Assignment 6: Reproductive Ecology and Evolution

For this field observation, I decided to visit one of my favorite outdoor places in Essex: Indian Brook Reservoir. I visited Indian Brook on Monday the 23rd of April at 1:30 in the afternoon. The weather was incredibly nice, with no clouds in the sky and the temperature around 60 degrees. It was very sunny and there was little wind. Indian Brook is a man made reservoir. There are hiking trails all around the body of water in the woods, and it's a popular area in the summertime to swim, kayak, fish, or just take a hike.

While I was able to spot many different birds that I haven't seen yet during my bird walks, I paid close attention to the White-breasted Nuthatches I saw. I saw two male Nuthatches flying around this tall, half broken off dead tree. There were holes of all different sizes on the dead tree, which I'm guessing are from birds foraging for bugs in the bark. One Nuthatch kept landing on the dead tree, and every time the other male nuthatch tried to land on the dead tree, the first Nuthatch would fly at it and chase it away in the air, while making those "yank" sounds they do. While I'm not 100% sure, I would guess that the first male nuthatch was defending its nest. I'm guessing this because the time of year is right considering the nuthatches mate at the end of winter, and I think the male stays with the female during nesting season. I also think this because of the fact that the bird seemed to be defending this dead tree, and I think maybe the nest was in one of the dead holes.

All in all, this was definitely my favorite field observation so far because of how nice the weather was and because of how many birds I saw. I also liked observing the bird behavior, as well.

Posted on April 23, 2018 06:28 PM by