Scrub/Grassland Birds

Date: 5/25
Time: 7:30 - 11:00
Location: West Rutland, Pleasant St Powerline, Marble St
Weather: Overcast, started out mid-fifties, at midday we were hitting mid sixties and rising, the sun came out just at the end. It started kicking up real wind around 9, hitting around 10-15 mph going mainly WSW by the time I left the ridge.

Habitat / narrative:

The powerlines go up on a ridge and it overlooks the marsh I was at yesterday to the west, so to start off with there were a lot of repeat species I saw from yesterday that I didn't really bother with trying to get media for--I promise, I really did properly identify the Canada Goose.

I meandered up the hill and the first habitat I came to was pure scrub--not a lot of flat open space / pure grassland, mainly small bushes fighting each other for sunlight and glory. There was mainly small deciduous trees (maximum would be ~ 12 feet, not including the adult trees that border the road), and the bushes ranged from knee to nose height (I'm 5'2"). There were a ton of crickets mixed in, and with the pure scrub it was all by ear. It was pretty overwhelming at first, and I took a lot of audio recordings with confused notes. I think I mainly sleuthed it out re-listening and cross-checking the vocals with Audubon's bird guide online and the notes I took on the grassland bird vocalizations from the video.

The next habitat was gradual--I had to abandon the powerlines as the brush got thicker and the ticks got stronger, but I walked along the road and the scrub started to give way to more open grass, edged in by shrub and trees--maybe haylots or empty land, because the tree lines divided up the grassy slope fairly evenly. The shrub was more sparse in the center, some smaller shrubs clocking in at around 6 or so feet tall, with the larger ones usually not reaching more than 9 or 10 feet up. There was a surprising amount of common reed, mostly on the edge by the road--maybe car tires are spreading the seeds from the marsh below.

The grasslands were pretty productive--I saw a lot of Song Sparrows that I thought were Savannah Sparrows at first, and I heard an incredible amount of American Goldfinches and Common Yellowthroats. I probably heard a few others, but thankfully I didn't hear any konk-a-ree Red-winged Blackbirds. We spent enough time around each other yesterday.

The road continued, and the grasslands lead to a decent sized farm (their rooster wasn't loud enough to record over the wind).

Then the grassland rapidly just turned to young forest and houses--I was overtaken by robins and black-capped chickadees. The forest wasn't dense yet, just skinny gangly sumac.

I backtracked, explored the forest down below between the powerline and the marsh--mostly deciduous, lots of aspen, but there were some adult hardwoods as well. There was also an old marble quarry filled with water, so a cool find.

Then I saw these 3 weird ducks on my way to the second location--ID'ed as waterfowl, let me know? I tried looking it up, but I had no luck.

12:00 - 1:00
Weather: Sunny, low 70s. Minimal wind, field closed off by trees on all sides.
Location: Stockbridge, VT -- local shrubby fields.

Habitat:

I left Rutland, saw a turkey vulture circling roadkill on the way, and got to the field at 12. I didn't use my camera, and so my media from that is more recordings of vocalizations-- I had trouble with some of them, but I noted it on the observation itself so that may make more sense than explaining it here.

Posted on May 26, 2021 12:54 AM by avi_