Field Journal 6

Date: 4/22/2024
Start Time: 5:00 pm
End Time: 6:30 pm
Location: North end, Downtown Burlington
Weather: In the mid 50s, sunny, low winds, springtime
Habitat: A more suburban area, with hawthorn, white cedar, box elder, and sugar maple trees as well as some dense shrubs (forsythia and some unknown bush). There is residential housing, but it’s not super close to any main roads and the area is relatively quiet.
This birding session took place in my backyard, the birds were going crazy and I saw so many during the hour and a half I spent outside. One of the coolest things I saw was two Blue Jays. It was really hard to tell from afar which one was male and which was female, but their interactions were really interesting. There is a bird feeder in the backyard and they spent most of their time around and I watched one of the Blue Jays fly over to the other and tap its beak on to the other Blue Jay’s beak. It quite literally looked like they were kissing, they followed this up with flying around together from tree to tree. I would assume they were beginning to look for a suitable area to nest.
My next door neighbor has a really beautiful and diverse garden of native plants, she also has various bird houses, bird feeders, and even a dead snag that she left standing. The combination of these things makes her yard an incredibly prime territory for a lot of bird species. While birding I heard and watched three American Robins flying around together, however it seemed like one was chasing the other two away. I would imagine the American Robin was attempting to protect its prime territory in my neighbor’s yard. The ability to do this makes me think this specific American Robin is very fit and has a strong ability to protect.
Another bird I saw and heard a lot was the House Sparrow. One in particular seemed to be a big fan of the forsythia in my neighbor’s yard. House Sparrows typically tend to reuse old nests, but if this House Sparrow was young and it was its first breeding and nesting season, it would need to find thin small twigs and feathers or tufts of fur to keep the nest warm. The forsythia has some smaller twigs and the Bittersweet nightshade next to it has even more that would be perfect for weaving together a small nest.

Posted on April 22, 2024 11:57 PM by grace723