emma2forsythe's Journal

Date - 4/3/21
Start time - 9:15 am
End time - 10:51 am
Location - UVM Campus and Burlington Country Club
Weather - sunny, no clouds, 32 degrees F, 2mph NW wind
Habitat(s) - marshy retention ponds with phragmites and staghorn sumac, Eastern white pine stand, grassy mown fields

Many of the year-round Vermont residents we spotted on the field trip, like Black-capped Chickadees and Tufted Titmice, have adapted for the harsher winter conditions. They are able to find food here in the winter, either from feeders or nuts and fruit in the trees. Some have also adapted to go in to torpor or regulated hypothermia to survive the night temperatures below freezing and conserve energy. This is a useful alternative to the energy expensive migration to the southern US or Mexico and South America.

Facultative migrants have started to reappear in Burlington. One specific example we saw on this trip was the Canada Goose. Most geese fly to the southern US for the winter, if their ponds and lakes up here freeze over, and come back up north for breeding. We saw an example of this cycle when we were out and found a male and female goose with a nest and eggs. As temperatures have gotten consistently warmer the past few weeks, water sources have thawed and geese have been able to settle in to their breeding grounds. We did spot one obligate migrant, the Eastern Phoebe. They come up from the south early on, possibly to get a jump on other spring migrants and have their pick of insects as they come out with the warm weather. One disadvantage to migrating this early might be that the warmer temperatures that drive the birds to migrate back north could be a fluke. Temperatures may drop back down to freezing and the birds might not be able to handle it.

Many of the migrant birds we saw here have travelled over a thousand miles between their farthest non-breeding ground and Burlington, including the Phoebe and the American Goldfinch, the farthest ones going all the way down to southern Florida. Other birds, like the Red-wing Blackbird, went relatively shorter distances, going about 750 to 800 miles south. Totaling all these numbers up, these birds travelled more than 10,000 miles.

Date - 4/17/21
Start time - 9:05 am
End time - 10:53 am
Location - UVM Centennial Woods
Weather - cloudy, overcast, 43 degrees F, 10 mph NNW
Habitat(s) - residential neighborhood to dense forest, mostly pine stands and some shrubby species

Date - 4/24/21
Start time - 9:03
End time - 10:57
Location - UVM Campus
Weather (temperature, wind speed/direction, precipitation) - 54 F, 11 mph SE wind, mostly cloudy at beginning of trip but sunny by the end
Habitat(s) - college campus/residential area, retention pond, open field

One of the first examples of territory selection I saw on this trip was an American Crow chasing off a Red-tailed Hawk from its area above campus. This was surprising to me because normally I would think of a hawk being more aggressive than a crow, since it's a raptor, but I guess in this case it didn't matter. When looking for any birds nesting, specifically American Robins in yew and other shrubby bushes, it was pretty difficult to find anything until we found a robin nest in a small tree of of Spear St. This was especially weird because it was a bare hardwood tree relatively close to a busy road that didn't really offer any protection for the nest. Maybe there was a scarcity in good nest habitat for that individuals territory. This nesting habitat is very different from Red-winged Blackbirds. We saw a few of these by the retention pond behind Redstone campus, where there are plenty of grasses and cattails that blackbirds like to nest in.
Speaking of these Red-winged Blackbirds, I think we saw some kind of territorial or mating display at the retention pond. On one side there was a male singing continually while at the other side was a female and another male. I couldn't tell if the singing male was singing to protect his territory from the couple or if he was trying to get the attention of the female, but my guess is the first option since this was a prime nesting habitat. This most likely indicates that he is more fit compared to the other male since he is defending a territory that he already possess from another male.
Another species we saw on this trip was the Turkey Vulture. Because Turkey Vultures are so large, I would imagine they have to find large trees or hollowed out snags to nest in. They would also need to find large sticks instead of the small twigs that most smaller birds use for their nests. Vultures could probably find this kind of material in old hardwood or pine stands where there would be enough old trees or snags to take sticks from.