aromano17's Journal

Wednesday (3/6/2019); 11-1pm; Redstone Campus; 30ºF; sunny, partly cloudy; urban

This past week, I went with my fellow comrade Nigel to Redstone campus to see what species we could find. After standing around for a few minutes, we heard a call of a Northern Cardinal from across the green and started our trek to track it down. Along the way, we ran into several American Robins, 2-3 Black-capped chickadees, an American Crow, and what I think was a female Merlin.
Our first noticeable observation was several cavities in a tree near the edge of a small pine stand. I'm assuming that it came from a pileated woodpecker, due to how common they are on campus. One of them seemed to have enough room to have someone living inside, but we didn't get the chance to check as we were on the hunt for the cardinal. If the cavities had been hollowed out enough, blue birds, wrens, and chickadees could use this space for nesting. Nuthatches and woodpeckers do the same thing; however, I think that they mostly use the nook to search for insects and beetles.
The tree that the Merlin was perched in had no leaves, so it had a similar appearance a snag and helped me realize the importance of these no longer alive trees. They help provide roosting areas for birds of prey like owls, hawks, and eagles to search for their food, something that I think the Merlin was doing herself due to the location of the tree being next to a wide open field. At the same time, she had her feathers fluffed and hardly moved, which has been in observed in birds when they try to keep warm. It was also sunny and the place that she picked was in a wide open spot to maximize the sun's rays that she picked up, a tactic similar to reptiles.
This was not a singular occurrence with the crow and robins doing the same thing; however, they were in different trees. All stayed relatively still, moving little and most were chirping/calling often to communicate with other species members near by, perhaps warning calls due to the presence of the merlin in her roost nearby.
At the mention of the robins, food scarcity is something that every species on Earth has to worry about, and for most songbirds, the main source of food are seeds and nuts. As the weather warms in Vermont, the snow will melt and the ground will soften. With this change, comes the appearance of worms and more beetles, which I assume will become the main food source for robins and other songbirds alike.
The Black-capped Chickadees were spotted in a Northern White-Cedar hedge along the edge of Redstone and were quite talkative that day. However, their behavior differed compare to the other species we saw that day due to their rapid movement. My prediction was since they were shaded within the hedge, they were moving to keep warm, and the houses across the street most likely provided bird seed for them to eat.
In the end, we didn't end up getting a visual on the Northern Cardinal; it was just below the roofline of a house in another pine tree, but it was there.

-AR

4:30-6:15; 3/24/19; golf course south of UVM; clear skies, 40ºF, low wind; urban forest edge mix

Today, Nigel and I went to the golf course south of campus to see what we could find. Upon arriving, we immediately heard the call of 2-3 Northern Cardinals. Since we never found the one from the last outing, we were keen on finding this one. Long story short, we did; but ran into a couple other species before. The first birds we noticed were robins–everywhere we looked, there had to be a pair of them perched on a branch. AND they were singing, always a constant flow of notes during our visit. Since it's early spring, I would assume that the calls we heard were males trying to find a mate and if it wasn't, then the calls were most likely flocking announcements between groups for possible intruders or food.
Then Nigel pointed out the Hairy Woodpecker that was hanging out, drilling some holes into a tree. When observed, she (due to the lack of the red splotch on the head) didn't interact much with any of the other birds. She did her thing and eventually left, flying off who knows where. My best guess is that she's looking for food (beetles, ants or other insects).
Shortly after, we located the cardinal and man he was beautiful. He was calling back and forth with 2 other individuals (we couldn't get a visual on them) and I think it was more of a mating call. It is spring after all.
Now, the male cardinal's coloring stands out from the rest of the environment, not only making it easy for us humans to see but predators as well. However, today it didn't seem that there were many predators in the air (that we couldn't see) and it was most likely mating displays to the females. In comparison, starlings are black and speckled with white circles, which will change darker and glossier as the season goes on. The darker pattern would better camouflage the starling than the bright contrasting red that the cardinal has.
Now at the end, we were walking back and found a little group of black-capped chickadees; however, I had given the camera to Nigel for the time being and he was unable to take any usable photos. BUT, we were able to complete the little activity and practice our "pish" calls. After doing a couple, we noticed that the chickadees were liveliar both in sound and noise. In a songbird context, I believe that this response stems from the "pishing" sound mimicking a group alarm call in response to a predator. Now this group would most likely be a multitude of species, not limited to any singular taxa.
Today's search was a success. We found a cardinal and even spotted a noisy European Starling on a gorgeous day.
–AR