Diario de madilong

I biked through a little snow squall and arrived at Centennial Woods at 8 am. Once I got settled the snow had stopped and the weather was mostly overcast. I found a nice fallen branch to sit on so the sound of my boots crunching on the snow-covered trails didn't scare away the birds. I don't own binoculars and didn't loan any out before I began this adventure so I relied mostly on my ears to try and ID any birds that came close. At the beginning of my watch, I heard a few 'yanks' of what I can only assume were White-breasted Nuthatches. I tried to spot them in the trees but there was limited light in the tree canopy to distinguish the birds from the tree bark. I heard another call that stumped me. In my notes, I described the call as "squeaks with an 'I see you' whistle". When I got to my laptop I googled this to try and figure out what bird was but nothing right popped up. After listening while sitting on my branch for around 40 more minutes the sun came out! I hoped that I would be able to see a few more birds with the added light. I could hear the loud 'HA HA' call of an American Crow so I tried to look for their black feathers against the light brown tree bark but couldn't spot it. After an hour had passed I decided to walk along some of the trails because I didn't have much luck at my original spot.

Crossing two footbridges over a slightly frozen stream I noticed a small amount of movement at the base of a tree. I thought it was some low-hanging branches swaying in the light breeze at first. Then I noticed a bird beginning to climb up the base of the tree. I quickly pulled out the camera on my phone to take a video so that I would have more time to try and ID the bird if it flew away. The video wasn't the highest quality but based on the bird's tree-climbing behavior, the Audubon phone app, and the help of the amazing Professor Strong I ascertained the bird was a Brown Creeper. After learning how to ID the brown creeper in class I wanted to see one in the field because I think their tree-climbing behavior is interesting. Declaring my trek into Centennial Woods a success I walked the trails back to my bike, leaving around 9:30 am. It was nice to start my day with a peaceful morning out in the woods. Even though it was around 30 degrees Fahrenheit and I'm not a fan of being cold I'm looking forward to going bird watching again.