Through the Window: December 2022

Lifelike wood carving of a Black-capped chickadee, perched on the side of a rough-barked stump. Carved by Bob Spear.
Black-capped Chickadee, carved and painted by Bob Spear.

It’s the end of 2022, and a pretty good year it’s been. We hope the same is true for you.

Thank you for following us, supporting us, and being part of the museum community.

Enjoy the brief list of this month’s birds, consider donating to our annual appeal, and keep on birding!

Happy New Year!

December Bird List

Continue reading “Through the Window: December 2022”

Through the Window: November 2022

Downy Woodpecker and Blue Jay on a rectangular suet feeder. Photo appears to be a digiscoped image through a binocular lens.
Digiscoping a Downy Woodpecker and Blue Jay sharing a suet feeder. Photo by E. Talmage, and used with permission.

Welcome to the first month of our by-appointment season! It’s sometimes extra quiet around here as we work to catch up on reports, projects, and prepare for our annual appeal. 

And Feederwatch began! We have some volunteers who are wonderfully dedicated to helping the Museum participate in this community science program, so thank you Michele, Megan and Debbie!

November Bird List

Continue reading “Through the Window: November 2022”

Through the Window: October 2022

Red-bellied woodpecker, carved by Bob Spear
Red-bellied woodpecker, carved by Bob Spear

October is glorious! We started the month with the Dead Creek Wildlife festival, continued birding during the Big Sit!,  admired pollinators on fall flowers like asters, explored and documented plants for the phenology project, and welcomed campers visiting through the Harvest Host program. We spent some time working on the Retreat, which we hope to open to overnighters sometime in the next year.

Of course, we have to sit down by the Viewing Window and just watch birds  to recover from all of this.

October Bird List

Continue reading “Through the Window: October 2022”

Through the Window: June 2022

Woodcarving of red-eyed vireo, life size in profile, posed standing in ferns with autumn-tined leaves as a blurry background
Red-eyed Vireo from the Teaching Warblers collection. Carved by Bob Spear in 1988. Photographed by Erin Talmage.

It’s been a pleasant early summer month at the Birds of Vermont Museum. We’re continuing our Early Birder Morning Walks on Sundays, and had a new walk offered: “Tree IDs for Birders”. We even had a booksigning and a carving class!

Even though we’ve cut back on our feeding, we have still been able to enjoy spotting birds through our windows (and doors) at the Museum.

June Bird List

Continue reading “Through the Window: June 2022”

Through the Window: May 2022

American Redstart female stands on a green terry-cloth towel, looking slightly toward the camera. Photo by Erin Talmage for the Birds of Vermont Museum.Still limiting feeding, although this month we saw so many birds that one might hardly have thought we were doing this! (Also, see below for why.)

We also noticed that at certain times of the day, the light hit the front door just right (or perhaps, just wrongly) to apparently encourage bird collisions. We have fixed this! (More on this below, too.)

Also this month (and next): Early Birder Morning Walks! Check out the results when the walk leaders post them to eBird.

May Bird List

Continue reading “Through the Window: May 2022”