March 4, 2020
My birding trip stared around 10:40 in the morning on March 4, 2020. It started out as a mostly clear sky but clouds rolled in while I was out and it ended up being very overcast with no precipitation. It was around 40 degrees Fahrenheit with some wind but not too intense. My walk started at the entrance to centennial woods. I saw a few American Robins low in a tree. Further into the woods I saw Black-capped Chickadees and a Pileated woodpecker. I saw what I think was a Barn Owl and heard a Blue Jay though I didn’t see it. I also saw a Cedar Waxwing up in a tree. The way birds retain their body heat is by puffing up and trapping the air in their feathers. At this point in the season most of the bird’s time is spent feeding and resting/sleeping. Surviving in the cold takes a lot of energy so they must conserve as much as they can. They also need to eat more to make up for the quicker depletion of energy. Most birds will sleep overnight in trees or bushes. Some will also overnight in snags. The cavities in snags make for good shelter from wind and could be a slightly warmer place to sleep for a night.
Bigger snags seemed to have bigger cavities and there were a few that had more than one cavity on it. Bigger cavities can provide shelter to bigger birds like some species of owl. These species are more likely to be seen at dusk rather than during the day. With most of the snags that I tapped, there was no movement; nothing popped its head out to investigate. There were a couple that had birds in them though. In one snag I saw a Black-capped chickadee and in another a Pileated Woodpecker looked out. Though I didn’t see any, I would guess there were probably some cavities in snags that housed owls as well as more woodpeckers, chickadees, and other species.
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