Journal 6: Bird Observations and Follow

Revisiting My Site

    I did my observations at 1:30pm at Ravenna Park on Wednesday, November 25th. The weather was sunny and partially cloudy, and it was 46 degrees.

              Revisiting my site, nearly all of the leaves on the red alder trees have fallen. The common hazel on larger trees has turned yellow. More cones on western hemlock and western redcedar trees have dropped but a few remain on the branches.

My small scale site. The moss on the log is damp from the recent rainfall and the small mushrooms that were growing here have either died or fallen off, possibly because of the rain or wind. There is also less lichen on the surface of the log. I didn't see any water bugs or other species in the creek this week.

My large scale observation site. The trees lost more leaves this week and more light is shining through the canopy. The Oregon grape plants I observed before look like they're growing larger, with more leaves.

A new species I Identified was Pacific madrone, or Arbutus menziesii. The bark on this tree was very interesting, it was smooth and brownish. The stems of the leaves were a red color. The tree was about four meters tall, with dark green, oval shaped, alternate leaves. The leaves were matte and whitish on the underside.

              Another new species I identified was common ivy or Hedera Helix. I see this plant everywhere, usually climbing up large trees. When I identified this plant, I didn’t think it was common ivy because it was blooming, and I was unaware common ivy could bloom. The leaves are a dark green, shiny, and with three lobes and white veins.  The blooms were only present on ivy growing on large trees, and the ivy high up on the tree trunk, and were a green color. The blooms were in circular clusters.

Bird Identification

    The first species I identified was the American crow or Corvus brachyrhynchos. I saw several of these birds, one was on the ground and one in flight. In flight, the bird had broad wings, with smooth wingbeats. Their call was the familiar cawing sound. Appearance wise they were the largest of the birds I observed, a but longer than a foot long with a wingspan of  about three feet. They are all black with a large head.

The next species I identified was a song sparrow, or Melospiza melodia. They were mostly brown, with a white belly, rounded tails with black stripes, and a grayish bill. They were mostly on the ground in shrubs, or on trees low to the ground. There were some birdhouses around where I was observing that they were lingering around.

I identified another species of sparrow, the white throated sparrow or Zonotrichia albicollis. This one had three vibrant yellow stripes on the crown and above the eyes, separated by black stripes. It had a white belly and brown body. This one was low to the ground on a tree branch, and I was only able to observe for a few brief moments before it flew away. I am hesitant to ID this bird as a white throated sparrow considering Sibley says they are fairly uncommon, but based on my observations this is this species I saw.

I chose to follow a black capped chickadee or Poecile atricapillus, since there were a lot of them around and weren’t moving too far for me to follow. I wasn’t able to follow a single bird, but I noticed at least three were staying in the same area. They seemed to be social and grouped together. They stayed close to the ground on short trees or shrubs and flew short distances or hopped along branches. They perched on tree branches, mostly in bushes rather than open areas. While I was observing they didn’t remain perched for very long before flying to a different branch. Their flight pattern is over short distances and undulating. I didn’t see their direct interaction with other species but there were many sparrows in the area I observed the group of chickadees and they did not seem competitive or predatory, which is consistent with Sibley’s description that they can form groups with other song birds. Their call was the “chicka-dee-dee” sound they were named for. I was near some backyards with bird houses and they flew in and around the bird houses. They seemed to peck at the branches they landed on as a way of feeding, however I was too far away to see what specifically they were feeding on.