2/15 Red Rocks Park, South Burlington

I visited Red Rocks twice this day - once at 8am, and another at 2pm. In the morning it was 34 degrees Fahrenheit, and in the afternoon it was 49 degrees Fahrenheit. In the morning, the Black-capped Chickadees were flying around the tops of the trees with some White-breasted Nuthatches, that I didn't see but could recognize by their nasally wah-wah-wah call . I heard and saw them on the edge of a parking lot in a relatively young tree stand. I also heard the Pileated Woodpecker doing its call far off in the woods.

In my afternoon trip, the woods were much more quiet. I heard the Black-capped Chickadees the most, along with the Pileated Woodpecker again, and the American Crow throughout the woods. I saw a group of Common Goldeneye ducks on the lake by the shore, and saw them take off from the water. As I was leaving the woods, I was walking past some houses and saw a mixture of Black-capped Chickadees, Cedar Waxwings, and Northern Cardinals on the edge of the trail in some cedar trees, making a lot of calls. Among them, I also saw a Downy Woodpecker hopping along a branch.

The most striking difference in flight patterns I saw today were between the Black-capped Chickadees and the Common Goldeneyes. The Black-capped Chickadees fly in a swooping pattern, and close their wings a bit when they fly. They also didn't fly for extended periods of time, and mostly fluttered from branch to branch with periods of rest between. For a species that lives on edge habitats in trees, it makes sense that the Black-capped Chickadee has an elliptical wing shape for better maneuverability between trees. The Common Goldeneyes, however, flapped their wings a lot as they took off from the water, and flew in a much straighter fashion. Common Goldeneyes have wings better suited for soaring and traveling long distances.

Posted on February 16, 2018 12:00 AM by apbray