elizabethkaufmann's Journal

I went to Shelburne Bay and the Laplatte River Marsh again today in Shelburne, VT. There was a mild wind, but it was super cold this morning with a high of 54 degrees F for the day, so there was not as much activity today as there was on Tuesday. When I got there, there were half the shorebirds and marsh birds present than there was on Tuesday, including a Caspian Tern (which looked a little too skinny and small to be Caspian), Red-winged Blackbirds, Song Sparrows, Mallards, Canada Geese, and Double-crested Cormorants and two Common Mergansers flying by. There was a group of 4 vultures just sitting on the rocks at the end of the parking lot which was a little weird, and a group of people walked towards them and all they did was walk away a little which was interesting. I did the opposite path/walk today and walked past a bunch of grassland and shrub land first. I only saw a few barn swallows, grackles, more red-winged blackbirds, an unidentifiable which flew my and landed too far away from me to see or hear, and a few Yellow Warblers. As I walked along the path and the grassland turned into more forest and understory habitat, I was greeted with a Great Crested Flycatcher, a Phoebe, a few Common Yellowthroat, a House Wren, and I think a Swamp Sparrow! I got a voice recording and a picture of it so I will post those after! I kept walking past the swamp/marsh in the woods where I saw the sparrow and approached a loud school group on the path, so I just turned around and walked back. I'm pretty sure I heard a thrush or a wren as well but I'm not sure what the call/song is, so I will send those to Allan Strong for identification. I went off on a small side trail to walk through a fully wooded area and kept hearing the Yellow Warblers, Yellowthroat, the Great Crested Flycatcher, and a Red-eyed Vireo. There really was not anything else calling because it was still cold but getting later in the morning so everything was slowing down. Many grackles, a pickerel frog, and a few voles I think and overall it was not as a productive day as I thought, but I definitely could have just been in the wrong places!
Thank you for a fantastic class and a fun week of birding!

When I got to Macrae Farm Park today it was about 57°F out and when I left it was about 63°F so it was a chilly start to the morning. It was also very windy and there were lots of jets and planes flying overhead so I knew that it was going to be a hard recording and identification day. When I got there there wasn’t many calls or sounds however when you start to walk around you could hear all of the different birds that were calling, they were just quiet and distant at first. I found a Baltimore Oriole first thing as well as a bunch of Mallards and Geese and they’re Goslings. As I kept walking, more and more songs, calls, and birds started to appear because at the beginning of the trail at Macrae Farm Park it is a few trees but mostly tall grass and shrubs. Then, as you keep walking it turns into trees and understory, however you were walking alongside a river so you have a mixture of forest and shore birds. It was neat to see a mix of all the birds because on one side you had the Yellow Warbler, a Black and White Warbler, a Veery, a bunch of Red-winged Blackbirds and Starling. Then on the other side of the trail you had a Great Egret, a Great Blue Heron, Mallards, Geese, a Belted Kingfisher, and so much more. I kept trying to listen for Baltimore Orioles and locate them but as soon as I did they would fly to the other side of the river. I was proud of myself for identifying a Veery, American Redstart, Yellow Warbler, and Common Yellowthroat by sound. I also located an Eastern Kingbird and followed it all the way to the edge of the river, then it flew off to the other side, but I heard a screech and looked above me and there was an immature Osprey sitting above me eating something furry, so I backed away and kept looking a him and a bunch of Bank Swallows for a while which was pretty cool to watch. Overall it was a very successful day, it just got hard at times because of the wind, lack of visuals, the planes and jets, and just the overwhelming sounds of so many songs and calls. Especially since I was in a generic area with everything, grassland, shrubland, shore, marsh area, deciduous forest habitat, it was hard to tell what song was what and what bird it could have been coming from since there were so many options.

I got a late start to the morning unfortunately because I got my COVID-19 vaccine yesterday afternoon and I had a fever and could barely move almost immediately after so it was a rough morning. Even though I still had a fever of 103, I pushed myself to get out of bed and go birding even though driving to Hinesburg, VT seemed like a daunting task. I'm glad I went out though, when I got there it was sunny and around 70 degrees, so perfect weather for birding in the woods! It was super buggy, and the birds weren't really calling at first when I got there, but after hanging around in. the woods for a while, they all starting calling and you could hear birds near and far. My first location were a few very wooded trails with lots of understory and shrubbery. There was a stream/river that followed one of the trails making it a little harder to hear calls, but once I went off that trail into the woods more, it was blissfully silent with huge pines, oaks, and maples around. On that trail I also ran into a dilapidated cabin which was home to a few barn swallows which was weird to see in the woods. On that trail I heard a crow, Rose-Breasted Grosbeak, Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers and maybe a Pileated, but I'm still unsure. These trails were also close to the Birds of Vermont bird feeders which may have influenced the amount of activity I saw, but on the feeders in addition to all those birds were Red-Winged Blackbirds, Chickadees, a Blue Jay and a Goldfinch. I headed across the street up another wooded (more grassland/shrubland) trail which led to an opened area with a vernal pool surrounded by smaller deciduous trees. Here I heard a few Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers, some Phoebes, a Black and White Warbler, a Great Crested Flycatcher, and a bunch of frogs including Bullfrogs, Wood Frogs, and Gray Treefrogs. A few Common Yellowthroats came pretty close to me as well as a Red-eyed Vireo and a few sparrows I couldn't get a glimpse of but I think I got a recording of. I also saw a few Wild Turkeys and a Gray Catbird on the way into the parking lot. I mostly heard all of the birds today instead of seeing most of them like yesterday, but overall it was a pretty successful day for the amount of time I was out there and how little of the calls I felt I knew. My favorite part of today was seeing the male Rose-breasted Grosbeak up close on the bird feeder because they are so pretty, and it was the only bird that wasn't phased by me walking up and watching it. My only cons for today was the wind at a few times, and Phoebes and Vireos constantly calling so it's hard to hear a few of the birds I was recording because of them.

I went to Shelburne Bay and the LaPlatte River trail this morning. It was chilly and 57 degrees when I got there then got very humid and hot by 10am which was about 68 degrees. When I got there all of the shorebirds were flying around and making a lot of noise, so it was hard to pinpoint every single bird that was calling or moving. My target habitat for the day was grassland and shrubland, however there was not a lot of grassland, it was more forest/water/marsh/shrub land. I got to see a Black-crowned Night-Heron which I was super excited about! I was on the lookout for it, but I only saw it as I was leaving. I had a lot of wrens and flycatchers following me. There was a flycatcher super close to me but I couldn't see it so I identified it's call as a Great Crested Flycatcher and it took me about 20 minutes of chasing it around to actually see it. A lot of birds were fighting today, there was an Osprey chasing and nipping at a Great Blue Heron which was kind of crazy to see. I also saw some mallards with their young sitting on the shore and some Canada Geese came up and started a fight with the male mallard and then they just ended up sitting next to each other after. I went from shore habitat to some grassland then across the street to forest and shrubland habitat. I saw most of my shore birds out by the water, but I did find some in the river bay (mostly herons and egrets). There were a lot of flycatchers I could not identify and some high pitched etherial calls which were all hard to take recordings of, so I'm not sure if they were identified right. I was actually able to identify a lot more birds than I thought today, especially warblers and a few shorebirds I just learned the calls of yesterday. One funny thing is thatI was taking some photos of an egret when I heard the call of a Killdeer and RAN towards it across the parking lot with no shame because I had never seen one up close before, so that was really cool. I was hoping for more shrub and grassland birds, but their calls started to die down as I wrapped around onto that shrubby part of the trail, so I'll have to go back another time to find them. My scariest part of today was that a Yellow Warbler FLEW so close passed my ear that I could feel the wind from it, so that was almost fatal. It was really windy today and there were a few jets flying overhead so it was hard to hear and record calls at times, but overall it was a very successful day!

I went out in the morning to Woodside Park in Essex, VT. It was high of 72 degrees F today and sunny, when I went out it was probably 60/65 degrees F. When I arrived, I was greeted with what sounded like a thousand different calls, all of the birds were super lively. Even though today we were supposed to be looking for waterbirds and waterfowl, the only true water bird I saw was a Solitary Sandpiper and (what I thought was) a Ring-billed gull soaring super high above me. The rest of my observations were mostly songbirds. I saw a few lifers today including a lot of American Redstarts and a Northern Rough-winged swallow which I originally thought was a chimney swift until I saw the white underside. I walked the loop twice and along the water three times just to make sure I didn't miss any water birds. I took voice memos when I could, which I will upload later once I can decipher calls. The only problem with today was that there were too many calls and sounds at once to decipher species or pinpoint one call since I'm not that experienced with calls.

I went out birding with my parents in Sudbury, MA on April 20th around 1:30pm. The weather was cold, cloudy, and towards the end it started raining.

I knew going birding that it was not going to be a great day to see birds, however, we did hear a lot of birds. From the calls we heard, they were mostly just songs, but there was a really loud couple of birds that I could not identify by sound. These birds seemed to be making territorial calls or disputing over something large, which I thought to be their home. Visually, however, I did see a few robins and tree swallows fighting/disputing over nest and/or territory. They were chirping loudly and flying at each other in hopes to disturb the one at/protecting the nest. I also saw a crow flying around with some twigs in it's beak, probably attempting to make a nest.

Even through I saw the American Robins fighting on the ground in the walking trail, they would probably build their nest in a more covered environment in the woods were foot traffic and openness to predators would be decreased, and I would assume the American Crow would be doing the same. This is because the nesting habitat for both of these birds both reside in wooded areas with tall trees, or large branches to nest on. The tree swallows I observed seemed to be perched nexts to nests on really dead and open trees or on old telephone poles in the marsh/lake area. This would make a good nesting site/habitat for them because swallows usually like open habitat near/over water to be able to fly around and catch bugs freely. I also saw two mallards (a male and female) and their habitat would be completely different than the other birds listed before because they pretty much live in the water and need water, so their nest would have to be right next to the water/ or on the water if possible, in order to be helpful to them.

A group of my friends and I traveled out to the Intervale on April 6th. We walked along Calkin's Trail for most of the way were it was 40˚F and overcast, with 25mph winds.

We observed many year-round residents, like the Black-capped Chickadee and the Tufted Titmouse. These birds forego migration because it would not be beneficial for them in the long run. The amount of energy they expel during travel does not even out with the amount of food/energy they have to intake in order to make up for that lost energy. So since they have to eat so often, it wouldn't be the best idea for them to migrate. Since these birds do not migrate, they have adaptations put in place to survive the harsh winters. Some species can slow down their metabolism in order to use less energy while they are resting so they don't have to search for food all of the time (especially since there is little food around during the winter). Other species, like the Chickadee, can go into a state of hibernation and practically freeze (go into a hypothermic state) while remaining alive in order to conserve energy and wait out the cold spells that come with winter. During the fall, birds also stock up and start caching a good amount of food in their nests and in crevices in order to survive the winter.

A facultative species, like the Canada Goose or the Mallard, could have stayed here during the winter or if they chose to, they could migrate down south. Whether they choose one option or the other, they still have to migrate up north for the summer to breed. For both of these species, what determines their stay or migration is weather, availability of water, and abundance of resources. If it gets too cold or too warm for these birds, if every body water freezes over or some stay thawed, if there are a lot or little to no resources, then these birds will choose to stay or migrate. Some of these species, like in Burlington, are also just normally residents to their specific location, however birds of the same species in higher elevations, like Alaska, have to travel and migrate because it gets too cold and resources get too scarce (called the leap-frogging effect).

We saw two obligate migrant species, the Ring-billed Gull and the Common Merganser. The advantages of arriving early to Burlington is to get an early start on all of the seeds and food coming out by budding and sprouting plants, also to maybe get a lot of worms during the wet season. Another advantage maybe to get first pick on the location of their nest before mating season starts. However, a disadvantage like we saw this year, would be that sometimes the migrant species arrive too early and the Burlington cold and snowy weather hasn't let up yet. This means that the birds could get snowed in, and since they aren't used to the cold weather and snow, they might not be able to get a lot of food resources or stay warm enough to stay alive.

Mini Activity: The total possible miles traveled between Burlington (The Intervale) and all of these birds wintering locations is 17,631 miles.
Mallard: 2,418 miles
Song Sparrow: 1,294 miles
Mourning Dove: 0 - 4,331 miles
Tufted Titmouse: 0 miles
Black-capped Chickadee: 0 miles
American Goldfinch: 1,601 miles
Northern Cardinal: 0 miles
Common Merganser: 706 miles
Wood Duck: 2,233 miles
American Crow: 0 miles
Canada Goose: 2,306 miles
American Robin: 0 - 2,742 miles

I went out birding three major times while I was out in Venice, FL, Siesta Key, FL and in the Everglades National Park, FL with my friend. When I went out birding in Venice, FL at the rookery it was almost dusk (around 5:30pm-7pm) but still clear skies and sunny until the sun went down. Then, in the Everglades (between 10am and 2pm), and at Siesta Key (between 1pm and 2:30pm), it was mostly sunny with partial clouds here and there. All three times, the temperature was around 80-85 degrees F.

Out of all the birds I observed, the sea gulls were interacting the most with each other. This is probably because on all the beaches we went to, they were pretty crowded and full of people with food, so the seagulls were all just calling (squawking) back and forth a lot and probably about where the food was. Another neat bird interaction that I saw, that we don't really have the chance to see up north, is the interaction between the all the different types of herons and egrets. We went to a rookery in Venice, which is an island on a small pond which nests what seemed to be over 40 birds - babies, immatures, and adults - of all different types of herons and egrets with some cormorants and anhingas mixed in there. All of these large (and some small) birds would interact with each other and each species by making these weird whopping calls and low squawking calls (like a dinosaur). I can't really describe them, but when they would interact with a different species in a territorial way, they made a sort-of chirping sound at first and then went into the low whooping sound again while trying to attack the other intruder. It was amazing to see these large animals flap their wings and try to bite each other, because unlike a Canada Goose, it was so graceful, yet aggressive.

The plumage of all of the birds I observed was so drastically different from each other. You had the seagulls, ducks, most herons, and crows which looked sleek and glued together almost. Whereas for some Great Egrets that we saw in the rookery, they had tails almost like peacock feathers, and the Anhingas has a similar loose-feather look when they spread out their wings to dry out. There was also birds like the Purple Gallinule, Green Heron, and Little Blue Heron, which just had absolutely stunning colors on them unlike all the other birds which are more muted tones. Even though the birds I saw that were super colorful were beautiful, the sleek-looking birds with the muted colors would have camouflage advantages over the colorful birds and would be able to remain still and unnoticed from a predator better than the pretty birds. Like most of the herons we saw as we approached them, or as they got close to an alligator, we would look at how still they remained. Their stillness is an act of camouflage which can be part of their foraging or it can just be them resting which both fit in to their circannual rhythm. These herons become a statue and don't move, or move insanely slow while remaining super quiet and stealthy.

I didn't come across any chickadees or small flocks of birds while I was in Florida, but when I came back to Vermont I tried out the pishing technique. This technique works because it elicits some curiosity from these birds and makes them think that something is going on near you, which could either mean food, a predator, or just more birds to interact with. From my experience in the woods, or back at my house in Massachusetts, whenever I'm fishing, the chickadees are just usually curious or just looking for food from the birds feeding and then they end up continuing those pishing noises after I stop making them. What I have also witnessed, is a lot of small (traveling in packs) songbirds make these pishing noises to alert other birds that a predator is near and needs to be scared away by the pack because just one chickadee wouldn't do.

P.S. I wasn't able to attach all of my observations, but all of the bird observations from Florida are all ones that I took for this journal entry.

I went birding with my boyfriend around his house in Milton, VT. We went on March 1st, 2019 around 4pm up his long road along the sidewalk to remain in the sun. We passed by a barn, a few large (dead) crop fields, and the edge of a forest habitat at the top of the road.
The Feral Pigeons we saw on top of the silo were huddled together, resting in the sun to conserve energy and retain body heat. A lot of the songbirds we observed (House Sparrows and Chickadees) were also doing the same thing as the pigeons and were traveling in packs and were either huddled together in a tree or bush or were just resting on a branch out in the heat of the sun to stay warm.
The bushes and trees these birds were in also contained seeds or food of some sort so that they were resting and conserving energy while also being able to eat and build up their energy for then night. Other species we saw, like the American Crow, the Red-tailed Hawk, and the Wild Turkeys were grazing or flying low to the ground to find food but remaining in the sun to preserve their body heat.
The songbirds were hunting for and eating seeds and parts of a pine tree, i.e. cones and needles. The larger birds, the turkeys, hawk, and crows, might have also been searching for seeds (not the hawk), but they were also hunting for any type of live or dead organism they could possibly eat for some protein and energy.
These larger birds might overnight in the forest behind the barn somewhere to stay protected and out of the wind and out of reach of predators, however, even though the songbirds need to do the same, they also need to stay near a food source. So, the songbirds might travel into the forest for the night, but they also could fly into the barn up in the roosts to stay warm or in a pine tree along the road, and both options would keep them warm.
We observed a few snags in the field and along the edge habitat during our journey, ranging in different sizes of tree diameter and hole size on and within the snags. Snags are important because they provide shelter and habitats for many different animals and organisms to take shelter in. However, snags also provide certain species of animals (specifically birds) with a food source because of all the different organisms, like bugs and worms, that take shelter in the tree's crevices. The cavities are formed by decaying and rot but also but certain birds, like woodpeckers, that use their beak to make holes to try and find and pry out any bugs within the wood and then later on, some smaller animals will inhabit those holes later on depending on what size the cavities get.

We started off the day looking for Pine Grosbeaks, however, after about 30 minutes of looking we couldn’t find any birds. We went out towards the end of the day, around sundown, which is when a lot of birds are usually out, however, it was super cold that day so we didn’t see a lot of activity. We were also in an urban habitat which a lot of songbirds don’t like because of the noise and activity and around campus there are a lot of trees which common song birds don't usually gather in. So, we kept walking around to see if we could find some birds and finally we saw two American Crows heading overhead.
Crows are easily distinguishable because of their dark nature. Their bodies are black so they look like a silhouette against the sky and the wing-flaps look like a bird of prey's wing-flaps meaning that they are slow and graceful. However, unlike a bird of prey, they need to keep flapping in order to stay up where as a bird of prey can start flapping and linger in the wind stream. Crows are also a lot bigger than songbirds so it’s easy to distinguish them flying in the air, where as it is harder to distinguish them from a bird of prey. You will also see them flying a lot, we usually see them flying over instead of on the ground, so their pointed, elongated wings are usually the most recognizable trait.
We also saw a lot of Cedar Waxwings which we were not expecting to find. They were in the location where we heard the Pine Grosbeaks were located, so even though we were disappointed to not find the Pine Grosbeaks we were, however, excited to find a large flock of the Cedar Waxwings since we saw no bird activity about an hour prior. Cedar Waxwing‘s are distinguishable from other songbirds because of the tuft on top of their head and their slender-like nature. In a tree you can confuse them with a tufted titmouse (because of the tuft and not shape) or another slender bird like a grosbeak or a starling. However, once you look at the size the body shape, the head shape, the tuft, and the location, you can distinguish what type of species they are. The way they fly is also pretty recognizable because it’s fast and sharp and their wings are small but they like flying tree to tree so even though you can’t distinguish the wing flap on them you can still see their bodies moving quickly from tree to tree and pick out their body shape while moving. The habitat we saw the waxwings in was also their habitat niche. They love trees with berries in them so you can always find them in trees with berries or food because they use of a lot of energy flying so they have to keep eating and so the berry trees on the waterman green was a good location for them.
Lastly, we saw some Feral Pigeons which were located on top of the Davis Center. This is a spot where we could picture these pigeons to be because pigeons like urban environments and they also like to soak up the sun on top of buildings in these cities so UVM is a good location for them. We were surprised not to see them on the sidewalks, however, when we saw them on top of the roof we knew that they had to be a pigeon or a bird of prey. You can easily distinguish a pigeon from a bird of prey because of the pigeon's small head and large body and their head is also rounded with largely different coloration than a bird of prey. They also have a very clumsy like type of flying that always look like they’re about to fall but somehow they end up flying and making it to their location. While they are flying they have a distinctive wing flap and make a flying noise like a Mourning Dove. I usually say they’re like a small turkey where you can’t think they fly but then they go and show you up.
We were only able to find three different species of birds while we we birding because of the time we went out and the location we went birding in. Next time, we are going to try a more secluded/wooded area to go birding in.