• Date – 2/27/23
• Start time – 1:24pm
• End time – 2:30pm
• Location – Salmon Hole (and the abandoned building area across the street)
• Weather (temperature, wind speed/direction, precipitation) – 21°F, 3mph winds from the northwest, no precipitation, some clouds
• Habitat(s) – mixed trees, river edge, abandoned building
I went birding with another person from my class. We did not see very many birds, but we made observations of the behaviors and appearances of the bird during this season. I was expecting to see more birds by the waterfront of Salmon Hole, but we didn’t really see any there. A possible explanation for this is that it was a lot colder by the water, so birds may stay away from the water when the can in the winter to stay warm.
We crossed the street to an abandoned building that backed up to the edge of a big forested area and that is where we saw most of the birds. The birds looked pretty plump (that is really the best way to describe it). They were puffing out their feathers, probably to trap heat. We saw lots of Black-capped Chickadees which were jumping from tree to tree, a female Northern Cardinal who was just sitting, and a few American Robins that were eating the remaining berries on the trees. We also saw 2 ducks (maybe Mallards?) flying and 2 seagulls flying. The birds were pretty active because it was the warmest part of the day. The time they spend doing different activities during the winter changes as they are trying to conserve the most energy. For example, birds may spend less time moving because they are trying to conserve the energy they have. There is also less energy available to birds in terms of food, so they spend less time looking for food. Their diets also change. For example, I know that American Robins eat a lot of worms during the spring, but the ground is frozen during the winter so they eat more berries (what is remaining on the trees). Birds might also spend the night in different places during the winter. In populated areas, they may stay near houses because they are warmer. In less populated areas, birds may stay in holes in snags to protect them from wind, snow, rain, etc. (More on snags in the next paragraph).
For the mini activity, I made a map of the areas and marked where we saw snags. I am sure there were more snags than what we saw though. On the snags, we noticed many different holes. Some of the holes were really small and close together (which makes me think that a woodpecker may have been looking for food there at one point), and some of the holes were big. I noticed the bigger holes tended to be higher up on the snag. I used a stick to knock on one of the snags with a hole near the top and nothing happened, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that there wasn’t anything living in there. Snags are super important for lots of species. Birds may use snags as a place to build their nests that are a little more protected from the elements. Bugs may make their homes in snags too, and some bugs may eat the decaying wood. Birds can then eat the bugs in the snags.

Posted on February 27, 2023 08:34 PM by ajberkow