Journal Entry #6

I decided to go for a bird walk in Centennial Woods on Sunday April 21nd. It was almost 70 degrees outside, one of the warmest days in Burlington so far this season, not too windy, and partly cloudy. Because of this I thought it would be the perfect day to see and hear as many birds as I could. I went around 11:30 am until 1:20 pm.
The first thing I noticed after walking through the entrance to Centennial was how much more vocal the birds were compared to last time I was there. I immediately heard many different birds calls; some I could not identify. The ones that were easy to distinguish right away were the calls of the Black-capped Chickadee, American Robin, and Canada Geese.
The first bird I saw was a Pileated Woodpecker. This was a cool experience for me because I had never seen one before! I noticed it immediately by the distinct red on its head. It was up in the tree canopy and was staying relatively still, other than moving its head occasionally. I was kind of far from it so it didn't seem to notice me. It was alone and the only activity it seemed to do related to mating was make its distinct chattering once, awhile after I started watching it.
When I got to a large clearing in the path towards the middle of Centennial, I heard what sounded like angry squawking and chirping right above me. They were being extremely vocal. I looked up to see two Red-winged Blackbirds which appeared to be flying through the sky while fighting, pecking, and ramming into each other. They were definitely participating in some agonistic behavior that was definitely related to fighting over mating territory. This is common to see in this species, where the males fight with other males over territory in the beginning of the mating season.
I saw and heard many American Robin during my walk, and observed that they stayed mostly towards the outer edge of the woods area. This made sense, because they seem to prefer more residential areas instead of the more deeply wooded area. I tried looking for Robin nests low in evergreen trees along the outer edge habitat of Centennial but failed to find any that had already been constructed. I did see multiple pairs of American Robins during my walk. This seemed different than earlier in the season when I would see them usually alone or occasionally in a bigger group.
I saw three cardinals during my walk, all spaced pretty far apart but all out in the open. They were all males and seemed to have already claimed their territory spots, probably showing themselves and looking for a mate. They were higher up in the trees that didn't have any leaves on them, they seemed to be out in the open with a purpose. They did not make any sounds while I was observing them, but I did hear the call of one close to me as I was leaving the woods.
After doing the mini activity, I was surprised to notice a real pattern in some of the symbology on my sheet of paper. I tried to do this activity on one side of Centennial instead of more towards the middle, in a place where there was varied habitat, hoping to hear many different species. I hearD the call of many american robin, probably 4 different individuals. They were all in more of the edge habitat towards one portion of my circle. I saw one individual. The other call I heard coming from all directions, and were all close to me surrounding me on my map were Black-capped Chickadees. I saw two but heard probably six different individuals.

Posted on April 22, 2019 08:52 PM by kyaurora kyaurora

Observations

Photos / Sounds

No photos or sounds

What

Black-capped Chickadee (Poecile atricapillus)

Observer

kyaurora

Date

April 21, 2019

Photos / Sounds

No photos or sounds

What

American Robin (Turdus migratorius)

Observer

kyaurora

Date

April 21, 2019

Photos / Sounds

No photos or sounds

What

Pileated Woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus)

Observer

kyaurora

Date

April 21, 2019

Photos / Sounds

No photos or sounds

What

Canada Goose (Branta canadensis)

Observer

kyaurora

Date

April 21, 2019

Photos / Sounds

No photos or sounds

What

Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus)

Observer

kyaurora

Date

April 21, 2019

Photos / Sounds

What

Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis)

Observer

kyaurora

Date

April 21, 2019

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