Journal #2: Ecological Physiology

On Saturday, February 29th, 2020, I went into Red Rocks forest from 2:00 PM until 3:30 PM. The temperature was around 19º F and it was cloudy with no wind. This forest is an expansive piece of land and ranged from deciduous to mixed deciduous and coniferous. This park is next to Lake Champlain, and as the name states, it is fairly rocky at the top resulting in sparse trees in some places. The species I observed were Black-Capped Chickadees, American Crows, a Red-bellied Woodpecker and a Tufted Titmouse.
The most abundant species I observed was by far the Chickadee with 15 individuals observed over the course of my outing. Their behavior was interesting because I saw no chickadees in the parts of the forest with more dispersed trees, and as well as parts with majority shorter trees. In both coniferous and deciduous trees, the chickadees stayed on the crests, flitted back and forth between trees often, and never stopped calling. I though that this could be a way to produce and retain body heat because the constant movement between trees would force their body to work to keep them moving, generating heat. The singing could do a similar job because their breasts move when the call was made, which is a movement that could generate body heat. I also observed them staying in the treetops which could act as a buffer to the cold winds coming off the lake, or just a shield from the cold. The coniferous trees still had needles on their tops, which could play a role in conserving the chickadees body heat. Additionally, being only in dense forests groves would do more to protect against wind then the single trees.
Over the course of my observation, I saw around 6 snags. There was one very large one that had cavities in it, but they did not appear to be made by animals. I heard a Red-bellied Woodpecker around this snag, but I was unable to ascertain if it was in the snag or the surrounding trees. I looked in some of the cavities, but they appeared to be empty. However, I saw a significantly smaller snag that was riddled with what looked like woodpecker burr holes. There were shavings in the tree that looked like they might be nest cavities, but I was unable to determine if there were any woodpeckers in the snag at that time. The main use for the snags looked like they were either for nests, or as a food source of the bugs that live within snags. In the winter months, snags could be important food sources because many other insects might die off in the cold and snags create livable environments. They also could act as shield from the cold because inside a tree is warmer than in the exposed air. The snag cavities were all over the site, so I could not find a direct correlation between snag density and bird abundance, but the snags that had cavities in them were generally in areas where I could at least hear birds.

Posted on March 3, 2020 08:25 PM by iadeslaw