glking's Journal
On Friday the 13th, around 4 in the afternoon I was on a run on the 5k trail behind the Burlington Country Club when I saw a Pileated Woodpecker on a tree. It was a warmer day, around 50 degrees with overcast skies. He was perched on a tree about 6 inches off the ground, close to the road (maybe 5 ft away) in the back yard of a house.
The bird I chose as my non migratory species was the White-breasted Nuthatch. They are found all across North America from Maine to Central Mexico. I believe the reason they do not migrate because they are suited for a large range of habitats. They eat nuts and bugs which can be found all over their habitat and are not season dependent food sources. Because they do not have a extremely specific diet that would not restrict their habitat. They also are found in deciduous trees which are found across their habitat, again not restricting them. Because of these two factors, I believe they do not have the need to migrate depending on the time of year.
The migratory species I chose is the Ruby-throated Hummingbird. They migrate between the Eastern/Midwestern US and Mexico/South America. I believe that the majority of the reasoning behind this is because of the limited availability of their food source. In the Midwest and Eastern states, the flowers from which nectar comes from is dependent on the seasons and the temperate climate. In the winter , late fall and early spring, their food source doesn't exist in those areas so they fly further south to seek out a better and more supportive environment. This time of year (April) they should be returning to the Vermont area because of the new found availability of their food source.
This time, I decided to try an observe some birds living much closer to where I reside. It was a slightly warmer day so I walked around the Redstone Green at UVM, looking and listening for birds to write about. While I did not see a great number of species, I saw a lot of individuals. I was able to observe a handful of White-breasted Nuthatches and a large number of Black-capped Chickadees in the little patch of forest in the middle of the green. I was not surprised to see only those two species because of the large amount of foot traffic that area gets, but I was surprised to see such numbers. The Nuthatches were climbing up and down the trees I'm assuming looking for food like bugs in the bark. The Chickadees were spending time either flying between branches of the trees or sitting on branches all fluffed up. I believe they were fluffing up their feathers to try and remain warm and retain some of their body temperature. It was interesting to see the Nuthatches spending time looking for food vs the Chickadees fluffing up or just flying around.
As far as looking for snags, or dead trees, there were none in the area. But I would assume having those dead trees would be a draw for more species and individuals because of the high volume of food the snags would supply.
This Monday (2/12/18), I travelled to Red Rocks Park with two of my friends to write our naturalist journals for NR 095 and to do our iNaturalist observations. We got to the park around 4 pm. The weather was relatively warm compared to how it had been the past couple of weeks. The area we had chosen for our naturalist journals was a little hemlock grove with some old decaying eastern white pines around. The area was rocky and had a runoff stream feeding into Lake Champlain.
The first bird that we saw was actually a Pileated Woodpecker to our surprise. Watching it take off and fly away, it seemed to have a pretty steady flight pattern. It was not swooping up and down in the air column but flying relatively straight. Its downstroke came all the way down so its wings looked perpendicular to the body, while the upstroke just brought the wings in line with the rest of the body. It was interesting that at all times the dark upper side of the wing was visible.
The second bird that I saw and decided to compare to the woodpecker was a Black-Capped Chickadee. I know the species relatively well from having them in my back yard as a child so I felt comfortable using it as a comparison. The chickadee had almost a bouncy flight in comparison; it moved up and down the air column as it completed each up and down stroke, like it was averaging out. Also, the upstroke cake up much higher than with the woodpecker. It was the exact opposite of the downstroke bringing the wing perpendicular to the body.
