Journal Entry #4

Date: 8 April, 2019
Location: Centennial Woods
Time: 4:00 pm
Weather: Gray, 45F, wet & rainy

The resident species I saw today were Black-capped Chickadees and Northern Cardinals. They forego migration because they are equipped with behavioral and physiological adaptations to endure the cold weather of Vermont. Black-capped Chickadees can go through temporary hypothermia when the temperatures drop very low, and Northern Cardinals can buff out their feathers to give them a little more insulation against the cold weather. One other adaptation chickadees can use to brave the weather is their roundness. It is easier to conserve heat when a bird has smaller extremities and is rounder. Chickadees and Northern Cardinals are also generalists, which means they can forage on a wide variety of food, and if, in the winter, there is less variety of forage, they can still survive through the season whereas specialists are more inclined to follow a food source that disappears during the winter months.

One facultative migrant to the city is the Red-winged Blackbird. The bird migrates from about 500 miles south. It is coming into Burlington to begin their mating season. The males come first to establish their territory, and they eat grains and seeds in this early part of the season. The environment is changing—these birds mostly subsist on insects and the insects will start to populate their habitats, and the blackbirds could be coming for this higher protein source. I did not see a Red-winged Blackbird, but they come in late March to early April. The males are coming so early so that they can get a chance to establish their breeding territory.

The only birds I could observe were resident species, so their wintering range was within Centennial Woods, and that is where I found them. Unfortunately, I don’t think I can complete the mini activity with the observations I made.

Posted on 09 de abril de 2019, 03:42 AM by