Bird Watching #6

Date: 4/23/2019
Location: Behind Harris Millis in the open field
Time: 4:45-6:30
Weather: Cloudy with some rain
Habitat: Open trees and a long patch of grass

The rainy day and overcast week of April is no surprise, and the robins took their experience. American robins are a notorious scouting bird and can perch in trees to fly and pick out worms from the ground with accuracy. The Robins nest in trees with thick foliage to protect the young, and both parents feed the children many times an hour. Robins interact with other robins and are not malevolent to each other, but they can be timid to ring-billed gulls which squawk the smaller birds away.
After some time waiting in the dark day, house sparrows came out to chip around to find a mate. Their songs are a regular chatter and make the environment noisy with the short peeps. House sparrows differ from Robins from their interactions within their own species and are more aggressive to other individuals which are crossing territory lines. I observed house sparrows that nested in bushes and in maple trees with thicker branches.

Nests in Burlington must be resilient to the constant wind, and many nests contain litter from the campus. I saw two nests which were out of sight, but one contained spare tissues which I speculate was picked off of the ground by a Robin. Nests are protected by the chipping of the birds and signaled individuals who were too close to their nests.

Gull nests are sparse away from the water, as they rely on spare sticks and herbaceous growth which can be collected around the water. Gulls are territorial about most aspects of their behavior and fight over small scraps that can be food or just trash. Their behavior towards other individuals around nests is less territorial as many can nest together in groups. Robins and House sparrows are less likely to nest in groups as they can nest in various places and are territorial of their nests.

Posted on April 26, 2019 03:31 AM by vanbiederman