grace723's Journal

Date: 5/29/2024
Start Time: 5:04 pm
End Time: 6:45 pm
Location: North end, Downtown Burlington
Weather: In the mid 60s, sunny, low winds
Habitat: Urbanized, trees and shrubs in the area include Sugar maple, American elm, and box elder. Flowers in the area including daffodils, tulips, sweet violets, and forsythia.

Date: 4/22/2024
Start Time: 5:00 pm
End Time: 6:30 pm
Location: North end, Downtown Burlington
Weather: In the mid 50s, sunny, low winds, springtime
Habitat: A more suburban area, with hawthorn, white cedar, box elder, and sugar maple trees as well as some dense shrubs (forsythia and some unknown bush). There is residential housing, but it’s not super close to any main roads and the area is relatively quiet.
This birding session took place in my backyard, the birds were going crazy and I saw so many during the hour and a half I spent outside. One of the coolest things I saw was two Blue Jays. It was really hard to tell from afar which one was male and which was female, but their interactions were really interesting. There is a bird feeder in the backyard and they spent most of their time around and I watched one of the Blue Jays fly over to the other and tap its beak on to the other Blue Jay’s beak. It quite literally looked like they were kissing, they followed this up with flying around together from tree to tree. I would assume they were beginning to look for a suitable area to nest.
My next door neighbor has a really beautiful and diverse garden of native plants, she also has various bird houses, bird feeders, and even a dead snag that she left standing. The combination of these things makes her yard an incredibly prime territory for a lot of bird species. While birding I heard and watched three American Robins flying around together, however it seemed like one was chasing the other two away. I would imagine the American Robin was attempting to protect its prime territory in my neighbor’s yard. The ability to do this makes me think this specific American Robin is very fit and has a strong ability to protect.
Another bird I saw and heard a lot was the House Sparrow. One in particular seemed to be a big fan of the forsythia in my neighbor’s yard. House Sparrows typically tend to reuse old nests, but if this House Sparrow was young and it was its first breeding and nesting season, it would need to find thin small twigs and feathers or tufts of fur to keep the nest warm. The forsythia has some smaller twigs and the Bittersweet nightshade next to it has even more that would be perfect for weaving together a small nest.

Time: 5:20 am - 6:30 am
Date: April 8, 2024
Location: Old North End, Burlington
Weather: Sunny, low wind, mid 40s
Habitat: This area is very urbanized, but it was very early in the morning so very few people were outside. There was a scattering of trees including sugar maples and American elms, a graveyard nearby offered a place with even fewer people and more trees for the birds to reside in.

Date: 3/25/2024
Start Time: 1:00pm
End Time: 2:31 pm
Location: Waterfront Park, Downtown Burlington
Weather: Sunny, 42 degrees, windy, a couple of inches of snow still on the ground
Habitat: An urban environment surrounds the park that overlooks Lake Champlain. Large maple and oak trees can be found in the area, as well as hawthorns, eastern white pines, American elms, and Green Ash trees. There are a lot of wide open spaces and the trees are spread out.
The first bird I saw was a Dark-eyed Junco, it was rummaging around in the snow probably for something to eat. In Vermont, Dark-eyed Juncos do not migrate south for the winter, if there is any movement at all they will migrate to lower elevations for warmth, but they remain near their original territory. Migration takes up a lot of energy and can be a very risky tactic for survival, so Dark-eyed Junco may decide to stay in Vermont in order to save their energy and focus it on other survival needs like finding food, reproducing, and then raising their offspring. To survive the winter Dark-eyed Juncos often nest in dense pine foliage that protects them from some of the wind and harsh weather. Their dark feathers also absorb whatever small amount of sunlight the Vermont winter provides which can help them stay warmer.
The second bird I noticed was a Ring-billed Gull. They are migratory birds who fly to warmer areas for the winter. They prefer to stay along coast lines or near water, so it is likely the Ring-billed gull I saw had just recently returned here after migrating from a more southern state like North Carolina. It is likely they traveled North and stayed close to the Hudson river until reaching Lake Champlain. Since moving to Vermont I have noticed that the Ring-billed gulls return to Burlington every March and it seems to always be the sign that spring (and the warmer weather) is coming soon. I would imagine that Ring-billed Gulls spend the winter in a warmer area because food would be more prevalent, the return to Burlington is to reproduce since they seem to prefer nesting and breeding near freshwater and away from the ocean.
Ring-billed Gulls have been known to return to the same nesting/breeding location that they were born at every year, and they often go to the same place to over-winter every year as well. However, they would not be considered obligate migrants, because they do not always migrate at the exact same time every year. Their migration is for survival, when it gets too cold they leave, this makes them facultative migrants instead of obligate. My rough estimate for how far a Ring-billed gull would travel during their migration is about 217 miles one way from Burlington to Norfolk, North Carolina.

Date: 3/8/2024
Start Time: 5:00pm
End Time: 5:29pm
Location: Grant street, Downtown Burlington
Weather: Sunny, 49 degrees, no wind, cloudless sky
Habitat: Suburban area with houses, people, roads, and cars. Some trees and shrubs on properties including box elder, sugar maple, and white cedar.

During this birding trip I heard an assortment of birds including Northern Cardinals, Black -Capped Chickadees, and House Sparrows. Considering the time of day that I was outside, I imagine most of the calls and songs heard were to communicate with the birds around them that nighttime was nearing and they would be sleeping soon. The calls and song could have also been for mating or courtship. Since it is now March and it has recently been getting warmer, it would make sense that some birds have begun searching for mates.
The Northern Cardinal I saw was a male with bright red plumage. I couldn’t make out if the House Sparrow was male or female from my vantage point, but it had the coloration of any typical house sparrow with brown streaky plumage. The reason for the bright red color of male Cardinals is probably for attracting a mate, similar to the birds of paradise except slightly less showy. I can’t imagine the red coloring does them much good in the camouflage department, so it would make most sense for it to be an evolutionary trait connected to producing viable offspring. The brown streakiness of a House Sparrow is probably best for camouflage. They are relatively small song birds that I always seem to see hiding amongst deciduous shrubs and small trees. The streaks help them look like a part of the tree, protecting them from potential predators while it forages for food which is what the particular bird I saw was doing. In the winter this coloration is likely super helpful, because it allows them to direct the majority of their energy and attention to finding food and staying warm, and focusing less on staying out of a potential predator’s stomach.
I was not personally able to get any birds to come towards me when I made the ‘psssh psssh’ sound, however I can kind of understand why it would work in some instances. Smaller songbirds like Black-capped Chickadees might rely on small insects as a food source, and the sound we make can kind of replicate the sound of a flying insect. It may also replicate the sound of a juvenile bird or a bird in distress which could peak the interest of an adult bird (similar to what my cat does). My final idea is that maybe the birds are just curious and the sound is high-pitched enough that they don’t think it is coming from a larger/threatening organism so they deem it safe to check out.

Date: 2/23/2024
Start time: 3:03 pm
End time: 3:40 pm
Location: Centennial Woods
Weather: Sunny, 48 degrees, 6mph North-eastern winds, some clouds
Habitats: Dense forest, mainly eastern white pine and hemlocks, lots of downed trees and snags.

All the birds I observed during my walk in Centennial woods were songbirds except for the Downy Woodpecker and the American Crow. I only heard the songbirds and could not see them, my assumption for this beyond the fact that the canopy cover was dense is because the birds were attempting to conserve their energy by resting. Considering it was mid-afternoon I imagine they had already spent much of their day finding and eating food, and were beginning to settle down for the evening. In the winter birds need to eat more food to maintain their energy and stay warm, but they cannot eat too much or they risk being unable to fly successfully. Their diets increase slightly since they are using more of their energy to stay warm, but they also fluff their feathers and will sit for longer periods of time with their bills and feet tucked into their body. I noticed this behavior with the Northern Cardinal that was resting on a branch with its feet tucked up and underneath itself. These things combined give the birds a fighting chance at surviving the cold Vermont winter.
It was a relatively warm day for February here in Vermont, so the song birds were a lot more active then they normally would be. However, they were only active in that they were singing and making a lot of calls to each other. The Downy Woodpecker was much more active then the songbirds, it was flying from tree to tree pecking holes and searching for food. There seemed to be a focus on the snag trees, likely because those trees have wood that would be much easier to break apart. These dead trees would also be filled with worms and insects that eat the decomposing bark, so it would be an easy place to hunt down some food.
In the 40 minutes of walking I did I noticed 24 snags most of which had many cavities on it. From my knowledge, these cavities make great homes for nocturnal birds like owls, because it keeps them hidden from any potential predators during the day when they sleep. The area that I found/heard the most birds was an area that had about 5 snags in it. I would imagine that birds seek shelter in the cavities of snags quite often either to sleep, rest, or nest. Similar to the Downy Woodpecker who was utilizing the snag for a quick meal, I would also assume that many birds can find a lot of insects in snags that make for an easy food source which would be crucial in the winter time when other sources of food like berries and nuts are not as readily available.

February 5, 2024
Outside in my neighbor’s backyard amidst the white cedar and a large maple tree in downtown Burlington were a large bird of prey (Red-tailed Hawk maybe) and a small cluster of Black-capped Chickadee. For the course of about 15 minutes from 1pm to 1:15pm I watched them fly around. The temperature was in the mid twenties, but the sky was clear and the sun was shining. When the Red-tailed Hawk flew it spread its slotted wings that made its take-off from the branch it was on look easy as it lifted easily onto a rooftop higherup. The Hawk beat its wings slowly in large strokes when it moved, instead of fluttering and flapping its wings quickly. The Black-capped Chickadees had the same slotted feathers making up their wings, but their flying was different. They flitted around in short bursts, darting around so fast it made it difficult to follow just one bird.
The Red-tailed Hawk seemed to be saving its energy for hunting, using its wings as little as possible when moving from one branch to another. Using its wings mainly for lift and to get airborne rather than dart around from branch to branch. On the other hand, the Black-capped Chickadees used their wings often, seeming to keep in constant emotion. I would imagine this is to make themselves a more difficult target for predators, it is much easier to catch something slow moving and easy to see than a darting blur of feathers. Both of these birds were found in a relatively open expanse of anthropogenic land, so I believe that the reason for their differences in how they use their slotted wings is because of where they lie on the food chain and their overall body size.