Orno Journal 6

Time: 8:30 AM
Date: Monday, April 8th, 2024
Weather: Mild wind, sunny, no clouds

The bird I kept observing was the Carolina Wren. There seems to be one male that I always spot on my routes, so he definitely has a very well established territory in South Burlington. He sings pretty much constantly, which I am attributing to he is either establishing/defending his territory or looking for a mate. He has also been spotted by me hopping around on a telephone wire and looking around. I'm not exactly sure what he's doing, but I think that he's using the sheltered height to scope out where to put a nest and where potential predators might be able to hide. Carolina Wrens like small, sheltered spots, with their nest sort of being like a little cave. So on this specific property, he could be nesting in one of their flowerpots that blew over, in the overhang of their roof, or even the mailbox! In their natural habitat they prefer stumps and overhangs, but since the city does exist they make do with what they can find. Even within the city, different birds require different areas to nest. For example, sparrows like to nest in shrubbery or bushes, they probably wouldn't be comfortable in a wren nest and would probably pick the hedges on the property to nest in instead, or even their small cedar tree. Cardinals nest in trees, and weave their nest using small fibrous pieces, sticks, and mud. So they would probably like to have a mud- making source nearby, so perhaps a tree near a gutter would work well for them.
I heard a chickadee singing in some of the shrubbery as I was passing by. It sounded kind of angry and very strong, so of course I stopped to investigate. It seemed to have picked out a small spot of heaven in Burlington, it was a small greenspace there were small trees, bushes, and even little food sources. For the city, I would say that it is a pretty good area outside of the park spaces. I would imagine that this chickadee was extremely fit to hold onto such a great area.
These aren't up this far north yet, but when I think of interesting nests, I think of Ruby-throated Hummingbirds. They make their nest out of spider silk, so that it can grow and shift as the chicks grow. To find spider silk, they have to search high and low through bushes, awnings, and maybe some old barns as well to acquire such a unique material. They also have the danger of actually getting stuck within the spiderweb as they weigh so little.

Publicerat 24 april 2024 05.54 av