UVM Ornithology Field Journal 3

On Monday, March 4 at 10:40am I sat down on the bench outside of Harris Hall on Athletic campus until 11:40am. The Apple weather app stated it was 40°F and mostly sunny with approximately 10mph winds in gusts. The bench I was sitting at is right under two trees and other trees line the building of Harris. There is direct sunlight all around the bench by patchy shade coverage right on the bench. I chose this spot because every time I walk to the Gutterson Parking garage I hear plenty of birdsong. The birdsong I usually hear out here is the Black-capped Chickadee which was definitely true on Monday. I focused in on a specific bird who was hanging out in one of the trees who was singing the most out of the couple that were there. It seemed to be hoping around the branches while singing in spurts while the other birds sang in between these spurts. This makes sense due to the amount of times I have walked right through this path and there is always Black-capped Chickadee song. It seems to be a recurrent part of their day as they are typically there in the morning and gone by the afternoon.
I tried the spishing technique as shown in the mini activity and it sort of got the birds to come a little closer but not too much. One bird went from the top of the tree to lower in closer to the trunk but not much closer to me. One reason why I think this might be able to work is because a lot of songbirds eat insects and the spishing sounds does sound a little bit like insect buzzing noises.

Posted on March 8, 2024 09:16 PM by carlybills