Field Journal 3: Ecological Physiology

Date: March 6th, 2021
Time: 12:55pm - 2:20pm
Location: Notch road, Jeffersonville, VT (Route 108).
-> I walked 1.22 miles from the Smuggler's Notch Upper parking lot to the Sterling Pond Trail Head
(then back along the same route).
Weather: 20 degrees, cloudy, windy
Habitats: Mixed deciduous forest with lots of snags.
Elevation: 1,670 ft at the parking lot; 2,108 ft at the trail head.

I only saw 6 individual birds along this 2.44 mile stretch of the notch road. Both the two crows and two out of the four chickadees I saw were very close to the parking lot where I started. In fact, I observed the crow swooping down onto the parking lot to grab what looked like a piece of bread from the ground. Two of the chickadees were near/feeding from a bird feeder set up by one of the Smuggler's Notch employees. These birds seem to be relying heavily on food provided by humans during what must be a difficult time to find food. I assume that this late in the winter many birds are having trouble finding food and their fat stores are running low. Relying on humans/more urban places/bird feeders for food may be one strategy to get enough food through this part of the winter. I expected to see more birds than I actually observed on the Notch Road. There could be a few reasons for this. It was the middle of the afternoon when birds are less active, it was a very cold and windy day, and early migrants are not coming to the harsher/cold/higher elevation areas around the mountains. I wonder if most early migrants tend to go to warmer areas where they can find food. Maybe this stretch of the Notch Road only has birds that have overwintered there now (like Black-capped Chickadees and American Crows), but as the weather warms, more birds will migrate the that area. The "notch" between Mt. Mansfield and Sterling Mountain may provide some shelter compared to the peaks of these mountains.

Birds have a number of strategies to survive in cold weather. Down feathers are an important part of retaining warmth through the winter. Another important strategy to survive cold weather is taking shelter out of the cold and wind inside of snags and tree cavities. This is one behavioral strategy that allows birds to live in cold areas. They likely spend less time moving/out in the cold during the winter to retain energy. Snags/tree cavities are a huge asset to birds in cold climates and often the number of tree cavities is a habitat requirement that limits the number of birds that can live in an area. Overwintering birds like Black-capped Chickadees, Tufted Titmice, nuthatches, Brown Creepers, and others will use tree cavities. This stretch of the Notch road boasted numerous snags. In fact just along the sides of the road, I noticed at least one snag almost every 20 feet!

(See this link to view a map of snags: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QdFpXojDMlfMKww9fr8GyfPKhlbdPVMgp7gUOWLWBKk/edit?usp=sharing ).
Note: I only recorded snags that were within ~30 feet of the road.

This tells me that this area could be a good place for the species to live who need tree cavities during the winter. I noticed some snags with longer holes likely created by Pileated Woodpeckers and other smaller cavities created by downy and hairy woodpeckers. The larger trees seemed to have larger holes in them. None of the snags that I tapped on had any birds come out.

Julkaistu maaliskuu 7, 2021 09:06 IP. käyttäjältä gthiggins