Bird Outing, Early Spring at UVM 2020

This observation was conducted in the woods outside the resident area of UVM's Trinity campus. The area is a dense deciduous forest, which, at the time was populated by leafless trees and conifers. There were several S.T.A.G's with cavities in them but all appeared uninhabited at the time of observation. There was still about a half inch of snow covering the majority of the ground with some areas having over 3 inches. The temperature was in the 40's at the beginning of the observation but dropped to around 30 by the end.
Throughout the 90 minute observation time, starting at 5:30 pm and ending at 7 pm, a total of around 300 American Crows were seen all flying westward. The birds would come in a steady stream with groups of about 20 flying overhead at a time. An average of 15 seconds divided each group with there being breaks for a couple minutes occasionally and other times more than 50 birds flying together. The crows were observed calling to each other where an individual in one group would give off 3-4 caws and another individual in a different group would respond with 3-4 caws as well. This pattern occurred throughout the entire observation with there being intermittent calling between individuals in the same group.
There were a group of 5 European Starlings that followed in the midst of a larger group of crows. These birds called to each other and flew much closer together than the crows. Only this small group of 5 was observed over the entire time. These birds were also heading west in the same direction as the crows and disappeared along the horizon with them as well.
In the forest itself a number of titmice were observed singing from a conifer tree. It was unable to be determined if they were individuals nesting together but after their song was first heard they did persist in the tree for the continuing duration of the observation.
None of the birds were seen eating or performing any activity besides the flight of the crows and starlings and the singing of the titmice.
S.N.A.G's are important habitats for wintering birds and those that birds that nest here over the winter as it allows these birds to have a relatively well insulated home. As there are virtually no insects at the time of observation it is most likely that birds are consuming fruits and seeds or scavenging. The crows may spend their time all together in a large open area overnight as the safety in numbers as well as the cooperation in obtaining food is beneficial in the winter months.

Posted on March 6, 2020 01:33 PM by wfinegar