murphy0193's Journal

May 4th, 2018 I observed a Snowy Owl, American Crow, and a Ringed-Billed Gull. the weather was 65°, cloudy, and all three of the birds were found in the campus area.

Sunday, April 22, 2018, I drove to Shelburne farms and Shelburne bay to observe birds and their territorial behavior. The weather was partly cloudy, 50°, with a cooler wind periodically coming through. As I arrived to Shelburne Farms I immediately saw two Red-Tailed Hawks circling a field parallel to a main road. The Hawks had a lighter brown plumage with a rusty colored tail. I’ve heard from previous encounters the hawks are regularly at the farm. The hawks were consistently circling the edges between a small pine tree stand barrier separating the farm from a main road. I imagine the hawks use that territory for hunting and nesting. I didn’t see any other kind of birds in the area so they may be defending their piece of the land from other creatures. The size of the Hawks must give them a large advantage to a bird like an American Robin.
After arriving at Shelburne Bay, I went to the trails that run parallel to the bay. Inside the trails I could hear a mixture of different calls. This was a lot different when comparing it to the sound activity levels at Shelburne Farms. The woods must give smaller birds like American Goldfinch’s, Red-Winged Blackbirds, Eastern Phoebes, Yellow Warbler, and Hairy Woodpeckers a survival advantage. Since there was a lot of different bird species in the forested area of the trails species like the ones listed above must commonly overlap territories without much conflict.
Seeing the two different kind birds in their territory such as Red-Tailed Hawks and Red-winged Blackbird gave me a good idea of how each of them interact with other species. The area around the Red-Tailed Hawks was void of any other bird activity. While in the trails at Shelburne Bay there was a large overlap of bird territories and a large variety of bird species.

I visited Mt.Philo and saw some local birds. One Observation is of a leucistic Robin found in my backyard.

Monday April 9, 2018, I participated in a bird walk close to home. I wanted to observe the birds who have migrated to feed and call my backyard home. I started watching for birds at 1400, the weather was 36° and mostly sunny. I was searching specifically for American Robins who I’ve seen in the past using the trees in my yard for a place to perch on. Per usual I found an American Robin on one of the trees in my yard. This time I looked deeper and noticed the tree branch the Robin was resting on was a crab apple tree. The fruits produced on the tree must be a great source of nutrition for birds who are staying in the local area for winter or who are migrating into Vermont for the summer. In the Robins case I believe it was a great example of a immigrational bird traveling to its nesting area, my backyard which is full of food for them.
Along with the American Robin I came across a male Northern Cardinal by locating it by its song, cheer-cheer-cheer. The Northern Cardinal was about half way up an oak tree. The cardinal didn’t look like it was feeding but it may have been trying to attract a female counterpart.

Monday, March 26, 2018 I walked the river loop trail at Ethan Allen Homestead in search of avian creatures with superlative plumage. As I arrived at Ethan Allen Homestead the time was 1357, the temperature was 38° F and mild squalls ran through the area. At the start of the trail there wasn’t very much vegetation and was an open field for the most part. It wasn’t until I was about ¼ mile into the trail where the vegetation got denser with tree coverage I began to hear some bird calls.
Right before the wetlands bridge I saw 4 American crows flying to near the tree canopy. All 4 crows looked like they weighed roughly 1.5 lbs. and glossy black colored feathers. The American crows were flying between different trees in quick intervals while sounding off calls to each other. It looked as if the birds were just making noise to let other know they were in the area or perhaps there was no meaning behind their caws. As I made my way closer to the Winooski River I ran into many American Robins. The American Robins had pale red underbelly’s, gray wings, with white hues in some spots. While the American Crow was a single black color the American Robin had contrasting colors within in its plumage pattern. I imagine the American Robins use the bright colors on their underbelly for attracting mates. The American Crow must use something else like their calls to attract mates. I found a few American Robins on the ground foraging for food, most likely some invertebrates. Most of the birds I observed seemed very active, they must be very alert this time of day because of their circadian rhythm.

Monday, February 19th, at approximately 1430 I along with my dog followed the Winooski River on the trails that run parallel with the river searching for waterfowl species. The weather that day was 38 degrees Fahrenheit with an overcast and low wind speeds. The trails start at the railing outside of the restaurant Waterworks near the outside patio. I followed the walkway moving upstream with the Winooski River for about ¾ of a mile until I hit a forested area with a large open field. The trees surrounding the open field contained European Starlings that I could identify through their Metallic like calls. Unfortunately, besides the distant bird calls from the Starlings I was unable to identify any other species. Within the tree stands on the perimeter of the field I did notice a couple of snags but they were deep within the woods and I couldn’t reach them at the time. The trails loop back to the Winooski River and on my way to where I started I spotted a group of 8 Mallards near the bank of the river across from the Riverrun Luxury Apartments.
The flock of Mallards were mostly on the river bank searching through the softened soil for food. I observed two female Mallards digging their bills into the mud, this wasn’t a drilling motion like a woodpecker but it more of a shoveling motion like they were sifting through debris. I imagine the Mallards were taking advantage of the warmer weather where the soil wasn’t frozen to search for worms or other invertebrates because of a lack of vegetation in the area. Although I didn’t notice the Mallards doing anything to specific for regulating their body temperatures, I did notice the ducks that weren’t on the river bank were staying on the ice instead of in the river itself.

Thursday, February 15, 2018 I walked out to the UVM Watermen green area at approximately 1500. The temperature was warm for this time of year, it was 45 degrees outside with low wind speeds moving through the Burlington area. Even though it was extremely warm for a winter day there was an overcast of dark grey clouds looming overhead. The air was heavy with precipitation like a late summer day in Georgia on the verge of a rain storm.
As I stepped onto the green I immediately started scanning the crowns of each tree to look for signs of bird activity. I spotted a bird nest that was settled into a younger oak tree about half way up the tree but it looked vacant for time being. As I walked towards the fountain moving towards Main Street I could hear the chattering of birds in the background almost like white noise. Focusing in on the white noise I approached a cluster of sugar maples. Perched on the upper branches of the sugar maple I saw a pack of small birds that were individually about the size a hand. The young avian creatures had black feathers that encompassed their small frame with a dark silhouette, under the shadows of the tree branches. Under closer inspection I could hear more than just white noise coming from the birds, their calls were short and metallic sounding. While observing the group I took note during flight each bird would flap their wings with vigor and do a short dive, imitating a level sound wave with small droops in-between the peaks of each wave length. After seeing the large gaggle of the same bird, color, shape, and metallic like voice I deduced it was a group of European Starlings. I think the flight patterns show that the European Starlings wouldn’t travel long distances all in one shot and travel in groups for shorter durations during the day.
On a tree to the left of the sugar maple was a larger, more streamlined looking bird drilling into the bark. The wings were black with a checkered pattern, while the body had a white hue to it. On the head of the bird it had the distinct Hairy Woodpecker pattern that separates it from the Downy Woodpecker. Although I didn’t witness the Downy Woodpecker during flight I observed the bird circling the circumference the trunk of the tree like it was searching for a spot to feed from.