Field Journal #2

Date: February 21, 2021
Start Time: 4:00 pm
End Time: 5:30 pm
Location: UVM Athletic and Central Campus
Weather: 20-30 deg F, slightly breezy, party cloudy, around sunset, no precipitation
Habitat: Residential Area

I began birding at 4 pm and finished at 5:30 pm on February 21, 2021. I chose around sunset time because I wanted to see if time would affect how birding may go. I chose to go around part of Athletic campus and most of Central campus since the Waterman Green was the most enticing for me. The weather was cold, around 20-30 degrees Fahrenheit, and it was partly cloudy/sunny (sun wasn’t as strong due to the sun setting while I was birding).
I had spotted about 5 robins (all male) on a hawthorn tree outside of L/L and MAT. They quickly flew away, but I was able to take a few pictures (not the best quality). While walking onto Central campus, I noticed more hawthorns that had around 3 total male robins outside of Marsh Life Science. When walking through the Andrew Harris green in front of Davis, I surprisingly saw no signs of birds other than empty, vacant nests. There was the usual wind coming from Lake Champlain on campus, but nothing too aggressive. It seemed as if everything was finally settling down if anything.
Walking towards the thornless honey locusts in front of Kalkin, I walked into the snow and heard robins calling to each other. I looked up and saw a mix of male and female robins flying away in the direction of Davis. I saw how they didn’t all go at once; some seemed more reluctant to fly away and they didn’t seem to fly in a group, some were more delayed than others. One robin had left after the others, more delayed and not flying in a frantic matter. I noticed how they flapped pretty frequently.
On the Waterman Green, I hadn’t seen any birds in the area, but due to the lack of leaves on most trees, I noticed more vacant nests, that could be result of this past fall/summer, which I found very interesting. I think that finally being able to see these nests was also a good sign that birds are present on campus, and different species hopefully vary here, I think due to possibly it being winter or because I went birding later than usual is the reason as to why I only saw American Robins. Overall a really nice time birding for my first time, and I’m excited to go to other locations and have some ornitherapy!

Posted on February 22, 2021 09:06 PM by camillamsucre