Field Observation 7

On Wednesday, May 2nd I rode my bike out to the Colchester Causeway to see how the bird population composition had changed since I had last been there. The last time I went out was an unusually warm day in February, and the lake was still mostly covered in ice. This time the lake was totally thawed and it was quite warm. I saw a handful of Ring-billed gulls flying together, as well as a couple Double-crested cormorants. What I was most excited to see however were the tiny, very fast birds I remembered seeing last summer but had been unable to identify at the time. I came across them swooping around a portion of the causeway that had frequent trees lining either side. From the shape I could see they were clearly swallows, though it took some careful observation to spot the distinctive red bib indicating that they were Barn Swallows. Last time I was here I saw a good deal of Common Mergansers and Common Goldeneyes, this time I only saw three Common Mergansers (two males and a female floating and diving relatively close to each other).

On the way back I stopped off at two more locations. First, I stopped by the marsh near Airplane Park. I had trouble actually spotting any birds through the thick marsh reeds and other foliage, but I certainly heard a lot. The distinctive marshy call of the Red-winged Blackbird certainly stood out, though I also heard Eastern Phoebes, Black-capped Chickadees, American Robins, House and Song Sparrows, Northern Cardinals and Blue Jays. The second place I stopped was just before the bridge back over the Colchester border back into Burlington. Here I heard more Red-winged Blackbirds and saw more Barn Swallows. What spurred me to stop however was spotting a Wood Duck paddling in the swamp below the bridge. I don’t think I’ve ever seen one in the wild before so it was an exciting find.

Posted on May 4, 2018 03:59 PM by rwhennes