Field Journal 2
Abaigeal Carroll
Date: March 1, 2023
Start time: 1:30pm
End time: 2:47pm
Location: Oakledge Park
Weather: Cloudy, overcast, not very sunny but a lot of light was reflecting off the snow
Temp: 39 degrees F
Wind: 5 mph, NE
Precipitation: no precip
Habitats: Older Oak and pine forest, aquatic (freshwater)
Today my birding efforts were not very successful. I didn’t see many birds but I heard a lot of them. The problem is as soon as I would try to record them on iNaturalist, they would stop making sound! I heard a Mourning Dove taking off very clearly but wasn’t fast enough to record the sound. The first sound I was able to record was a Pileated Woodpecker pounding on a tree. I knew it was a Pileated Woodpecker because I could see the red tuft on its head and quite large body even from far away. Through my binoculars I could see that it was using its large feet to grip onto a tree branch and pound away at the tree. The tree appeared to be an oak. When I walked closer to the water I saw 10 Mallards. I thought it was interesting how different female and male Mallards are, I always thought they were different species. Male Mallards have a bright green head which is always easy to distinguish from far away. I usually see them with females who have a brown body and spots with orange feet. As I was observing this group of birds I was lucky enough to see the bright blue underwing of the female. They were floating right next to the shore looking for any crustaceans or small fish that they could catch.
Although I couldn’t see many birds, I heard many. One I heard very clearly was the White-breasted Nuthatch. This sound was easy to pick out since it is a very nasally sound that is hard to mistake. I thought it was interesting how at first I thought I couldn’t hear any birds but as soon as I stopped walking and was very quiet, I realized that there were so many bird sounds around me. Most of them were very quiet and in the distance but birds with very specific calls such as the Tufted Titmouse and the Northern Cardinal are very easy to distinguish even when their calls are very quiet. On this birding adventure I focused on noticing the differences between females and males. Northern Cardinals are also a unique species to notice differences in the sexes. Males are red all over with a black area around the beak. The females have a duller red color and no black around their beak. They both have a tuft on the top of their head.
Using this week’s prompt, I noticed how birds use different aspects of evolution and ecology to get through the winter. I noticed that the birds I saw, especially the Tufted Titmouse, had a much rounder physique than I have noticed in other seasons. This is probably because they stock up on more food so they can store fat throughout the winter. I didn’t see many birds flying around, I saw all of them perched in a tree meaning they are budgeting their time by staying stagnant and not using up energy.
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