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!)
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.
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/ :
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”
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!)
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?
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!
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!
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 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.
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.
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.