Diario de laurenberkley

Time: 8:15 am
Date: 4/2/18
Location: Centennial Woods, Burlington, VT
Weather: Cold, partially cloudy
Habitat: Forest

Black-capped Chickadees are primarily a non-migratory species. I would attribute their winter survival to high insulation and high activity. These birds have a half-inch coat of feathers to keep them warm and continue to forage throughout the colder months of the year. The American Crow is also primarily non-migratory species. They stay warm during winter nights by gathering in large communal roosts.

Turkey Vultures are more migratory in the west than they are in the east, but the individual I observed could be recently returning from Central and South America where these birds most often spend the winter. It most likely returned because the weather has recently gotten warmer in Vermont, rather than more food becoming available because Turkey Vultures are generalists. Some American Robins are also migratory. American Robins migrate in response to food more so than to temperature. As the ground thaws in the spring, they eat earthworms and insects. This American Robin most likely returned to Burlington now because the ground has thawed and its preferred food is available.

Mini Activity- Frequent Flyer: I estimated that the migratory species I observed travelled about 5,000 miles.

Time: 5:30 pm
Date: 4/20/18
Location: Winooski River, Winooski, VT
Weather: Chilly, sunny
Habitat: Riparian

Time: 9:30 am
Date: 4/26/18
Location: North Beach, Burlington, VT
Weather: Chilly, sunny
Habitat: Riparian

The Rock Pigeons I observed seemed to be exclusively foraging rather than exhibiting mate selection, nest selection, or territory selection. However, the Downy Woodpecker I observed was surely exhibiting the latter behaviors. The individual was drumming on trees to, I assume, announce its territory and attract a mate as this is prime breeding season for Downy Woodpeckers.

As I understand it, Rock Pigeons prefer to nest on ledges, so they may nest on some of the rocky ledges that border Lake Champlain near North Beach. The Downy Woodpeckers prefer to make their nest cavities in dead wood about 5-50 feet off the ground, so they would most likely nest in the woods surrounding Lake Champlain.

Habitat requirements differ greatly from species to species due to available food, shelter, space and mates suited to that species in the area. The Downy Woodpecker was perhaps defending its territory with all its loud, consistent drumming. I would say it is defending a poor territory compared to other members of its species because, as aforementioned, woodpeckers prefer dead wood and I did not observe a lot of dead wood around. That may indicate that this bird does not have very high fitness.

The Rock Pigeon may make its nest out of small twigs or stems that it would acquire from leaf litter in the woods around North Beach.

My drawing for the mini activity showed two "x" marks where i heard Downy Woodpeckers, and trailing dots of the same size to show the drumming I was hearing.