrate to newer locations but often stay in similar areas. This is due to the availability of food resources, crows/ravens will eat just about anything (roadkill, food from people, etc.) Northern Cardinals are another non-migratory species, they primarily feed on seeds (and people often put up bird feeders during the winter as well), and they also can feed on the seeds of pines when they drop their cones. We also saw a couple of facultative migrants; like the Canada Goose, and the Golden-crowned Kinglet. The Canada goose migrates based on ice-cover, meaning if there is little ice cover they probably will stay in Burlington year round. Canada Geese will migrate to the southern midwest and a bit into Mexico. Although only about 20% of Golden-crowned Kinglets may stay in Burlington, the rest will fly down to southern New Hampshire/Long Island and like all of the midwest for their wintering grounds. The thing that draws species like the Golden-crowned Kinglets will migrate due to a change in insect population as they are primarily insect eaters. We did see a couple obligate migrants like the Eastenr Phoebe, Great Egret, and Turkey Vultures (although that is changing due to the environment getting warmer). An advantage to coming to Burlington in April is that sometimes it we do get a really warm spring where everything blooms immediately and food is plentiful, but the disadvantage of birds arriving in early April is cold snaps (like the one we are in currently) where it gets bitterly cold for a couple days to even potentially a weak. This can cause birds that aren’t prepared for this weather to die or potentially starve depending on the species and how long the cold snap lasts.

Mini activity:

Ring-billed Gull- 155 miles
American Robin- 1,114 miles
Mallard- 730 miles
Canada Goose- 1002 miles
Turkey Vulture (from year round range) - 172 miles
Black Vulture (from year round range) - 299 miles
Eastern Phoebe - 659 miles
Golden-crowned Kinglet- 135 miles
Pileated Woodpecker (here year round) - 0 miles
American Crow (here year round) - 0 miles
Fish Crow (from year round range) - 253 miles
Northern Cardinal (here year round) - 0 miles
Great Egret- 2000 miles
Red-breasted Nuthatch- 889 miles
Dark-eyed Junco- 438 miles
Common Raven (here year round)- 0 miles

Total Miles: 7, 806 miles traveled by all birds. That's a lot of miles! Insane how much they travel.

Time: 2-3:30pm
Weather: Fully overcast, constant rain. 10 mph winds from the North.
Place: Centennial Woods (Fully forested, denseish forest), and some suburban landscape (Hospital/Jeffords area), residential areas.

Birds:
2 Northern Cardinals
2 Brown Creeper
2 Barred Owls
2 Black-capped Chickadee
1 Winter Wren
1 White-breasted Nuthatch
1 American Robin
2 Song Sparrow
6 Ring-billed Gull

2-3:30pm
54 degrees (feels like 48 degrees)
Partly cloudy (20-30% cloud cover)
17 mph wind coming from the West.
Area consists of a retention pond/residential/recreational (track fields, golf course, etc.)

This Friday it was very windy, making it difficult to hear bird calls. The birds we were frequently hearing were doing note after note of calls or songs, making it sound like one long string. We saw two Ruby-crowned Kinglets in two separate areas, but had very similar habitats. It was smaller clusters of trees surrounded by open areas (usually a field or golf course), or buildings. Habitat requirements often fluctuate from species to species, as it depends on what they feed on. One instance at the start of the Burlington rec path there was a Northern Cardinal constantly singing in a bush that was right next to the path, it could be defending a territory from a potential rival (we didn’t see another cardinal). The territory was very good as across the path there was a bird feeder which is very good if you are feeding chicks. This bird's fitness must be good as the song repertoire seemed to last for a couple of minutes before it eventually stopped. In the retention pond right next to the redstone lofts there was a pair of Canada Geese nesting there. We couldn’t see the nest but it was situated in the reeds, which I assume were patted down to make the nest. Other things that could be used are leaves, other plants, feathers, or potentially some ‘fluff’ that can come from trees when they begin to pollinate.

For my locator map the music notes represent how loud I could hear the call or noise. If it was a big note it means I heard it well, and a small note means I heard it barely at all. It was windy and there was a lot of noise at the golf course which made it hard to hear calls. Sounds seem to come from all locations, and exactly trying to find where the sounds were made it difficult. Luckily we could often see the birds so it made it easier to make them down.