Causeway Birding Expedition

Today, on March 24th, 2017, at 12:27 p.m., I went on an expedition on the Causeway, which connects Colchester and South Hero Vermont. The temperature was 32°F and it was cloudy. The wind was blowing in a southerly direction at 18 mph.

I started walking towards the Causeway on the bike path that runs from Burlington through the Champlain Islands. I didn’t have to walk far before I heard the first bird activity. The first bird that I encountered was an American crow hanging out in an oak. This lone Crow wasn’t very active, it just “cawed” into oblivion. I am not positive if the American Crow was trying to communicate with other crows, or show its disgust with me. Regardless of its intentions, I do not believe that its calls where carrying very far due to the high winds. After observing the lone Crow for 5 minutes or so, I decided to continue on towards the Causeway. Approximately 50 meters from the American Crows oak tree, I heard the distinctive Chickadee-dee-dee of 3 Black-capped Chickadees. These surprisingly acrobatic individuals appeared to alert each other of my approach. Due to their distinctive calls, one would think that Black-capped Chickadees are vain and just like to hear their own names. However, they are actually using this form of communication to alert each other of impending danger. The amount of “dees” that they add onto the end of their calls, correlates with the threat of danger they feel is near. Apparently they didn’t feel like I was much of a threat, due to their short calls and their complete disregard for me. They briefly acknowledged me and continued to fly from branch to branch.

When I finally got out onto the Causeway, I was greeted by the cold wind whipping into my face. I saw what appeared to be 2 Ring-billed Gulls, about 100 meters west of the Causeway. I couldn’t tell if they were communicating with each other due to the high winds, but they appeared to be foraging for food; flying just above the waves. About 10 minutes later I saw 2 Herring Gull struggling to fly above the causeway. They were only 3 or 4 meters above the ground and appeared to be stationary due to the high winds. I believe that they may have been searching for a safe landing spot that would keep them out of the wind.

There was a bunch of waterfowl activity in the open water in between Law Island and Sunset Island. I flushed up 3 Lesser Scaup. They flew off in a tight formation and landed about 300 meters from their original spot. I also observed 2 Canada Geese and at least 13 Common Goldeneye floating in the water about 30 meters from Law Island. Once again I couldn’t distinguish if the birds where communicating, but they were displaying some interesting behavior. The Canada Geese and the Common Goldeneye had no problem intermingling. However, the two species exhibited different behaviors. One Canada Goose was bobbing in the water searching for food, while the other appeared to be preening its wing. The Common Goldeneye were demonstrating courting behavior. The males would start to bob their heads and then they violently threw their heads back. It was quite awesome to observe this odd behavior!

After observing the waterfowl interact, I moved on and saw 7 Herring Gull. 3 of them were flying above the open water, while 4 of them were standing on the ice. Then I saw 6 Common Goldeneye set down onto the water. They also began to exhibit the courting behavior that I described before. As the Common Goldeneye were interacting, a Mallard drake shot by my head! It was quite invigorating! I also observed 6 Lesser Scaup alternating from foraging in the water and hanging out on the ice. Perhaps the coolest part of this expedition was when I flushed up an enormous flock of Common Goldeneye. There was well over 100 of them! As they flew the flock seemed to pulsate as the ducks moved in unison. I could also hear whistling as they flew, which I am assuming was coming from their wings.

This was an extremely successful birding expedition. I saw many species interacting with each other and gained an insight into their everyday lives. I learned that birds will seek cover in inclement weather and they will not waste any good opportunities to forage. All of the birds were quite active when I first got to the Causeway, but as soon as it started to snow the small birds disappeared into the forest. The waterfowl and gulls didn’t seem to mind the snow and remained active regardless of the wind or snow. However, the ducks spent almost equal proportions of time foraging and interacting with each other. The Common Goldeneye seemed to be the most social species I encountered, but there did seem to be some sort of pecking order. There appeared to be equal spacing between each individual duck that I saw in the water. Every action of each individual bird, from all of the species seemed to be deliberate.

There was quite a bit of variation in the plumage of waterfowl, even within individual species. The colorization of the hens was much duller, while the drakes are much more colorful. I believe that this is due to the hens being more valuable for reproduction. The Mallard drakes have green heads and brown and grey bodies, while the Greater Scaup drakes have greenish heads, grey backs, white under bodies, and white chests. I believe that most ducks evolved light under bodies to camouflage themselves against the sky above and darker backs to camouflage themselves with the water below. Overall I was extremely happy with this expedition.

Publicado el 25 de marzo de 2017 a las 02:59 AM por mrgorton