Field Journal 1

Abaigeal Carroll
Date: Feb 11, 2023
Start time: 9:30a
End time:11:00a
Location: Oakledge Park
Weather: Clear blue skies, full sun, quite windy
Temp: 27 degrees F
Wind: 6.5 mph, NW
Precipitation: no precip
Habitats: Older Oak and pine forest, aquatic (freshwater)
My excursion occurred on an icy morning at Oakledge park. It was actually kind of harder than I thought to be quiet enough to hear bird calls when we were walking on the crunchy ice. It seemed like as soon as I would hear a bird call and stop walking to listen, they would stop calling! The first bird and by far most abundant was the Rock Pigeon which was commonly seen on telephone lines and in groups while birds like the Common Raven were seen by themselves. The Tufted Titmouse and Black-capped Chickadee were the easiest for me to hear and pick up on their call. I heard them usually calling at the same time and both in the forested area. Their calls would sound and then pause for a few moments to resume again.
As I continued to walk through Oakledge park I entered the area next to Lake Champlain. This habitat is aquatic and consists of sandy soils. I was able to decipher 10 Mallard ducks floating in the water about 30 feet from land. When I returned back to the parking lot, I saw a Common Raven on a light post. It took me a second to be able to decipher if it was a Common Raven or an American Crow since they look so similar. What helped me in my identification was the Common Raven was quite large especially when it flew down to the ground and opened its wings. It had quite a curved beak making it more likely that it was a Common Raven than an American Crow. The Common Raven also had a pointed tail which I noticed when it flew and could distinguish from the squared off tail of the American Crow. While looking through my binoculars, I was even able to see the throat area of the bird up close which was a little puffy. The Common Raven has a ruff of feathers under the throat where the American Crow has a very smooth throat area.
When I first started my excursion, I was having pretty good luck hearing and seeing birds since there was a patch of forest that I was exploring. The birds that I observed here were the Tufted Titmouse and the White-capped Chickadee. I was able to observe their flight pattern a little but they really only flew from tree to tree. The Tufted Titmouse had quite an erratic flight pattern which was interesting to watch. When they would jump into flight, their wings would extend forwards and swoop through the air so they could go upwards but not necessarily forwards. I noticed the tuft on their head would point backwards and kind of sink into their head a little bit. They also would spread their feathers on their tail a little bit before landing I suppose to help with slowing speed before landing. Comparing this flight pattern to the White-capped Chickadee was very fun! Their flight pattern seemed to be a little slower and used to hop from tree branch to tree branch. When they hopped off the branch, their tail would point downwards and their wings would flap very fast, definitely faster than the Tufted Titmouse but seemingly with less power behind them. The Black-capped Chickadee was found in smaller trees, shorter trees that were closer to the ground while the Tufted Titmouse was found in larger Oak trees.
As time went on, I had a harder time finding birds perhaps because we entered into an area with less woodland. This is where I saw birds such as the Rock Pigeon. I definitely noticed that the later in the day it became, the harder it was to see birds since they are definitely more active in the early morning. It was also quite windy which probably made it harder to see birds.

Publicado el 19 de febrero de 2023 a las 11:36 PM por abaigealcarroll