Field Observation 1: ID and Flight
Date: February 17, 2019
Location: Salmon Hole (44.4870° N, 73.1881° W)
Weather: sunny, about 18 degrees F, mostly blue skies, not windy
Habitat: mixed hardwood trees (some maple, birch, cottonwood)
Arrived: 11:13 am
Departed: 12:47 pm
For my field observations I chose to go to Salmon Hole, by the Winooski River. I had been there before in fall and saw Great Blue Herons and many other species. So, I thought it would be interesting to come back during winter and see what had changed. I would like to make this my main birding spot for the year because I want to see which birds come back as it becomes spring.
This time I only saw one White-breasted Nuthatch and about seven different American Crows. There were a few other bird calls that sounded like short chirps, but I couldn’t identify them and didn’t see them. I head the nuthatch calling but didn’t hear it sing. It was making its way up a tree and would pause every few seconds and look around. I head the crows calling as well but couldn’t really distinguish one individual’s call from another. So, I may have heard different crows than the ones I saw. I saw them flying around the bridge that goes over the Winooski River, which was pretty far from where I was sitting.
The flight pattern of the crows involved fairly consistent flapping followed by periods of about five to ten seconds or soaring. Their wings are elliptical shaped, which allows for better thrust and enables them to move quickly. The primaries are fairly splayed out in flight and help with lift. The nuthatch moved with many rapid wing flaps with very short periods (a few seconds at most) when the wings were folded by their side. The wing shape is a large factor in how a bird moves in the air. How a bird flies in turn influences what kind of habitat they would do best in. For example, birds that are better at soaring would probably do better in open areas rather than trying to maneuver through dense forests. Birds flight and flapping pattern help identify the species by determining the wing type.
There didn’t seem to be much bird activity at this time or location when I went. This is likely because it is still winter, and many species have migrated or are not as active during the day. In addition, there was a lot of road noise across the bridge and I head sirens twice, which might have stressed the birds out. As the weather gets warmer, there will probably be more human traffic through the site that could affect where birds chose to be or whether they call and sing.
