hilarygood's Journal

Date - 03/07/21
Start time - 4:00pm
End time - 5:30 pm
Location - Red Rocks Park, South Burlington, VT
Weather (temperature, wind speed/direction, precipitation) - 25 degrees, no wind, clear skies
Habitat(s) -Eastern white pine forests with deep shade, sparse underbrush; young ironwood and musclewood groves with plenty of sun on rocky outcrops

I had surprisingly bad luck finding birds this time around. Over ninety minutes, I identified one Hairy Woodpecker, saw one hawk fly overhead too fast to photograph, and heard a few scattered chirps. I may have had more luck near the edges of the forest, because a lot of the habitat had thick evergreen cover without much underbrush for shelter or food.
The Hairy Woodpecker foraged the entire time I could observe it. It was up high on a dead deciduous tree pecking holes into the branches. Since food is less plentiful in winter, it makes sense that birds would be spending more of their time looking for it. Hairy woodpeckers primarily eat larvae in wood, but they feed on seeds and berries occasionally. Minus the berries, this one's winter diet is probably pretty similar to its summer diet.
I'm not sure what the woodpecker was doing to stay warm, other than producing heat through activity. Its feathers didn't look fluffed up from far away; the wind was calm and it was already active, so it might not have needed the extra insulation. I poked around a bunch of dead trees, and the forest at Red Rocks had plenty of cavities it could have spent the night in.
Even though I didn't find any birds through it, I had a lot of fun with this week's mini activity. The friends I brought laughed at me for hitting dead trees with sticks, and unfortunately I did not give them a reason to stop by actually finding birds. Most of the cavities I found seemed to be excavated by woodpeckers for food, as they weren't deep enough for nesting or shelter. A few trees had promising cavities, but despite my very polite knocking, no one came out to say hello. Snags are an important source of shelter for birds in winter. Cavities in snags provide respite from wind and snow. Woodpeckers like the one I saw use cavities, as well as other common cavity nesters like chickadees and nuthatches, plus some smaller owls and raptors.

Date - 03/20/21
Start time - 1:50 pm
End time - 3:20 pm
Location - Mt. Philo, Charlotte, Vermont
Weather (temperature, wind speed/direction, precipitation) - 50°F, 5-10mph wind from SW, sunny
Habitat(s) - moderately dense deciduous forest with beeches, birches, and some cedars at the base; heart-leaved birch forest with large openings towards the top; cedar and pine clusters on rocky outcrops at the summit

The two nuthatches I saw were busy avoiding hikers and birders, so I didn't get to watch them communicate for too long. I heard them calling back and forth with what AllAboutBirds describes as a nasal "yank", which I think is accurate. From what I researched, nuthatches live in pairs year-round, so I probably saw a male and female foraging together. They both flew away from where I spotted them at the same time, which is why I think they were communicating and not just making noise. I didn't get to watch them long enough to read their body language, but I read about nuthatch physical communication. They raise the feathers on their back, spread out their tails, and flick their wings when they're agitated. To communicate that they are giving up a confrontation, they raise their beaks and tails while lowering their wings.

The nuthatches and raven (or crow) had very different plumages. While the corvid was a uniform shiny black, the nuthatches had white bellies and cheeks, gray backs, and a black (male) or gray (female) cap. The corvid's feathers are strengthened by the melanocytes that give them their black color. Black plumage stands out on snow, leaves, and dead tree trunks, so the corvid's feathers aren't serving as camouflage. It's possible that because of their size (raven) or aggression and tendency to flock (crow), the corvid doesn't need to hide to avoid predation.
The nuthatch's dark back and light underside create a kind of camouflage known as counter-shading. While the exact function is debated, counter-shading helps birds to match their background from above and below, and it also breaks up their silhouette from the side. Since nuthatches are much smaller than crows and ravens, they may rely more on camouflage to avoid predation.

The corvid was perched in a dead pine tree when I saw it. This time of year, many mature ravens are building nests and getting ready to raise young. This one could have been taking a break, or it could have been immature and not nesting this year. The nuthatches appeared to be foraging. They could have been looking for fresh food as the forest thaws, or they could have been retrieving seeds and insects cached behind tree bark before winter. Most nuthatches breed in May and June, so it's unlikely that this pair was building a nest yet (and I didn't see them with any materials).

I tried spishing at the nuthatches, but they were already on the move by the time I got around to it. I don't think that's what drove them away, but it certainly didn't attract them.