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Museum Installs a Little Free Library

the Little Free Library at the Birds of Vermont Museum
The Little Free Library at the Birds of Vermont Museum is installs on the side of a shed right near the entrance path.

Built of an upcycled Wood Duck nesting box, the Birds of Vermont Museum’s Little Free Library (LFL) is now up and open to the public. It is easy to get to: on a shed wall near the entrance path to the Museum. In keeping with a nesting motif (that is, slightly hidden), and wishing to keep some of the weather off, volunteer Erny P., 85, attached our LFL under the shed’s eaves. Erny also did the remodeling of the box, adding a door and a shelf for smaller books. The clear window gives a sneak peek at what’s inside.

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Through the Window: January 2020

Wild turkeys = traffic delay on Sherman Hollow road (photo copyright © 2020 Erin Talmage)
Wild turkeys = traffic delay on Sherman Hollow road (photo copyright © 2020 Erin Talmage and used by permission)

It’s been a somewhat snowy month (with what feels like big temperature swings and more thawing). This has made for lovely photos (check out our instagram), and not-too-troublesome road conditions for people coming to our events (a series of bird talks and a few walks). The feeders aren’t quiet, exactly, but they are slight less diverse. Still, it’s a joy to see turkey tracks when you go out in the morning to fill the feeders!

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Through the Window: December 2019

Red-breasted Nuthatch. Carved by Bob Spear in the early 1960s.
Red-breasted Nuthatch. Carved by Bob Spear in the early 1960s.

We’ve enjoyed welcoming some new birders to our monthly bird monitoring walks. This more than makes up for the quiet of the winter species counts at our a Viewing Window. These walks are the last Saturday of every month. We record those observations over on eBird.

Before you head over there, though, enjoy this short but sweet December window observation list. What’s your favorite of the species listed here? How come ?

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Call to Artists: Borders

Borders: illusions that constrain us [a call to artists]

Borders

illusions that constrain us

A Call to Artists from the Birds of Vermont Museum

What borders do birds encounter? Our maps do not typically reflect the territories they perceive, the ranges they travel, or the barriers they comes across. How do birds’ boundaries connect to human borders? To those of other species? Edges of things—physically, spatially, temporally— raise questions, not least of which is “Is it really there?”

We ponder this, wondering, how do and will these encounters and connections alter us, birds, and the borders themselves?

We seek works that share visions of birds, borders, and boundaries, now and into the future, for our 2020 art exhibit, Borders.

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Through the Window: August 2019

teaching warblers
Teaching warblers: half of the set carved by Bob Spear.

Summer is nests and fledglings, flowers and pollinators, greens and golds and more. Young birds come to the feeders, squawk … and sometimes get ignored by their parents! Hummingbirds defend the feeders and the bee balm; some hawk moths get mistaken for hummingbirds. The forest canopy is thick and provides deep cover for the warblers and more. It’s a rich and beautiful time. Who needs a feeder, with so much to eat in the forest?

No one, really, but some come anyway:

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Through the Window: July 2019

Adult Common Grackle tends its juvenile while a Rose-breasted Grosbeak looks on.
Adult Common Grackle tends its juvenile while a Rose-breasted Grosbeak looks on.

By July, the birds get pretty busy with nestlings, fledglings, and juveniles.  A few juveniles of one kind of another come to the feeders, and fuss at their parents to keep on feeding them.

Here are the species seen at the feeders over the last month. Sometimes we can even tell when the bird is a juvenile!

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