Journal Post #2-3/5/19

For this field observation, I went to the bike path down by the water in between the skate park and North Beach. The weather was cold and windy, which is again probably why I didn't see many birds. I saw 1 American Crow flying overhead, 3 Black-capped Chickadees, and a Dark-eyed Junco.

I noticed that the Black-capped Chickadees looked very chubby, which I can only assume is the result of fluffing up their feathers to keep warm. I would also assume that both the chickadees and juncos are probably spending most of their time foraging for food. I think the crow was probably doing the same thing, but they seem to spend a lot more of their time looking for food while in flight, whereas chickadees and juncos seem to stay much closer to the ground and in evergreen trees when they can.

I saw 18 snags on my walk, 6 of which had cavities in them. I didn't whack them with a stick for fear of disturbing something too much, but a lot of the snags seemed to have woodpecker holes in them and I was wondering if the woodpeckers got to the tree before or after it died. I think the things most likely to use the cavities in the winter would be owls and squirrels. I guess smaller birds could use them too, I just used to think they stayed in evergreen trees but that definitely doesn't have to be the case.

Posted on 08 de março de 2019, 09:49 PM by