March 25th: Social Behavior and Phenology

I went out on March 21st, it was a bitterly cold day out ranging just below freezing. There wasn't any precipitation but it was windy and cloudy out. I walked to Centennial woods from east ave down there was actually a high amount of bird activity for it being a cold and blistery day.

My birds were all grouped up and while, not chatting they were chirping back and forth. There are many audio clues that were audible including danger calls and warnings to, me the potential predator. I saw a Black-capped Chickadee as well as a Northern Cardinal, they each have an advantage in different ways. The chickadee can blend into the environment and is better at surviving predators, while the cardinal's color helps it to attract mates and show dominance.

While walking to the woods I encountered multiple American Robins all of whom looked like they were angry they came up this early to find Vermont still very cold. They did not appreciate the pishing. One thing that I noticed was their warning calls were social, each bird responded and when I got closer it got louder and a faster speed. Also it felt like the male robins were flying out in front of me attempting to distract me or something along those lines, they flew right in front of me just out of my reach multiple times. I am curious if they were attempting to protect any females or were they just playing a game with each other to see who could get closest to me.

While pishing I did feel rather foolish, and I am not very good at getting wildlife, especially birds, to do what I want alas it seemed to startle most of the chickadees I got near. However some of them where able to overcome the beard and forbearing posture and they came to see what in the world I was doing. The first times I tried to do it they flew away in fear but the time it worked they were curious about what I was doing. While pishing I tried to dig into the shhh sound and almost whistled it to sound more bird like.

Publicado el 28 de marzo de 2020 por