It’s November 18th, 2015 and it’s about two in the
afternoon at Boren Park. I arrive two
days after very large storm system with high winds and heavy rains that came
through our region on Tuesday. There is
lots of woody debris and lichen strewn about the forest floor that must have
been torn down from high up in the canopy during the mini maelstrom. The park trail that leads up to my site is
almost completely covered with leaf litter so that it is almost
indistinguishable from the surrounding landscape. As I
approach my observation point I realize I have forgotten my handy outdoor
thermometer. If I had to wager the temperature
it would probably be somewhere around 40 and 45 degrees.
After the storm earlier in the week the park is even wetter
than before. The bird activity during
this visit is highest I have ever noticed in all my time in the park. I wonder if it has to do with the fact that I
am paying more attention to the birds or if it was because the bugs seemed to
be out in numbers that day. Coincidentally,
it was also a good day for an invertebrate hunt for this week’s blog post, but
you can read more about that in my next post.
Hearing all of these bird calls I took an audio recording with my IPhone
so that I could upload them to my blog. I
even made a few calls myself to see if I could illicit a response. I was also successful in getting a response
from a bird in a tree nearby. Most noticeably
was a flock of Black-Capped Chickadees mobbing in a tree on the other side of
the ravine. Having just read the reading
about the complexity of chickadee calls they must have been responding to a predator.
Chicka-dee-dee-dee! Unfortunately, I tried to upload my bird call audio file
that I recorded that day but I was not successful. As soon as I figure out how to get the file
online I will add it to this post. I was quite annoyed by the constant biting of
mosquitos. There must be some standing
water somewhere in the woods where they are reproducing.
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