Centennial Woods, 2/12/2017

In the woods, we didn’t see any birds. On the edge of an opening under power lines was where we heard the most, but although we searched for 15 minutes around the area with binoculars, we were unable to see any, other than a murder of Crows flying above head. In this area, we heard a White-breasted Nuthatch and a Black-Capped Chickadee. We decided to continue down the clearing in hopes of spotting a bird perched on the edge of the woods or swooping across the clearing. When this didn’t work, we sat quietly and listened for another 15 minutes, which also yielded no results. As we turned back, and entered back on the Centennial “loop”, we began hearing a relatively monotone “chirp”, but we were unable to track it down or identify it. Upon leaving the woods, feeling pretty down on our luck, we noticed a small group of Robins in a tree by the intersection of East Ave and Carrigan Drive. One of them was sitting on a nest, with the rest perched on nearby branches. As we approached quietly, the one on the nest took off with a few others, but the rest stayed, in general, on their perches.

I wish that we had gotten out earlier in the morning to catch birds out-and-about gathering food before the heavy snow began to fall. However, it was a good lesson for next time to get out earlier in the day, particularly if the weather is supposed to take a turn for the worse.

Being there were only two I witnessed flying, I began making comparisons between the flight patterns of the Robins and Crows I had seen.
Crows, being a much larger bird with longer wings, made slower, deliberate wing strokes in small bursts, then use their large wings to glide until they need to flap again to get back to a gliding altitude. Their long wings and gliding prevents them from being the most agile fliers. Their feathers are also shaped like splayed fingers, which aids in gliding.
Robins, which are small song birds, make very rapid wing beats constantly. Their wings are sleeker and smaller (relative to body size) when compared to the Crow. This makes sense, as robins must be agile to make quick turns around obstacles, whereas Crows can fly above the tree line where smaller birds may be wary to venture out to. Crows also often land in open fields, where their large wings have the space to take off.

Posted on 16 February, 2017 20:49 by kevtolan