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 ===

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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”

January 2025 events

small songbird (Junco or Chickadee) tracks in snow

Happy New Year! We’re launching 2025 with some talks, the ever-changing winter art show, and bird walks (of course). The Museum is open by appointment and for special events from now through April 30.

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!)

=== JANUARY EVENTS ===

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Vermont’s Winter Birds

Black-capped chickadee eating a sunflower seed. Chickadee perches on a pile of hulled sunflower seeds in winter; a few snowflakes show on the bird's black feathers.

Join Museum Director Erin Talmage to learn about Vermont’s Winter Birds: birds, birding, and conservation.

Vermont in winter is cold, muddy, slushy, icy, snowy. But there are still birds! Which ones? How come? What do they eat? How do they shelter from the weather? And how can you get involved?

The Dorothy Alling Memorial Library is sponsoring this talk by the Birds of Vermont Museum. Visit their website for more: https://damlvt.org/index.php/events/events-calendar

Presentation begins at noon at the library, at 21 Library Lanes, Williston, Vermont.

Read more about winter birds in this blog post: https://birdsofvermont.org/2013/01/16/winter-birds/

Vermont’s Winter Birds

Redpoll (small brown and white bird with reddish patch on forehead, type of , finch) perches on a snowy spruce branchlet.

Join Museum Director Erin Talmage to learn about Vermont’s Winter Birds: birds, birding, and conservation.

Vermont in winter is cold, muddy, slushy, icy, snowy. But there are still birds! Which ones? How come? What do they eat? How do they shelter from the weather? And how can you get involved?

The Salisbury Conservation Commission is sponsoring this talk by the Birds of Vermont Museum. The event is free and open to the public.

Presentation begins at 7 PM in the Salisbury Meeting House (Congregational Church) in the center of Salisbury (853 Maple Street).

The Salisbury Conservation Commission is sponsoring a series of talks–come to this or all of them!

Read more about winter birds in this blog post: https://birdsofvermont.org/2013/01/16/winter-birds/

Giving Tuesday

Two children stand in a pond. One is giving something to the other.

Giving Tuesday comes after Cyber Monday which comes after Black Friday….
It’s a good day to share with your favorite nonprofit!  Whether you support birds, community, conservation, education, arts, science, or all of the above, we are grateful for the ways we share.

How to give? It’s easy! Send a check to the museum or use our online form. Choose a one-time or a repeating donation—whatever works for you!

Thank you!

More info: https://www.givingtuesday.org/

The words Giving Tuesday, in all caps, with a stylized red heart substituting for the v in giving and a chickadee in profile perched on the final g.

October World Migratory Bird Day

Screenshot of BirdCast migration map from 12 October 2023. The United States is depicted in white outlines on black, while a heat map ranging from purple to pink to orange to yellow shows the intensity of bird migration (mostly in the eastern US). Arrows show the directions the birds are moving.

Watch for, protect, record birds during both migration seasons!

The map above shows the movement of birds in this date last year from BirdCast.info. The United States is depicted in white outlines on black, while a heat map ranging from purple to pink to orange to yellow shows the intensity of bird migration (mostly in the eastern US). Arrows show the directions the birds are moving. (Dokter, A. M. 2023 of live migration map image. BirdCast, live migration map; 2023-10-12. Cornell Lab of Ornithology. https://birdcast.info/migration-tools/migration-forecast-maps. Accessed 2024-09-05.)

In Vermont, birds are moving!

Screenshot of BirdCast Migration Dashboard for 12 October 2023, Vermont. Data show estimates of birds that crossed Vermont, when they crossed, flight information, comparison with other nights, and likely species. Find this at https://dashboard.birdcast.info/region/US-VT?night=2023-10-12
Screenshot of BirdCast Migration Dashboard for 12 October 2023, Vermont. Data show estimates of birds that crossed Vermont, when they crossed, flight information, comparison with other nights, and likely species. Find this current data at https://dashboard.birdcast.info/region/US-VT

 

While the official day of celebration for World Migratory Bird Day is on the second Saturday in May each year, the [Smithsonian] recognizes that migratory birds stop in various places along their journey. This means that the celebration can be flexible, depending on the location. In addition, Environment for the Americas encourages people to also catch the migratory birds on their way south in the autumn, celebrating another time on the second Saturday in October.

More info:

Hashtag: #WorldMigratoryBirdDay

International Coffee Day

Magnolia Warbler, carved by Bob Spear

For International Coffee Day, make a commitment to buying and drinking bird-friendly coffee. Why? For the birds, of course! The Magnolia Warbler (photo of one carved by Bob Spear is above) is one of several warbler species that migrates to coffee-growing areas.

Enjoy reading (or re-reading) some of these links to find out more.

Woodcarving of male Scarlet Tanager: a red songbird with black wings. This bird id visible in the foreground from head to rump, in profile, perched on a branch. Behind it is a nest of twigs and several palmate, toothed leaves made of green-painted metal. Behind that is the carving of the female, a yellow and olive-colored bird facing (mostly) the camera.
This pair of Scarlet Tanagers were created by Bob Spear in 1985 and took him 67 hours. Scarlet Tanagers migrate to coffee-growing regions and can be affected by coffee-growing practices.