Tag: community

Museum Open for Great Backyard Bird Count

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

Visit us February 17th, 2024,  to see what birds we’re counting for the Great Backyard Bird Count!

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

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

About the GBBC:

Friday – Monday,  February 16-19, 2024 • 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 (a small gray and white songbird) on a bare twig. Text in the image reads "How many birds can you find? 26th Annual Great Backyard Bird Count February 17-20, 2023 birdcount.org Dark-eyed Junco photo courtesy of the Macauley Library"

Friday – Monday, February 16-19, 2024 • All Over the World

With a friend or one 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 17-20, 2023.

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: https://www.birdcount.org/

January Bird Monitoring Walk

Black-capped Chickadee and Dark-eyed Junco in winter. The Chickadee is perched on a half-fallen dried goldenrod stem on the left; the Junco is underneath he stem on the right. There are some forsythia stems in the background and snow covers the ground. Digiscoped iPhone photo by K. Talmage and used by permission.

Join our monthly monitoring walk to record birds at the Museum’s trails, fores,t and meadow. Learn something new, share what you know, or both!

All birders —current, experienced, newbie and would-be— welcome! Most fun for adults, older children.

Please bring your own binoculars and dress for the weather. We recommend bringing tick repellent and a water bottle. Face masks required inside the museum.

Max: 12 people
Free, suggested donation $5 – $15
Registration link coming soon (or call 802 434-2167).

Outdoors

If the walk fills, we’ll have a waitlist; when there’s enough interest, we often can schedule more walks. Please call or email us to make arrangements.

Photo of Black-capped Chickadee and Junco in winter. Photographed at the Museum by Museum staff.

December Bird Monitoring Walk

Photo of Northern Cardinal (male)

Join our monthly monitoring walk to record birds on the Museum property. Learn something new, share what you know, or both!

All birders (current, experienced, newbie and would-be!) welcome! Most fun for adults, older children.

Please bring your own binoculars, dress for weather. We recommend bringing tick repellent and a water bottle. Face masks required inside the museum.

Max: 12 people • waitlist available
Free, suggested donation $10




Outdoors

Photo of Northern Cardinal.

November Bird Monitoring Walk

Ruffed Grouse in fall Crabapple tree

Join our monthly monitoring walk to record birds on the Museum property. Learn something new, share what you know, or both!

All birders (current, experienced, newbie and would-be!) welcome! Most fun for adults, older children.

Please bring your own binoculars, dress for weather. We recommend bringing tick repellent and a water bottle. Face masks required inside the museum.

Max: 12 people • waitlist available
Free, suggested donation $10





Outdoors

Photo of Ruffed Grouse in Crabapple. Photographed at the Museum by Museum staff.

Posted on

Results for Race Around Birds 2023

Congratulations to the walkers, runners, supporters, and volunteers of the 2023 Race Around Birds!

Three runners coming uphill toward the viewer. They are on a gravel trail rising from a creek, with evergreens and other trees behind them and to their left and right. Other tall, autumn-dried plants are on the sides of the trails.We continued our tradition of offering both “virtual (self-timed)” racing option and “in-person race day” option. People could run or walk, as they chose. We are pretty impressed!

Like last year, we had 31 people register, 10 of whom chose the “self-timed” option (not all of them submitted their times to us; that’s fine too). Two people ran both self-timed and on race day; 4 people registered for race day but did not run that day (they may have run earlier?).

We did combine the results in the table below. The official results are those from Race Day, November 4th (R). Italics denote self-timed runners (V). Continue reading “Results for Race Around Birds 2023”

Race Around Birds 2023 – Race Day

Human running away from viewer, wearing orange shirt, black leggings. This person is running on a frosty woodland trail with a bright blue sky and fall colors in the remaining foliage.

The Birds of Vermont Museum is hosting the fourth annual Race Around Birds trail run! There are two options for runners (and walkers), and you can even do both:

Race Day run: Saturday, November 4th, at 10a.m. This is a typical trail run, and a bit longer than 5k. We can welcome up to 50 runners. (Please carpool)

On-Your-Own (Virtual) Race: choose a day between October 21st and November 3rd, and record your time on the paper forms (available at the Museum’s front door).

Race results will be posted in our blog.

To Register

While registering is free, we encourage donations to support the museum, as well as cover the cost of trail work, post-race snacks and water, and possible swag. You may register for Race Day (group race), Virtual (self-timed) race, or both.
Registration open:

Read more below: ↓

Spear Trail sign in fall

Course Description

This is a trail race with some steep uphill climbs. Some segments are more like single-track mountain trails. This is a HARD course.

The course is approximately 3.6 miles. The course winds around and crosses itself, making a slightly tangled figure 8 (using the trails on both sides of Sherman Hollow Road). There will be signs and maps.

The course is well-marked and you will return past the Museum to complete both loops. There are no supplies and no first aid stations on the course. Bathrooms and water are available when the Museum is open (Wednesdays through Sundays, 10am – 4pm, in October only).

The Race Map is available online: https://birdsofvermont.org/docs/trail-map-for-race-web.pdf . person lacing up sneakers on the spear trail

How It Works

You may run or walk the course.

On the November 4th Race Day, racers will start at 10 a.m.

For the On-Your-Own (Virtual) Race, runners and walkers may come to the Museum at any time from daylight to dusk from October 21 to November 3. No dogs and no nights. You may run (or walk) the course multiple times on different days, in order to improve your times. You may run in groups, but the trail is generally single-file.

For the virtual option, you will keep track of your own start and finish times. Time-keeping forms will be in a marked box to the left of the Museum’s front door. Fill out a form for each day you race. Then, when you’re ready to run, take a map (if you need it), get to the start line (the west end of the parking lot by the parking sign), mark your starting time, and GO! Afterward, fill in your finish time and drop it in the box.

Please note: virtual runner results are not official, but like all results, will be reports in our results post on our blog.

If you are running on Race Day, please carpool. We have limited parking.A blurry runner passes the Spear Trail sign.

But wait, there’s more!

If you share photos or comments online, we encourage you to use these hashtags:
#RaceAroundBirds #RaceAroundBirds2023 #BirdsOfVermontMuseum #RunningIsForTheBirds #TrailRace #VirtualRace #HuntingtonVt #TrailRunning #TrailRunner

Send questions to trailrunning@birdsofvermont.org!

map of trails with race course info at the Birds of Vermont Museum

Printable race packets (trail map, course notes, entry form, waiver) are available as PDFs (see below):

Prior years’ results are at https://birdsofvermont.org/tag/results/

screen shot of all trails recording of race course showing elevation

 

October Bird Monitoring Walk

White-breasted Nuthatch © copyright Zac Cota-Weaver and used by permission.

All birders (current, experienced, newbie and would-be!) are welcome! Join our monthly monitoring walk outdoors on the Museum’s trails in forest and meadow.

Most fun for adults, older children. Please bring your own binoculars, and dress for the weather. Tick repellent and water bottles are recommended.

Max: 12 people

Suggested donation $10 – $15
Registration required.




Outdoors

Photo of White-breasted Nuthatch © Zac Cota-Weaver and used by permission.

Race Around Birds 2023 – Self-timing Weeks

Human running away from viewer, wearing orange shirt, black leggings. This person is running on a frosty woodland trail with a bright blue sky and fall colors in the remaining foliage.

The Birds of Vermont Museum is hosting the fourth annual Race Around Birds trail run! There are two options for runners (and walkers), and you can even do both:

On-Your-Own (Virtual) Race: choose a day between October 21st and November 3rd, and record your time on the paper forms (available at the Museum’s front door).

Race Day run: Saturday, November 4th, at 10a.m. This is a typical trail run, and a bit longer than 5k. We can welcome up to 50 runners. (Please carpool)

Race results will be posted in our blog.

To Register

While registering is free, we encourage donations to support the museum, as well as cover the cost of trail work, post-race snacks and water, and possible swag. You may register for Race Day (group race), Virtual (self-timed) race, or both.
Registration open:

Read more below: ↓

Spear Trail sign in fall

Course Description

This is a trail race with some steep uphill climbs. Some segments are more like single-track mountain trails. This is a HARD course.

The course is approximately 3.6 miles. The course winds around and crosses itself, making a slightly tangled figure 8 (using the trails on both sides of Sherman Hollow Road). There will be signs and maps.

The course is well-marked and you will return past the Museum to complete both loops. There are no supplies and no first aid stations on the course. Bathrooms and water are available when the Museum is open (Wednesdays through Sundays, 10am – 4pm, in October only).

The Race Map is available online: https://birdsofvermont.org/docs/trail-map-for-race-web.pdf . person lacing up sneakers on the spear trail

How It Works

You may run or walk the course.

On the November 4th Race Day, racers will start at 10 a.m.

For the On-Your-Own (Virtual) Race, runners and walkers may come to the Museum at any time from daylight to dusk from October 21 to November 3. No dogs and no nights. You may run (or walk) the course multiple times on different days, in order to improve your times. You may run in groups, but the trail is generally single-file.

For the virtual option, you will keep track of your own start and finish times. Time-keeping forms will be in a marked box to the left of the Museum’s front door. Fill out a form for each day you race. Then, when you’re ready to run, take a map (if you need it), get to the start line (the west end of the parking lot by the parking sign), mark your starting time, and GO! Afterward, fill in your finish time and drop it in the box.

Please note: virtual runner results are not official, but like all results, will be reports in our results post on our blog.

If you are running on Race Day, please carpool. We have limited parking.A blurry runner passes the Spear Trail sign.

But wait, there’s more!

If you share photos or comments online, we encourage you to use these hashtags:
#RaceAroundBirds #RaceAroundBirds2023 #BirdsOfVermontMuseum #RunningIsForTheBirds #TrailRace #VirtualRace #HuntingtonVt #TrailRunning #TrailRunner

Send questions to trailrunning@birdsofvermont.org!

map of trails with race course info at the Birds of Vermont Museum

Printable race packets (trail map, course notes, entry form, waiver) are available as PDFs (see below):

Prior years’ results are at https://birdsofvermont.org/tag/results/

screen shot of all trails recording of race course showing elevation

 

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