where natural history meets art
Guest post by Kari Jo Spear, Photographer, Novelist, and Daughter of Bob Spear
I can’t remember the first time I ever heard the “M” word. The fact that we were going to have a museum in the family happened very slowly, after a great many permutations and plot twists, and by the time it was a reality, it felt like it was meant to be from the beginning.
But it didn’t start out that way.
Continue reading “The Bird Carver’s Daughter (Part 3: Something’s Going On Here…)”
Our Exploring Binoculars program today was a blast! Investigators ranged from about 7 to about 65 years old. It was a technical sort of program, more about how they work than about how to use them. We did a little demo/inquiry first, with light and lenses and prisms, asking “What might happen if …” questions and then doing that to see what really does happen. Fun seeing upside-down light bulb images on tissue paper become reversed on sweatshirts! (See that “how they work” link for what we did.)
Then we laid out some defective binoculars donated for the express purpose of disassembly (cleaning and reassembly optional). Continue reading “What happens when you take some binoculars apart?”
Saturday, Apr 28, 2012, 9:00am – 1:00pm
Birds of Vermont Museum, 900 Sherman Hollow Road, Huntington, Vermont 05462
Help us prepare the Museum for the 2012 open season! Do windows, clean nest boxes, spruce up trails (weather permitting), prepare handouts for visitors and school groups, add bird data to online databases, and much more.
We provide lunch! Please let us know you’re coming: call (802) 434-2167 or email museum@birdsofvermont.org
Tue, April 24, 2:00pm – 3:30pm
Birds of Vermont Museum, 900 Sherman Hollow Road, Huntington, Vermont 05462
What counts as a Bird “home”? Nest? Roost? Habitat? Territory? Ecosystem?
Homeschoolers and vacationing children are invited to join us at the Museum to find out more as we craft our interpretations of “home” for a bird. Best for ages 3-10.
$10 members, $15 non-members. Fee includes admission for child and one accompanying adult. Please pre-register by calling (802) 434-2167 or emailing museum@birdsofvermont.org
Saturday, April 21, 1:00pm – 2:30pm
Birds of Vermont Museum, 900 Sherman Hollow Road, Huntington, Vermont 05462
Ever wondered how binoculars work? Ever wanted to take some apart? Home-schooling and vacationing children are invited to join us at the Museum to find out more as we dissemble non-working binoculars, investigate optics, and consider how eagle eyes work.
Best for ages 8-16. Younger children should please bring an adult to help. Teachers welcome!
$10 members, $15 non-members. Fee includes admission for child and one accompanying adult.
Enrollment limited to number of defunct pairs of binoculars (feel free to bring your own ancient, damaged or just plain not-very-good-anymore pair). Registration is required. Register by calling (802) 434-2167 or emailing museum@birdsofvermont.org
The photo of disassembled binoculars is ©2011 Frank Lagoria (Flicker page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/binocwpg/ | email: flagorio@shaw.ca) and used by permission. Thanks, Frank!
In honor of Vermont’s annual Maple Open House Weekend and Audubon Vermont’s Maple Sugar on Snow Parties, the Birds of Vermont Museum will be open on March 25, 25 and the 31st (Saturday, Sunday, and Saturday).
Take a break between sampling one of Vermont’s best sweet treats and come learn about the birds that nest on maple trees and use the sugarbush to raise their young.
We will be open from 10 – 4 each day. Continue reading “Check out birds between tastes of syrup”
We were invited to be interviewed for a local television series, Positively Vermont. We are allowed to embed the video here, but you may also wish to see this on a larger screen. Airtimes for March 2012 are below:
http://www.cctv.org/stream-player-build?nid=115851
(if you missed it, feel free to order the show (ID: 115851 – Birds of Vermont Museum) or ask your local channel to do so)
1 Thursday March 1, 2012 at 6:00 PM
2 Monday March 5, 2012 at 9:30 PM
3 Tuesday March 6, 2012 at 2:30 AM
4 Tuesday March 6, 2012 at 8:30 AM
5 Thursday March 8, 2012 at 4:00 PM
6 Saturday March 10, 2012 at 4:30 PM
7 Thursday March 15, 2012 at 4:00 PM
8 Sunday March 18, 2012 at 3:30 PM
9 Thursday March 22, 2012 at 4:00 PM
Bob is spending his winter in Florida, working on a new carving carvings, enjoying the sunshine, and watching birds. Gale left us a message on his birthday,
“We are just gathering here to chat [with visiting friends] before we go out for a birthday lunch. We got a good birthday going on here in Cedar Key. This is of course Gale, because Bob does not use cell phones. Hope all goes well in VT, we’re having a good time.”
We like as many excuses for birthday cake as possible, so we plan to celebrate Bob’s birthday again in the summer when it is sunny and warm. Watch the Museum’s calendar of events for details.
Many people have already donated $92 to the Museum to honor Bob on his birthday. The Museum greatly appreciates these donations. For those wishing to make a donation in honor of Bob, please send a check to
Birds of Vermont MuseumWe can also accept donations online, through JustGive and our website. 
Bob’s first carving was completed in 1938 when he carved a parakeet with just a penknife. This carving is on display at the Museum. He is also the author of the book, The Birds of Vermont, published in 1969 by the Green Mountain Audubon Society. In 1962 he was active in establishing the Green Mountain Audubon Center in Huntington and served as its first director for seven years. In 1987 the Birds of Vermont Museum opened, finally showcasing the collection he’d started creating in 1979. At the time of the opening, the museum housed only 231 bird carvings. In addition to creating all the bird carvings on display, Spear also built the museum building and all the display cases. Bob is still carving, and the Museum will be celebrating its 25th Anniversary this year!
For more information about Bob’s accomplishments see http://www.birdsofvermont.org/carver.php
Guest post by Kari Jo Spear, Photographer, Novelist, and Daughter of Bob Spear
One summer when I was eight or nine years old, my father decided to give carving lessons. About a dozen people signed up, mostly teachers who knew him from the Audubon Society. But there were three people there who weren’t teachers–my mother, our eleven-year-old neighbor, and me. We met every Tuesday night in my father’s den. It was supposed to be a relaxed, casual gathering of people sitting in a circle making piles of shavings on the floor while they created a thing of beauty out of basswood as my father circled among them, offering his expert and benign advice.
Instead, it turned into a pain-filled bloodbath that caused me so much trauma that I have not even carved a jack-o-lantern since.
And most of it was the fault of the weather.
Continue reading “The Bird Carver’s Daughter (Part 2: the Pre-teen Years (or, Why I’m Not a Carver)”
What a great year! We had first, second, third prize winners, some honorable mentions, and some of special note, e.g., “Best Chuckle” and “Most Like Marc Chagall.” Again, local art teachers in Chittenden County encouraged their classes, which always adds to the diversity and richness of the submitted art.
The winners are:
Ages 0-5: Maeve, Ruby, Fiona, Cecily, Avery and Pace
Ages 6-8: Emma, Alyssa, Alex, Marlie, and Morgan
Ages 9-13: Carrie, Erin, Jordan, Brandon, Graham, Sevi, Jason,
and Breanna
Ages 14-18: Daniel and Chad
Ages 0-5: Tom
Ages 6-8: Anna, Katie, Hayley and Morgan
Ages 6-8: Macey, Zachary, Sarah, Sidney, Tyler, Lindsay, and Reece
Ages 9-13: Jasmine, Tyler, Color, Jake, Caitlin, Calvin, Jonah, Hannah, Olivia, Ben, Mikayla, and Sid
Ages 6-8: Ethan, Maria, Isabella, Maxwell, Mary, Leah, Carter, and Elizabeth