Red Rocks Park 2/16/20

I arrived at Red Rocks Park at 1:00 pm on Sunday, February 16th, and walked the trails until 2:45 pm. I arrived later in the day than I usually want to when birding, but since it was a cold day, this may have been a good time to let the birds warm up and become active. It was a sunny day with calm conditions in the forest, but a strong breeze coming off of the lake. This park provided a great diversity of habitats including northern hardwood forests, mixed hardwood and coniferous forests, conifer stands, and Lake Champlain.
I saw a total of nine species, but got especially good looks at a few Black-Capped Chickadees and a Downy Woodpecker. The Black-capped Chickadees tended to move in groups, frantically hopping and flying throughout the trees. They seemed to only make short flights, within a tree’s canopy or to a nearby tree. The Black-capped Chickadees looked like they had relatively short and broad elliptical wings, which would be good for this type of flight.
The Downy Woodpecker, however, made fewer flights, but went greater distances during those flights. Additionally, opposed to the chickadees continuous wing beats, the Downy Woodpecker flapped in bursts and then tucked its wings for a second or two. This created an undulating flight path. From my previous birding experiences, I have found this undulating flight path to be a great way to identify woodpeckers, along with a few other species, from a distance. The wings of the Downy Woodpecker seemed similar to that of the Black-capped Chickadee, but a little bit longer in proportion. This slightly greater aspect ratio may help them in longer flights compared to the Black-capped Chickadees.
This was my first time at Red Rocks Park, and I was pretty happy with the number of birds I saw. It really felt like spring when I first started walking in with the song of a Tufted Titmouse and a Red-bellied Woodpecker. Now I am excited to check it out during spring migration!

Posted on February 19, 2020 07:40 PM by