fj 7
Date - 4/26/21
Start time - 7:45 am
End time - 9:15 am
Location - Winooski River Walk (ended at my house)
Weather (temperature, wind speed/direction, precipitation) - Overcast, cloudy and cold morning. Around 37 deg F when I started out, but it warmed up slightly. It was kind of windy, and the weather channel said the southern winds reached close to 18 mph. It wasn't raining, and I didn't even get much of a drizzle moment despite the clouds.
Habitat(s) - Cattail marsh, finally coming up a little bit green in some spots. The marsh is in a forested area, and while there are some open grass moments, it's primarily a deciduous forest, with some small stands of young coniferous trees. It's right next to the Winooski river, so there are some smaller offshoots of creeks and brooks, with some very still pools that border the marshy section.
I tried to get a good picture of it, but the photo of the Canada Goose from the Observations is from what looks like their nest. The picture's kind of blurry, but I didn't want to get got by a goose. Specifically, the nest site is on a little patch of land in the middle of a wide brook that feeds into the Winooski river, with lots of brush, fallen branches, and tons of overgrown foliage that's starting to kick back into gear. It's a well-concealed nest, with lots of groundcover from the overgrown vegetation and fallen branches, and it's close to the water.
Another bird I observed was the European Starling. Technically not on my walk, but as I arrived home I noticed that there was a nest in the ceiling of my apartment building's porch. The starling evidently hollowed out a cavity in the insulation, because there are bits of insulation fuzz just falling from the ceiling. The rest of the nest materials look like some drying scraggly plants, but its hard to get a good look. The male starling wouldn't have had to go far for these materials, as the insulation was already there, and there is plenty of free-growing weeds in a nearby cemetery.
There is also a House Finch nest in the siding of the building, and this one is visible by the twigs or dried plant stems poking out of the siding where it peels up.
As far as territories go, at first I was hesitant to call this an ideal one--there's not exactly an abundance of nature in the old north end. However, there are some bushes immediately nearby, and a graveyard that never gets mowed, and plenty of tree growth, so their diet could be sustainable here. I would hazard that the male house finch is defending a mediocre territory, but it does it well. I've just watched it chase away at least 2 other birds, so he's doing a good job if nothing else.
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