Field Journal 5
Date: April 6, 2024
Time: 4:40-5:40pm
Location: Red Rocks Park
Weather: 41 degrees and cloudy, feels like 33 from 25 mph wind gusts
Habitat: This area had a fairly even distribution of coniferous and deciduous trees overall, but the ratios would vary depending on where I was walking in the park. There were a lot of dead trees on the ground as well as snags.
Today’s observation was not a hugely plentiful turnout, for the time of day and the not-so-great weather definitely caused a lot of bird inactivity. However, throughout my hour-long walk of Red Rocks Park, I did hear and see a couple different interactions of birds regardless.
For the first half of my excursion, I heard almost no sound at all, which was a little bit eerie even. The entire forest was silent; there was a pleasant peacefulness to it as well though. As I was walking, I started to hear a faint noise and followed the sound until I reached a Tufted Titmouse. Whenever I come across a Tufted Titmouse, it is always when I hear them sing “peter-peter-peter”, but this time it was calling! The call was very repetitive: this bird kept doing It for such a long period of time. It was interesting to me because I did not hear any other birds around, let alone another Tufted Titmouse. It was alone, so my thoughts are that there was a predator nearby and it was calling an alarm response. The bird did seem a little frantic, bustling/looking around and never staying in one spot very long. It was not foraging for food, either, for the bird was high in a tree and did not appear to be pecking at or eating anything. Eventually, I left the Tufted Titmouse and it continued to call until I was out of range to hear it.
At the end of my walk, I heard a Northern Cardinal and Hairy Woodpecker on the outer edges of the park. The Northern Cardinal’s call rang through the trees; it was not densely vegetated and there was much more open area between trees, so the sound really carried throughout. I did not ever spot them, unfortunately. Overall, the walk-through Red Rocks was nice and, rather than track down a ton of birds singing/calling, it was nice to observe everything else around me. I noticed way more tree cavities than I usually do; there were trees filled top to bottom with excavations from woodpeckers and I am sure many birds were sheltering from the poor weather in them.
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