February 17th, 2020 Braintree Mountain Forest in Braintree, VT

Today I drove south to Braintree Mountain Forest in Braintree, VT. Braintree Mountain Forest, a 1,547-acre plot of land, was donated in 2013 to the New England Forest Foundation and is now maintained as a glade. It is a beautiful sunny/ partly cloudy day today. There is no breeze here in the trees and the car thermometer read 30F. Due to the worry of getting cold, I decided to make this birding expedition mobile. A silent walk in the woods to see what I observe.

At 1:30 pm I began my walk. Shortly after entering the forest, at 1:36 pm, I spotted a Hairy Woodpecker. It was hopping and tapping on a rotten birch tree. As this area was still very close to the trailhead, I would count this as the woodpecker inhabiting edge habitat. I continued to move west along the trail. At 1:44 pm I heard a Blue Jay. I was not able to spot the jay but I was sure due to its distinctive call. The entire plot of land that I walked through was a young beech/birch forest. It seemed as if not too long ago most of the forested area could have been open. Every ten minutes or so I would stop and listen more intently for birdcalls, and sometimes I would make a “pushhch” sound to see if I could get any birds to respond. 1:50 pm I had three Black-capped Chickadee respond. They were together in a lone coniferous tree. I continued into the woods, crossing over a frozen creek but did not see or hear anything. At 2:30 pm the sun dropped below the east-facing slope. This made the temperature drop a bit, and I thought that I would have a more difficult time seeing birds, assuming that the colder temperatures would equate to less bird movement. Before starting to gain more elevation, I spotted three chickadees. I continued west and began to gain elevation as I made my way up the east-facing slope to Skidoo peak (2901ft). As I gained elevation, there were a couple more conifers but not enough to have a complete change in forest composition. As I made my way up there was an increase in the amount of snow on the trees. At 3:00 pm I noted two more chickadees. They were in a coniferous tree. It seemed as if they could potentially prefer the coniferous over the deciduous trees, maybe they are warmer, their needles providing more warmth. As I reached the top around 3:30 pm I heard two more chickadees and a Blue Jay. I think that the chilly temperatures and that the sun had gone behind the hill meant that I observed fewer birds. Another factor could be the time of day. If I had gone walking during sunrise or sunset there could have been more activity.

The Hairy Woodpecker seems to prefer dead trees, hopping from one another and only flitting occasionally. The Black-capped chickadee flew from tree to tree more often and seemed to prefer the coniferous trees. The Black-capped Chickadee has pointer wings than the Hairy Woodpecker. Overall it was pretty challenging to tell what the flight pattern was for these birds because they move so quickly and don’t fly for long before landing on a tree again..

Publicado el jueves, 20 de febrero de 2020 a las 12:38 AM por sgillies sgillies

Observaciones

Fotos / Sonidos

Qué

Carpintero Albinegro Mayor (Dryobates villosus)

Autor

sgillies

Fecha

Febrero 17, 2020

Descripción

seen hopping and pecking on dead tree in birch, beech forest

Fotos / Sonidos

No hay fotos o sonidos

Qué

Chara Azul (Cyanocitta cristata)

Autor

sgillies

Fecha

Febrero 17, 2020

Descripción

heard but did not see - more lower in elevation

Fotos / Sonidos

No hay fotos o sonidos

Qué

Carbonero de Capucha Negra (Poecile atricapillus)

Autor

sgillies

Fecha

Febrero 17, 2020

Descripción

Hopping and tweeting alarm call as we entered

Comentarios

Really great detail in this journal entry. I liked the way you described the tree species and the change in composition. Your observations were entered well, including the observation field for number of individuals observed. I appreciate your picture but I couldn't find the bird in it. Maybe if you know how, you could draw a circle around it if it is hard to find.

My only other suggestion would be to put a little more thought and detail into the prompt, in this case the flight comparisons. I know it's hard to get a real sense in the field when they move so fast, but maybe try and include a little more terminology or use what you have learned in class to discuss what you'd expect to see or what you know to be true, even if you didn't observe it directly. Otherwise, great entry.

Anotado por chloesardonis hace cerca de 4 años

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