michaell03's Journal

Date: 4/8/24
Start Time: 2:14 pm
End Time: 4:30 pm
Location: South Burlington, VT
Weather: Sunny, Slightly cloudy sky, ~60 degrees, Total solar eclipse happened
Habitat: Suburban/Urban, Some deciduous trees

I added my Ring-billed Gull observation to the solar eclipse iNaturalist project.

This was quite a unique birding experience as Burlington experienced a total solar eclipse. During this process, I focused on a flock of Ring-billed gulls that was walking around the empty horse field, presumably looking for food. They all were there for an hour before, but the second totality began, they all took off at once. They all gathered together and flew around in what seemed like an aimless way. From my perspective, it seemed like they were confused and/or frightened and did not know what to do. I attached a picture of the flock flying in front of the eclipse on the attached observation. Once sunlight returned, they all landed in the field again and resumed doing whatever they were doing before. Seeing the birds act this way added another level of intrigue to an already fascinating event.

I observed some other birds before totality began such as a trio of Mourning Doves that were sitting in a tree next to where I was observing. Similarly to the Gulls, once totality began, the Doves all took off and flew away. Their behavior was not as remarkable to me as the Gulls because they just flew away instead of flying around aimlessly, and they did not return once it was over.

I looked through the other observations on the iNaturalist project and noticed a theme among the reactions of birds. None of the other reactions from Ring-billed Gulls were remarkable but many of the other birds that were observed also took flight once the darkness set in. From seeing this, my interpretation of the bird's reaction is that they were so startled by this sudden break from normal sunlight that all they could do was fly around in panic. They seemed to return to normal behavior briefly after sunlight returned, so it does not seem like they were impacted too greatly by this event.

Date: 4/22/24
Start Time: 10:40 am
End Time: 11:40 pm
Location: Centennial Woods, Burlington, VT
Weather: Sunny, few clouds, ~44 degrees
Habitat: Mixed deciduous/coniferous forest, riparian/marsh

One of the most prevalent behaviors regarding mate selection was singing. Today had the most bird song out of any of the days that I had been birding so far this year. This behavior may also have to do with territory selection as some individuals were the only ones of their species in an area. For example, I saw two Downy Woodpeckers that were on trees pecking at the dead wood. These birds were within view of each other but seemed to be staying a respectful distance apart. One behavior that I observed that may be nest selection was of Black-capped Chickadees. I saw many of them inspecting snags that had holes in them. From research, I found out that these birds build their nests in holes in dead trees. Nesting requirements differ from species to species because different birds build nests in different ways. A Black-capped Chickadee may need snags but an Ovenbird may need a dense understory to hide its ground nest in.

One of the Downy Woodpeckers I observed was loudly pecking a tree and making chirping sounds. It seemed to intensify this whenever the other nearby woodpecker got closer. The snag it was defending seemed to be prime real estate for a woodpecker as it was tall and seemed to be a good food source. The other woodpecker was on a small snag that had most of the trunk broken off. It seems that the first woodpecker had the better territory and it was determined to defend it from its neighbor. This may indicate that the woodpecker I was observing had high fitness and was able to defend its territory.

I observed an American Robin collecting dead grass and flying away with it. I assume that it may be using this to build a nest. From research, I found out that Robins build nests on branches on the lower parts of trees. They use grass and twigs to construct them. The birds probably can find these materials in most open areas such as the clearing in the middle of Centennial Woods. These materials are very accessible but may pose a risk to gather due to the open nature of the place where they occur.

My sound map drawing is attached to the Brightspace submission.