Diario de olivialiu

Time: 12:05pm - 4:45pm
Date: 03/30/2020
Location: Hughes Hollow, Maryland
Weather: 65 degrees, Cloudy & Overcast
Habitat: Mixed Woodland/Wetland

I went home to Maryland to visit my family last week and I spent a full day at Hughes Hollow, a 25-minute drive from my house in Potomac. Hughes Hollow is part of the McKee-Beshers Wildlife Management Area, which is a 2,000-acre state-owned hunting area featuring a mixture of woodlands, fields, wooded bottomlands, and managed wetland impoundments. McKee-Beshers is known among Maryland birders as an extraordinarily productive birding location and provides habitat for a great diversity of wildlife species and birds. Biologists deliberately flood forest areas during the fall and winter to create “green-tree reservoirs” that attract Wood Ducks and other waterfowl that migrate through or spend the winter there. I saw an incredible amount of birds there, along with snakes, turtles, frogs, and lots of tadpoles!

I saw my first Red-shouldered Hawk of the season! They are resident to medium-distance migrants. Birds of the Northeast and northern Midwest migrate to more southerly states for the winter. Birds in central and southern states don’t tend to migrate, although some Red-shouldered Hawks do spend winters in Mexico. The Red-shouldered Hawk’s that I saw are year-round residents in Maryland. These hawks eat quite a wide variety of mostly small mammals, lizards, snakes and amphibians. They perch below the forest canopy silently and then descend swiftly, gliding and snatching prey off of the forest floor. They occasionally eat birds, sometimes from bird feeders. Migration can be a perilous journey, and birds that don’t undertake a significant migration avoid the hazards that come with moving from one place to another like predation, hunting, habitat loss, storms, and more. Birds that don’t migrate don’t need to expend massive amounts of energy to travel, and they can use that time instead to forage, watch for predators, defend their territory, preen, raise chicks and other beneficial tasks for survival. Along with birds of prey, many species of owl do not migrate. The Barred owl spends most of it's life in one area and rarely farther unless food is scarce. They're super cool and watching one hunt is a privilege. They eat lots of small animals like chipmunks, mice and voles. And they can perch on branches along the riverside, swooping down feet first to catch fish. We heard one hooting as we were heading back to the car and stopped to listen. When I was little, my dad used to take me out bird-watching in that very same spot and we would get so excited when we finally spotted the owl because they can be really elusive! Unfortunately, he was across the wetland, so we didn't see him but we were lucky to hear him.

To adapt to living in a place year-round, many birds change their food preferences (kind of like how many people only eat seasonal foods!) Birds that don’t migrate may eat buds, insects, berries and seeds in spring and summer, and switch to fruit and nuts in fall and winter when other food sources have been exhausted. Bird feeders can play a large role in a bird’s winter diet as well. They may also cache food in late summer and autumn, hiding supplies of seeds and nuts in protected areas to be retrieved later. Additionally, year-round residents like the Red-winged Blackbird, Northern Cardinal, and Blue Jay will molt in summer and early fall in order to gain an extra protective layer of insulating down feathers to help preserve body heat and protect them from extreme cold.

I also saw several Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers on my wetland adventure! They are short to long-distance migrants, and depart from their breeding range in September and early October for wintering grounds in the southern U.S., Mexico, West Indies, and Central America. They arrive back north around May. Females tend to migrate farther south than males, with a ratio of more than three females to one male. So, in Maryland they are in their non-breeding stage right now and will be moving north next month! These little guys are facultative migrants, meaning migration is usually optional, occurring in response to environmental conditions. Migration is often triggered by a lot of redundant cues such as; geographic/visual cues, solar cues, stellar cues, geomagnetic cues, and olfaction cues. Birds have the ability to sense changes in the photoperiod and react in different ways to those changes, whether they are leaving for their over-wintering grounds or returning to their breeding grounds. Birds also migrate to move from areas of low or decreasing resources to areas of high or increasing resources, and that could be one reason the Eastern Bluebird leaves for Mexico or the Ring-necked Duck head south from Canada to Maryland. Maryland is unique in that it's situated in the middle of two temperature extremes, and can provide a decent habitat for many year-round residents.

Mini Activity:
Northern Cardinal - Year-round Maryland Resident
Red-winged Blackbird - Year-round Maryland Resident
Eastern Bluebird - 1850 miles (MD to Mexico)
Blue Jay - Year-round Maryland Resident
Red-shouldered Hawk - Year-round Maryland Resident
Dark-eyed Junco - Year-round Maryland Resident
Great Blue Heron - Year-round Maryland Resident
Song sparrow - Year-round Maryland Resident
Ring-necked duck - 2000 miles (Central Canada to MD)
Barred owl - Year-round Maryland Resident
Snowy Egret - 950 miles (Gulf Coast to MD)
American Bittern - Year-round Maryland Resident (Right on edge of breeding and wintering grounds)
American Crow - Year-round Maryland Resident
Common Raven - Year-round Maryland Resident
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker - 2000 miles (Canada to MD)
Black-capped Chickadee - Year-round Maryland Resident

Total: 6,800 miles

Time: 1:00pm - 3:25pm
Date: Apri 10th, 2020
Location: Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge
Weather: Sunny and 65 degrees
Habitat: forest, marsh, and tidal wetland

I also saw a beautiful fox!

Time: 2:20pm – 5:45pm
Date: 04/19/2020
Weather: 50 degrees partly cloudy, rainy and overcast the last hour
Habitat: mixed coniferous and deciduous stands, abandoned farmland, with most of the trail running along streams with very rocky and root-ridden terrain. Gradual, but substantial inclines (lots of ridgelines)

For this field journal, my friend and I hiked Stevenson Brook Trail in Waterbury, VT. We hiked about 6 miles and ended up getting lost for a little while. The last hour of our hike it was raining pretty hard and I didn’t see any birds except two American Robins flying in and out of view among the trees. However, at the start of our hike, we came across an open marsh and at first, I thought I saw two woodpeckers, but as we got closer I noticed the stocky, large-headed bird with a shaggy crest and a dagger-like bill. There were two of them, and neither had any brown on them, so I’m assuming they were both male Belted Kingfishers because they are gray with a white collar and a blue-gray breast band. To create their nests, they excavate burrows in earthen banks, usually avoiding ones with vegetation. They generally choose a bank near water, but some use ditches, road cuts, landfills, and other pits to nest in. From what I saw, it looked as though both males were establishing their territory. They spend most of the year alone until they pair up for breeding season, and males will establish territories that usually conform to the shape of the stream or shoreline. These two birds were chattering loudly at each other, and dive bombing and chasing one another across the water. Belted Kingfishers are monogamous within each breeding season but form new pairs every year. The male feeds the female while courting her, and both vigorously defend their territory by chasing away intruders while giving loud rattle calls. Both males were also spreading their wings, and raising the patch of white feathers net to each eye, which is a characteristic display when they are feeling threatened. A fact I never knew about them is that people used to shoot and trap kingfishers, especially near fish hatcheries and along trout streams, to prevent them from killing fish. But, hunting them is now outlawed, and compared to other fish-eating birds, they seem to be relatively unaffected by environmental contaminants. This could be because their prey size is so small that the toxins don’t bioaccumulate as much in their tissue.

Habitat requirements differ a lot from species to species, this can be due to food availability, nesting placement, behavior, and so much more. The Stevenson Brook Trail has several abandoned farms that have been preserved because they are all in a state park. About halfway through our hike, we saw two American Robins that looked like they were nesting in the field hidden by tall grass. Robins are common birds across the continent, and you can find them on laws, field, city parks, woodlands, mountains, burned forests, tundra, etc. I’ve noticed that during the winter, the Robins tend to clump around food resources (berry-producing trees or shrubs) but recently, as the weather has begun to change, I’ve seen them much more randomly spread out. This is probably due to the fact that they are finding mates and building nests right now but also as the weather warms, insects, worms and snails are easier to find and this can result in a more dispersed placement. Female robins choose the nest sites, which are typically on one or several horizontal branches hidden in or just below a dense layer of leaves. They also nest in gutters, eaves, on outdoor light fixtures, and other structures. So, generally they don’t nest on the ground or in thickets except in western prairies. It’s possible we just saw them foraging for food, but it really seemed like they were nesting on the ground. If this was the case, they may be defending prime territory, where there is a lot of food resources and not a lot of intraspecific competition.

Before we reached the trailhead, there was about a mile of road and open area with a few trees along both sides. Before we got into the forest, I heard the distinct simple, pure 2 or 3 note whistled fee-bee of a Black-capped Chickadee. It’s possible that it was defending its territory, which I believe is prime habitat because chickadees are often found in deciduous and mixed forests, open woods, parks, and disturbed areas. This was adjacent to a mixed forest, with an opening created by the road, and slightly disturbed by human use. This chickadee may not be the fittest because it was all alone and they tend to be social birds that live in flocks, often associating with woodpeckers, nuthatches, warblers, vireos, and other small woodland species. However, I only saw this little guy for a few minutes, and there’s a chance that there were others nearby. One thing I find very interesting about these birds, besides their obvious curiosity and spunk, is that the flocks they life in use many calls with specific meanings, and they may contain some of the characteristics of human language!

Lastly, I saw a Barred Owl! I’ve never seen one, only heard a few and caught a glimpse of one flying at night while I was driving. This guy was totally hanging out, perched on a low branch of a conifer by the river, closing his eyes and swiveling his head slightly every few minutes. Barred Owls usually nest in a natural cavity, 20-40 feet high in a large tree. They may also use stick platform nests built by other animals like hawks, crows, and squirrels, as well as human-made nest boxes. They will look for a nest site as early as a year before using it and it’s not clear whether the male or female chooses the site. They may add lichen, fresh green conifer sprigs, or feathers to a stick platform nest, and will remove or flatten the top of an old squirrel nest. Cavities can be pretty deep, one recorded as nearly 8 feet deep. They are pretty territorial year-round, and chase away intruders while hooting loudly. They are even more aggressive during nesting season, particularly the females and will sometimes strike intruders with their feet!

Time: 12:58pm - 2:50pm
Date: 04/28/2020
Weather: 54 degrees and sunny
Habitat: rivershore wetlands, floodplain forest, and marsh area.

Today, I went to Laplatte River Marsh Area. I'm lucky to know a lot of good birding and hiking areas around Vermont. I spent last summer working as a stewardship intern for The Nature Conservancy. I was given the opportunity to visit all of TNC's natural preserves and easements. Laplatte is an oasis in an otherwise fragmented landscape. The rivershore and marsh is an important habitat for migratory waterfowl, and the marsh complex is located at the end of the Laplatte, a 16-mile-long river. The floodplains drain about 35,000 acres of Champlain lowlands. This ecosystem is essential to helping filter and clean the water that empties into Lake Champlain while also providing safe and relatively undisturbed habitat. When I was with TNC, I did a lot of trail maintenance at this preserve because it's so prone to flooding, and the wooden boardwalks often rot or get completely submerged by water. I love this area for it's unique habitat as well as because it's a beautiful place to explore wildlife. Today I saw tons of chipmunks, squirrels, turtles, and snakes, along with the many birds of course! I hope to come here often this summer to bird watch!