Diario de caitlindrasher

Today I did my first observation for WFB130. I went to Shelburne Bay at 11:30am. The temperature was 30F, and it was a cloudy and moderately windy day. I began with a walk down the trail by the Bay Park area, and not too long into my walk I heard the short whistle song of a Black-capped Chickadee. I followed the song into a stand of snags, and saw around 5-6 Chickadees. One was on the ground - hopping around - and the others were flying from snag-to-snag. After getting back on the trail and continuing to walk, I came across a less-defined trail that headed northwest. I followed this for a few steps and came across a wing of what appeared to be some species of Gull (see photos in observation list.) Back on the main trail, I encountered another wing about 15 m away from the first.

On my way back to the parking lot, I saw 27 Mallards (mix of males and females) just offshore, downhill from the parking area. There was also an American Crow sitting on the shore near the Mallards.

I continued my observations at the boat ramp area, and first spotted another group of Mallards just offshore from the boat ramp. There were 18 Mallards that I was able to count, but it also appeared that there could have been some additional (3-4) Black Ducks mixed in with the group. Also in this area were 20 Ring-billed Gulls and 1 Herring Gull, all resting on the ice at the mouth of the LaPlatte River. These gulls had their heads tucked into the feathers on their backs, and appeared as though they were trying to keep warm. There were a couple instances when a large gust of wind would come by, and some of the gulls would soar into the air with the assistance of the wind.

Overhead, I noticed what appeared to be a female Common Merganser flying northwest of the boat ramp area. This bird had a chestnut-brown head, and dark wings that had white secondary feathers. Just before I left, I also saw a flock of Canada Geese (16) flying in the same direction as the Merganser, and an American Crow pecking around in the parking lot.

Emily Feng and I decided to brave the cold this long-weekend and do our observations near the Donahue Sea Caves. The temperature was 11F, with 9 mph wind and mostly sunny skies. The Donahue Sea Caves are located in the Winooski Valley Park District, and can be found by following a trail that begins across the road from Burlington High School.

Walking down the trail, we heard multiple Black-capped Chickadee calls, in both a mixed hardwood section and a stand of softwoods (predominantly eastern hemlock.) We first explored the sea caves, and as we were walking along the edge of the frozen pond we also heard a call from a Northern Cardinal, and another from a Nuthatch (sounded more like a White-breasted Nuthatch.) There weren't any birds in the cave, but there was a large bird nest tucked into a crack in the back cave wall.

Once outside again, we stopped in the clearing adjacent to the pond. There was a lot of bird activity here, and we first noticed the Black-capped chickadees flying from tree-to-tree. During the 20-30 minutes we spent there we were able to distinguish at least 5 separate Chickadees. There were also 2 male Northern Cardinals that appeared to be circling around us for awhile, flying in an out of the smaller trees/shrubs/grasses at the pond edge. Also near the pond edge were 5 Dark-eyed Juncos; one was perched in a tree near the pond edge and appeared to have its feathers puffed up and its face tucked away. The others were flying in and out of the grasses at the edge of the trail/water. On the opposite side of the clearing, there was 1 Tufted Titmouse pecking at the ground underneath a stand of eastern hemlocks, looking for food. Adjacent to the hemlock stand heading up one slope, were a few yellow birches. There were at least 5 American Goldfinches pecking at the catkins left on the yellow birches.

From here we headed back up the trail toward the road. We stopped in a mixed hardwood stand only 6 m from the road edge when we noticed a flash of black, white, and red in a snag on the side of the trail. There was a Hairy Woodpecker sticking its beak into pre-existing holes in the snag, as it appeared to be looking for bugs to eat in the tree. This first Hairy Woodpecker flew away, but two more were spotted coming to the same tree. There was also another American Goldfinch perched just inches away from the second Hairy Woodpecker. We also saw 2 Mourning Doves in this area, flying downhill into more mixed hardwoods.

After this walk on this very cold day, I am amazed how active the birds were! I could barely take my large gloves off to write notes. Maybe the 11F and sunny day felt warm to them after a subzero weekend.