April 16, 2016
For this birding expedition I travelled to Eagle Mountain in Milton, Vermont on Saturday, April 16th. At about 11 a.m. when I began hiking it was sunny and 42 degrees.
The first bird sighting was of a Great Blue Heron. This bird was seen right before we reached the entrance to the mountain. The bird was standing on the edge of a body of water but we could not see what the bird was doing because due thick brush that surrounded it. Approximately 5 minutes after we had driven by the Great Blue Heron, we heard the distant sounds of Wild Turkey. Soon after we heard the gobbling, four Wild Turkeys appeared on the side of the road. Three of them we female and one of them was a male. We stopped driving the car as the birds crossed the road. The females crossed first and the male trailed behind them, taking significantly longer to cross than the females.
Once we reached Eagle Mountain, we noticed a group of Black-capped Chickadees and House Sparrows foraging on the forest floor. The beginning portion of the walk lacked in actual visualizations, however we did hear the songs and calls of birds in the distance, such as the American Robin and American Crow. We additionally head the pecking of woodpeckers in the distance. About an hour into our hike, when we reached the top of the mountain, we identified multiple Turkey Vultures soaring around the tree canopy. They were identified based on their slotted wing tips. On the way down he mountain, we saw two White-breasted Nuthatches chasing one another up and down the trunk of tree. We also visualized both a Pileated and a Downy Woodpecker in two different trees near the base of the mountain. The Downy Woodpecker was perched on the side of the tree and the Pileated Woodpecker was pecking at the tree.
After leaving the mountain, we saw multiple birds on the drive back. A male Red-winged Blackbird was seen flying above a cattail marsh. He was quickly identified once the red and yellow patch on his wing was seen. Turkey Vultures and American Crows were seen frequently flying above the road. As we approached Burlington we saw a flock of Cedar Waxing perching in a tree and a few European Starling near campus. I arrived home at approximately 2:30 pm..
