egagne219's Journal

I went birding around my neighborhood (Pembroke, New Hampshire) on April 4th, 2020 from about 11am until 1 pm. Weather was warmer in the 50s and partly cloudy. My neighborhood is a suburban habitat with a good mixture of shrubs as well as tall, older trees.

One species I noticed throughout birding from the beginning of the semester has been the American Crow. They don't really appear to migrate, and if they do, they'd most likely only go a few states further south. Crows are known to be generalist eaters (from insects to seeds, other small animals, and even garbage) which most likely helps them survive harsher weather in the north during the winter. Another species that is a facultative migrant I have noticed more with the warmer weather is the Red-winged Blackbird. They appear to be coming from the southern/mid United States and heading up to the Northern United states. They may migrate because their diet is more specific than that of say, the American Crow. In the summer, they feed on seeds which can be found almost anywhere during that time. In the winter, they feed more on aquatic plants and insects - it is necessary to follow the insects further south where the weather is warmer in order to survive. I did not find an obligate migrant.

In the frequent flyer activity, I added up the rough total miles of the facultative migrants I saw and came to a total of 1600 miles. This seems a bit conservative since I only saw facultative migrants which likely only traveled to the mid/south US.

On Saturday, April 11th, I went on a bird walk from about 2 pm until 3:30 pm. The weather was mild in the mid-low 50s, and slightly cloudy with some wind. I went around my yard and neighborhood in Suncook, New Hampshire. This is a highly suburban habitat with a good mix of older trees, shrubs, and open grass in neighbors lawns. Most of the birds I saw were perched somewhere or at a feeder.

I went birding on April 20th, 2020 from 2 pm to 4 pm. As I am still in quarantine (as most of us are), I stuck to walking around my suburban neighborhood for those two hours. It is a typical suburban area with lots of open yards, some short dense shrubs, along with some older trees. It was quite warm at the beginning of my walk but got a little bit colder and windier as time went on. The skies were relatively clear and the temperature was mild.

In terms of behaviors related to mate selection, nest selection, and territory selection, there was certainly a lot going on! The first, most aggressive interaction I noticed was amongst a group of 3 American Crows. They were flying relatively high, and appeared to be all fighting over a prime tree/tree area. There was agnostic behavior in their calls, which were loud and grating, as well as physical dominance by diving on each other. The male that was being attacked appeared to be submissive, as it eventually decided to leave the tree it was defending for another dominant male that was being quite persistent. It was clear that this tree was a prime location for either a nest or finding a mate because many crows were checking it out and challenging actively defending members.

Another apparent behavior in terms of nesting and mates; I observed that most of my observations of House Sparrows included either building nests, gathering nesting materials, fighting with other males for territory, or copulation. There are many House Sparrows in my yard so there was a lot going on! I noticed a House Sparrow collecting twigs in my neighbor's yard, and flying over to their nest to add on. I also noticed an already-built House Sparrow nest, as it was occupied by a House Sparrow, filled with what appeared to be paper strings that are used to fill Easter baskets. It is possible this bird could have found them in the trash, or littered around the neighborhood. It appeared they had taken quite a liking to this material! Upon me getting closer to the nest, the House Sparrow stood its ground and didn't fly away quite so quickly as others do. Perhaps this is because it wanted to ensure the success of its nest and new it was in a prime location.

I have included the picture of the sound map (mini activity) I made in the observation for the American Crow.

On April 23rd, 2020, from about 1 pm until 2:30 pm I went birding at the Allenstown Bridge Park in Allenstown, NH. It was warmer than usual - about in the mid to high 50s, sunny, and little to no breeze was present. This area is under and around a fairly noisy overpass, and is a small area of sand/grass surrounded by the Suncook River Reservoir. There are a few taller trees on the edges of the land, and some small shrubs as you first walk in, the rest is open grass. There were quite a few other people out on the land and boating, yet that did not seem to deter any of the birds - they were quite friendly and used to visitors!