Diario de miakosel

On February 8th, 2019 I ventured off for my birding adventure for the field observation assignment. I decided to go to Centennial Woods in Burlington as I thought I would see more bird than I would see in downtown Burlington where my house is. That was not the case. The weather was mild this day, as I headed into the woods around 2:30 pm it was about 37 degrees. It was pretty cloudy and overcast but not raining. The ground was covered in snow and ice but thankfully I had on my micro-spikes to avoid slipping. Armed with a camera and binoculars I ventured into the woods to my first location. A mostly open valley with some fallen trees and some standing snags. I silently sat for about 15 minutes listening and watching for movement. I saw no birds but heard at least one Black-capped Chickadee. I left that location and headed to the highest point I could find, on top of a ridge, and sat again and listened and watched. I then heard some cawing and looked up to see three American Crows fly above me. I could hear more cawing around me and saw a few birds in the distance which appeared to be American Crows as well.
I waited and listened for a while longer but did not see or hear any evidence of birds. Centennial woods was eerily quiet this afternoon. I saw a couple of dogs on walks, but no signs of wildlife other than the Black-capped Chickadee and the American Crows. I think it is possible I did not see many birds in the woods as I went when many birds aren’t feeding or moving around much. I would imagine there would be more activity at dawn or dusk.
I left the woods and started to head back to my house. I thought I was done birding but was still keeping a watchful eye. I noticed some movement next to a house. Directly below a bird feeder, there was some fallen seed which had attracted some House Sparrows. I saw five in total but was able to get a picture of two of them. I observed them making some “chih” noises. When I arrived back to my house I saw a Dark-eyed Junco come to my bird feeder. It was a clever little bird, it kept grabbing a few seeds and then hopping away from the feeder and then hopping closer for some more. Although I did not see these birds in the woods, I was still excited to get to see the species we were learning about in class out in the world.

I kept in mind the field assignment and watched how the American Crows were flying as they were the only birds I was able to see in flight this outing. The American Crows I saw were easily identified by sight and sound but the ones further in the distance were a bit harder to id without looking into the binoculars. I was watching how the crows were flying and noticed how they appeared to glide smoothly between trees but they also had longer flight moments when they were beating their wings in a big motion. The wings beat fast but in a smooth manner. I have seen an abundance of crows recently as they have been large group roasts right outside of my house almost every night. We hear the crows coming in and then see large swarms of them heading to the trees in the evening – it is pretty neat to see. The crows seemed to use the gliding motion without much flapping to change perches or move to a nearby tree, but in flight, they can move quite quickly with their flapping motion.