Will's Field Journal #3

Today, March 8, 2021, I went for a little walk around Centennial Woods Natural Area, Burlington, VT. I walked around the main loop starting from the lower parking lot entrance and took a left at the fork towards the hemlock forest by the stream. Then, after following the loop all the way around and out through the beech dominant forest at the other end and took the same left at the start but this time instead of following the trail to the hemlock forest on the right, I went left over the little bridge and eventually left from the higher entrance by the police station. I started the walk at 1:12 and ended at 2:34. Beautiful sunny clear day, very little wind, 30˚ Fahrenheit.

Even though it's still fairly cold, spring seems to be just starting, and in general birds seem to be more active, moving around much more and calling or singing often. I saw quite a few woodpeckers today, and many of them were actively drumming. I imagine it is possible that the drumming is a good way to produce body heat and keep warm. I didn't see any woodpeckers actually eating insects during their drumming, so it's possible they were mainly using the behavior as a mating display as opposed to a foraging mechanism. Most birds I observed did not spend much time resting, and instead were either actively feeding or flying from branch to branch.

I counted 15 different snags on my walk, although I'm sure there were more around. Several of them had large, rectangular cavities that are indicative of Pileated Woodpecker activity. Others had smaller Downy or Hairy Woodpecker cavities. It definitely seems like the bigger the snag, the larger the cavities would be. A few snags in particular were almost more hole than tree; I was surprised they were still standing. I did try knocking on a few of them, but was not lucky enough to have any wildlife poke their heads out. To be honest, in all my years of knocking on snags I've never had anything more exciting than a little red squirrel respond. Snags are clearly an important part of the ecosystem, as many cavity nesting species such as small owls and squirrels rely on them for a place to sleep at night.

Posted on March 8, 2021 08:33 PM by willbaxterbray