3rd overall journal entry

Date: 03/07/2021
Start Time: 2:20
End Time: 3:50
Location: Delcarte Reservation Franklin Massachusetts and Shepards Brook, a small stream that fills out into a larger mass of water, off Winterberry Drive right near my house.

Weather: The weather was sunny, had a temperature of 37 degrees Fahrenheit, a wind speed of about 5 mph, 1% precipitation and the direction of the wind was going southeast.

Habitat: The reservation was similar to a marsh, lots of tall grass in the center of the large body of water, and surrounded by woody trees with the leaves still on them. The brook was an open field with tall dead grass and tons of woody trees surrounding us, and a large body of water with more woody trees on the other side. At each site there was a forest that went on for miles.

I was very excited because my parents wanted to come along for the bird watching trip. When we started the trip, I first saw two mourning doves, distinguishable by its grey/white color, in the woods too my left, they were walking nice and calmly and I was able to get a shot. Immediately after that I saw two ducks, one was black with a white ring around its beak and one was brown with a white ring around its beak. The black one was a male and the brown one was a female, they were ring-necked ducks, who was diving underwater for fish. About 30-40 minutes later, we came upon a bird sound deep in the woods. We could see the one bird flying around, small birds with elliptical shaped wings, but I couldn't get an id. We stayed out in the forest for about 20 more minutes but realized that there were relatively few birds their, so we decided to get in the car and go to this lake, later revealed to be a brook, near my house. After 10 minutes of traveling by car, in which I kept my eyes peeled for birds on the ride, me and my father got out and headed down to the water. When we first got to the water, we noticed something above us, something large, then it started flying. It was one red-tailed hawk, which I could see through my binoculars the slightly reddish tail, as it was perched on a tall tree across the water. It was a miraculous catch. After I captured the image of the hawk, me and my dad went into the tree line and came upon an open field filled with dead tall grass, which looked like there should be water in it, but was not. This may be because there was a lot of rocks up that made a solid wall, most likely man made, but old. While walking in the field, I heard that same bird call that I previously heard in the reservations woods, one bird, so I pulled out my recorder which later I realized I had heard before, a cedar waxwing. I was happy I was able to record that bird, but after I was even happier because I saw another bird from my class. In the trees I saw a bird that was hanging off the side of a branch, like it was defying gravity, it had a white chest, black crest and navy blue plumage, I realized it was a white-breasted nuthatch, which I the took a picture of. With five minutes left, me and my dad walked back to the car and decided we had been apart of a good day of bird watching.

There is no doubt that it is cold and that would certainly affect how these birds will act. When it comes to food, the winter does not pose as much problems for the ducks and the hawk since while it may be tougher for the hawk to find small animals like mice, and for the ducks to find fish, it is due-able considering not every body of water will freeze over, like the reservation today. However, for the rest of the birds it will be more challenging. Most of the species observed like the waxwing, nuthatch and dove eat fruits, seeds, and insects, but the winter season will make it very hard to find insects and fruit so these birds will need to rely more on seeds which are high in protein. In terms of their activity, given the conditions and the scarcity of food during the winter, for all the birds, I would suspect that each of the species listed here today would allocate more time to hunting/foraging for food as well as sleeping which is a great time to replenish their warmth for the night and maybe a little resting too in order for warmth to be generated. However, I would suspect for each bird that breeding would take a back seat as having chicks during this time of year for these birds since a bird born in the cold would have a harder chance of survival. In order for the birds to retain warmth, the smaller birds like the nuthatch, waxwing, and dove have to constantly preen their feathers since the cleaner their feathers are the more likely they are to stay dry and uncontaminated, any liquid on it can freeze overnight. By huddling their head and body parts together they create an insulated ball of feathers, mostly the down feathers help for warmth. On the other hand, while hawks and ducks also preen their feathers so they are protected to help maintain an insular ball of warmth, but most of the time when sleeping they are more exposed than smaller birds they have to do something extra to help, which is that sometimes, not all, the ducks will stand on one leg while sleeping thus preventing half the loss of heat overnight. The hawk will do the same stance on a branch while it sleeps. In terms of sleep, it is most likely due to the climate the smaller birds will find a place to sleep for the night in a cavity of a dead tree, preferably a small hole so no predators or larger birds can get in. The ducks sleep in in an area where they have overhead protection and has dense brush but are more exposed, while the hawk normally sleeps perched on top of a tall tree or post.

Speaking of dead trees and cavities, while I was walking around the reservation I took notice of the snags that were present in the area of the woods and by the water. the snags were evenly distributed throughout the the forest and the water, there was a lot that was dead and knocked over, but not standing. The brook was different in that the trees were not dead and there was relatively few snags, however we did not check every edge of the water. When it came to the reservation, even though the number of snags remained consistent, the difference was the sizes of the cavities. The cavities on the snags near the water were much bigger in width than the cavities deep in the woods where we heard the smaller birds. I believe because the woods are much more dense smaller birds would have an easier time getting through and thus there would be smaller cavities either made or inhabited. Near the water the cavities were much larger I believe because there was much larger birds such as the ducks and the doves. Even though the doves are small they can be much larger than the other birds (waxwing and nuthatch). I believe that the cavity was inhabited by or made by much larger birds looking to stay in their for the night and based off what I saw from the excursion, larger birds are more likely to hang out by the water and not necessarily in the deep part of the woods. Sometimes, ducks if they are nesting, or cant find a place to roost will sometimes sleep in a larger cavity, but one that is close to the ground like the ones I saw. Also, because doves and ducks are likely to join in groups, based off what I have seen, it is more likely they would need wider and deeper cavities than some of these tinier birds. The doves though, I believe are more likely to sleep in these wider cavities all night, while the ducks are more likely to roost in the grass with preferably something over their heads like a bush. A hawk on the other hand usually sleeps out in the open and for the most part doesn't seem to need cavities in snags. Sadly when I smacked a stick on the snags, nothing popped out, I was a little disappointed but I also didn't want to disturb the peacefulness of the forest too much.

Posted on March 9, 2021 04:56 AM by sdecrescinaturalist