We continued to be light on the feeding this month, as we tried to do our bit to reduce or limit the spread of the mysterious disease we’d heard of—encouraging the equivalent of “social distancing” for birds. This disease had not been reported in Vermont. By the end of the month, we had resumed a very limiting feeding schedule.
At one point this month, we put several hornworms in the feeder tray. In late August, we started putting out sunflower chips again.
Birds observed, one way or another, in August
- Ruby-throated Hummingbird
- Mourning Dove
- Veery (vocal)
- Tufted Titmouse (heard and *)
- Eastern Pewee (heard)
- Common Yellowthroat (at pond)
- American Goldfinch*
- Gray Catbird (in parking lot)
- Blue Jay*
- Black-capped Chickadee (in parking lot)
- Northern Cardinal*
- Rose-breasted Grosbeak (female)*
- Hairy Woodpecker
- Red-breasted Nuthatch
- Downy Woodpecker
If you don’t feed the birds much, they don’t knock seed down to the ground, and then strangely enough, the squirrels and the chipmunks don’t spend all day in the bird feeding area. Go figure!
* observed at the tray after we put some tomato hornworms in it. Some were observed other days as well.
(Bold items in this list are those species not recorded in July 2021.)
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The “Through the Window” series is an informal record of observations made by staff, volunteers, and visitors. Anyone at the Museum may add to this list. Observations are usually through our viewing window: a large window with a film covering that helps hide watchers from the birds. We have chairs and binoculars to try, a white board, and many identification guides. Outdoors, several feeders are attached on a single, 8′ steel pole. A small pond, flowers and water plants, shrubs and trees add cover and (seasonally) other food choices . You can sometimes see what we see via our webcam.