keimthekatamount's Journal

Date: April 21st, 2016
Times: 4:55-6:20pm
Location(s): Centennial Woods Natural Area, Burlington, Vermont
Weather: Clear skies and Sunny throughout the day, high of 66oF, low of 59oF. Little to no wind.
Habitats: Northern Hardwood Forest, Hemlock Forest, Edge & Stream habitats.

I went out birding in Centennial yesterday afternoon with my roommate because it was beautiful out and we were bored. He doesn’t know Centennial nearly as well as any environmental student does, so I showed him some of my favorite haunts. First, we walked along the trail from the main entrance to the clearing with the retention pond and powerlines, and I heard only chickadees from far away and saw nothing else until we got to pine island, the little stretch of land that extends into the beaver pond from the trail and has a few white pine trees growing right next to the water. While walking over we saw a few chickadees fly over our heads. We sat in the shade of pine island for about a half hour, hoping to maybe see the resident beavers that built the dam downstream, in addition to a few birds. We saw a house sparrow and some black capped chickadees, but no beavers. Afterwards, we followed the trail along the powerlines uphill towards the old dog park. At the edge of the dog park I spotted a hairy woodpecker about 20ft up a tree, and my roommate spent the following five minutes trying to see it for himself. The woodpecker camouflaged with the tree it was excavating in really well, and it wasn’t drumming but instead just kind of poking around in holes it likely made on a previous day. On the other side of the trail, a small flock of 5 chickadees were vocalizing loudly and rapidly flying from branch to branch. They were pretty close by, so I took advantage of a photo opportunity while my roommate practiced whistling their song. This seemed to grab their attention, and they would respond with a song themselves, almost teaching it to him like he was a juvenile chickadee trying to perfect it.
We walked out into the clearing where the power line crosses the top of the hill and the highway on the other side of the hill. From a distance of maybe 40 feet I saw a house finch scurrying around on the steep slope to the highway, perhaps foraging for insects or seeds. We took a lap around the far side of centennial were mostly white pine and a few scots pine trees, and we didn’t hear or see a single bird until we reached the top of the hill where we started the loop. There we could see a single male mallard flying away from the retention pond while walking the trail down from the old dog park. Shortly after, we passed by an American robin singing high up in a young tree, and another robin flying over the powerlines and into the trees. We decided to walk out after stopping by the retention pond to see if any waterfowl were unfortunate enough to be swimming in that grime. There was nothing at the pond, but on the bridge that goes through the tall marshy grasses near the pond, we found 4 chickadees jumping from grass head to grass head, presumably feeding on the tiny seeds. From there we walked out, and as the sun began to set, a sort of calming vibe struck centennial, and most of the birds went dead silent. We took that as our cue to leave. If I learned anything about birding today, its that I'll probably need to learn how to wake up early and catch the birds when they are most active.

Date: March 8th, 2016
Times: 6:15-7:00, 11:30-12:00, 3:20-5:20
Location(s): Coastal Puerto Villamil, Concha de Perla, boardwalks across lagoons, and the Giant Tortoise Breeding Center on Isabela Island, Ecuador.
Weather: Mostly sunny throughout the day, high of 88oF, low of 76oF. Little to no wind.
Habitats: Sandy beaches with little to no lava rocks, mangrove forests, and saline lagoons.

I woke up and went out for a jog on the beach in the morning, just outside of the hostel we were staying at, La Jungla. I ran on the stretch of beach from the hostel heading westward to the rocks that designate Playa de Amor, which should be relatively easy to see on the observation pages’ satellite maps. Brown pelicans, frigate-birds, and storm petrels could be spotted maybe 100 meters out to sea. The pelicans coasted over the waves with haste, while the petrels and frigatebirds followed around tightly-packed schools of fish, looking for their next meal. I was surprised that I didn’t see a single gull on that beach walk, because as far as I’d heard they’re supposed to be fairly common. After doing a little research I found out that the Swallow-Tailed gull is nocturnal, and there are likely less than 600 Lava gulls left throughout the Galapagos archipelago, so that explains their notable absence. After the walk we ate breakfast in an outdoor dining room at the hostel, and a few yellow warblers were very curiously watching us and fearlessly approached our group as close as 2 feet away.
That morning we went snorkeling off of Concha de Perla, the main docking area for travel to and from Isabela Island. We saw 2 penguins playfully swimming around a basking sea lion nearby an anchored boat. I thought that this was a risky behavior, but the sea lion couldn’t be bothered to move.
Later in the day we took a nature walk on a path that went from the Giant Tortoise Breeding Center to the beach, through mangrove forests and a boardwalk that bisected a series of saline lagoons. The mangroves were mostly birdless, either that or our 15 person group scared them off. We did however find a variety of marine/wetland birds, mostly flamingos, widely dispersed in the lagoons. I don’t think I’ll ever forget seeing a marine iguana swim with the endemic pintail species. There were also patches of dry sandy/rocky plains between the mangroves and lagoons, littered with small shrubs and Opuntia spp. cacti. This is where we observed the highest concentration of the small variety of ground and cactus finches. I was unable to differentiate between the two with my wimpy 10X25 binoculars, but I’d hazard a guess that they were mostly cactus finches due the abundance of cacti.

Date: 2/5/2016 Time: 7:30-8:40AM
Location: Centennial Woods Natural Area and nearby urban landscape.
Weather: Cold enough that I couldn’t feel my hands. Winds were light and blowing South - South East, unless I’m directionally challenged. Cloudy with a few moments of sun, no rain, low humidity.
Habitat: We explored the edges and some of the interior of Centennial Woods, including a lowland feeder box set up adjacent to a clearing. Some of us also went to a stormwater retention pond next to Williston road and presumably another feeder box farther down the driveway, but I wouldn’t know because I dipped after viewing the pond. On the way to and from the woods, some birds were nibbling on planted crabapple trees.

One major thing I learned today is that it’s sometimes easier to identify a bird by behavioral patterns and flight patterns rather than color markings or sound. An example of this was when we first observed the crows on the way to Centennial, and it was pointed out that the American crow has a wide ranging and consistent flapping pattern, rarely soaring. Also, we found that the crows, gulls, and starlings preferred to fly in flocks. Later, on my way back up to campus, I saw a relatively big flock of American robins all perching in a pine tree on the intersection of East Ave and Carrigan Drive (at least 25, possibly 30 individuals).

On a similar note, we got groups of black-capped chickadees to come right to us when Sean played songs and calls through his speakers. Black-capped chickadees are very curious birds and don’t actively avoid humans, so about 4 of them surrounded us and hung around the trailhead until we moved along. The Downy Woodpecker was the first to be attracted to the trailhead by the call, but that was because it was following a call of its own species, not natural curiosity. White-breasted Nuthatches stood out from a large crowd hanging out around the bird feeder because they were constantly climbing down the trunks of trees and flying up to new ones about every 30 seconds. When we reached the retention pond, I was surprised to see mallards and an American black duck swimming around and dunking their heads underwater to look for food. I can’t imagine that there are any fish living in the retention pond, that water is nasty and doesn’t, to my knowledge, connect to any other naturally occurring body of water. Today’s bird walk taught me a variety of cool strategies to use when birding in the future.