elizabethkaufmann's Journal

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 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 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.

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 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!