By-Appointment Season 2024-2025 (April)

white, five-petaled flower with long, smooth leaves growing at the base of a gray rock.

From November through April, we’re open by appointment and for special events. Individuals, families, and groups are all welcome at all times of year. Our trails are open year-round, sunrise to sunset.

Behind the scenes in April: we’re jurying the submitted art, contacting artists, and hanging the art for Birds and Myth. We’re also working on grants, welcoming volunteers, tidying permanent exhibits. We’re excited about returning migratory birds and planning lots of birds walks for May and June!

Please call (802) 434-2167 or email museum@birdsofvermont.org several days in advance to schedule your visit. Admission is free for members!

Or sign up to attend special events: these are listed on our calendar at https://birdsofvermont.org/special-upcoming/

March 2025 events

Crocuses pierce a light coating of snow in the foreground; a wooden bridge in the midground leads to a dark barn-type building in the background (the Birds of Vermont Museum). Leafless trees frame the background to either side of the bridge and museum.

The Birds of Vermont Museum is busy behind the scenes, but here are a few events to know about. Feel free to post this on your sites, boards, etc., and thank you! The Museum is open by appointment and for special events (like the Great Backyard Bird Count) at this time of year. Free admission for members!

The trails are open from sunrise to sunset, every day—we recommend using the south trails (Spear, Discovery, Story) rather than Gale’s, Pop’s, or Bob’s, thanks to flooding last July. Trail maps and more information are available on our website, and are posted at the museum and at trail kiosks as well. (Let us know if the wind moved any!)

=== MARCH EVENTS ===

Continue reading “March 2025 events”

By-Appointment Season 2024-2025 (March)

A Wild Turkey is seen through an office window.

From November through April, we’re open by appointment and for special events. Individuals, families, and groups are all welcome at all times of year. Our trails are open year-round, sunrise to sunset.

Behind the scenes in March: we’re reviewing submissions for the new art show, feeding birds, working on special projects, hosting the spring board meeting…

We invite all artists to pick up their works from previous shows!

Please call (802) 434-2167 or email museum@birdsofvermont.org several days in advance to schedule your visit. Admission is free for members!

Or sign up to attend special events: these are listed on our calendar at https://birdsofvermont.org/special-upcoming/

Through the Window: January 2025

Brown Creeper, carved by Robert N. Spear, Jr.
Brown Creeper, wood carving by Robert N. Spear, Jr.

Many thanks to the MP and MP, two regular volunteers with the same initials, who help us participate in community science programs. They have been here almost every Tuesday to record birds for Feederwatch and eBird… and to note birds on the white board by the window (see the list below).

When you go birding, take note of your observations! Every record you contribute is part of important community science and large data monitoring for conservation! One record at a time may not feel like much, but they add up into incredibly useful data. You might enjoy reading “9 Ways People Have Used eBird Data to Make Conservation Happen.” (Ed. note: Let me know of more recent conservation successes based on bird data, and I’ll add that info to next month’s post!)

January Bird List

Continue reading “Through the Window: January 2025”

By-Appointment Season 2024-2025 (February)

Camel's Hump: view from the Birds of Vermont Museum's backyard

From November through April, we’re open by appointment and for special events. Individuals, families, and groups are all welcome at all times of year. Our trails are open year-round, sunrise to sunset.

Behind the scenes in February:  We’re working on some special projects this month and doing some quiet birding. A few artists might stop in to pick up works from last year’s show and we hope many of them are imagining or creating new ones for Birds and Myth.

Please call (802) 434-2167 or email museum@birdsofvermont.org several days in advance to schedule your visit. Admission is free for members!

Or sign up to attend special events: these are listed on our calendar at https://birdsofvermont.org/special-upcoming/

February 2025 events

Camel's Hump: view from the Birds of Vermont Museum's backyard

February is a great month for backyard birding and making art. The Museum is open by appointment and for special events (like the Great Backyard Bird Count) at this time of year.

The trails are open from sunrise to sunset, every day—we recommend using the south trails (Spear, Discovery, Story) rather than Gale’s, Pop’s, or Bob’s, thanks to flooding last July. Trail maps and more information are available on our website, and are posted at the museum and at trail kiosks as well. (Let us know if the wind moved any!)

=== FEBRUARY EVENTS ===

Continue reading “February 2025 events”

Museum Open for Great Backyard Bird Count

black-capped chickadee eyes black oil birdseed in the platform feeder in fall-winter

Visit us February 15th, 2025,  to see what birds we’re counting for the Great Backyard Bird Count!

  • Learn to ID birds — what do we look or listen for?
  • Go birding with a friend — twice the fun!
  • Find out more about and record observations for this great community science project.

We’re open from 10-4 on Saturday for the GBBC
Members admission: Free!

About the GBBC:

Friday – Monday,  February 14-17, 2025 • All Over the World

From the Great Backyard Bird Count website:

Launched in 1998 by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and National Audubon Society, the Great Backyard Bird Count was the first online citizen-science project to collect data on wild birds and to display results in near real-time.

Since then, more than 100,000 people of all ages and walks of life have joined the four-day count each February to create an annual snapshot of the distribution and abundance of birds.

For more info visit Great Backyard Bird Count website

The Great Backyard Bird Count

Dark-eyed Junco on snow-covered twig. Photo by Alex Marine, Macaulay Library. Words on the image: How many birds can you find? 28th Annual Great Backyard Bird Count. February 14-17, 2025. birdcount.org

Friday – Monday, February 14-17, 2025 • All Over the World

Whether you are with a friend or on your own, watching one bird or counting hundreds, join a worldwide community-science and conservation project! All you have to do is observe for 15 minutes and submit your observation(s). Here are few details from https://www.birdcount.org/participate/ :

Step 1 – Decide where you will watch birds. [Suggestion: at the Museum on Saturday!]

Step 2 – Watch birds for 15 minutes or more, at least once over the four days, February 14-17, 2025.

Step 3 – Count all the birds you see or hear within your planned time/location and use the best tool for sharing your bird sightings:

For more info visit https://www.birdcount.org/

Call to Artists: Birds and Myth

Text over a sepia-toned photograph. Text reads Birds and Myth / meanings metaphors and guides / a call to artists. The background is the bristle-ends of 7 paint brushes, radiating out from the center.

Birds and Myth: meanings, metaphors, & guides

We seek to understand the world. Birds are some of our teachers, not only through our senses and observations, but also through our stories about them. These stories can be factual accounts, broader myths, or something in between. A myth might be a traditional legend, a widely-held-but-false belief, or a representation (or misrepresentation) of something true. A myth can offer insight into who we are, individually or collectively. A myth can offer us ways to behave and ideals to live by. What understanding of birds and humans have you gained through myths you have heard, told, or invented?

The Birds of Vermont Museum’s 2025 art show is centered on these ideas. We invite art submissions that bring birds and their meanings into art to retell an old story, weave several together, represent your beliefs, and/or create a myth for the future.
Continue reading “Call to Artists: Birds and Myth”