where natural history meets art
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.
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.
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 opens in August.
Read more below: ↓
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 . 
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.
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!
Printable race packets (trail map, course notes, entry form, waiver) will be available as PDFs soon. (See below)
Prior years’ results are at https://birdsofvermont.org/tag/results/
Stop in to watch a wood carver at work, ask a question, or learn about this carving club.
The Green Mountain Woodcarvers will be carving in the workshop. The GMWC is a group of carvers from Vermont with members from around New England. They meet monthly for “Carve-Ins” around the State and host a annual Show and Class (in August). We’re delighted to have them at the Museum for one of their monthly meetings!
At the Carve-In, carvers talk and work on a variety of woodcarving projects. Carvers are always happy to explain how they carve and to share their expertise with others. Ask questions and become a GMWC member!
More info at the Green Mountain Wood carvers website: http://greenmountainwoodcarvers.org/carvein.html
They are on Facebook too, at https://www.facebook.com/groups/486055891784569/
All birders (current, experienced, newbie and would-be!) are welcome! Attend 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
Outdoors
Photo: Sparrow spp. © 2019 E. Talmage and used by permission.
So what’s coming up in the last month of our “open” season? Exercise your sense of art, your legs, your mind with our Spark! show. birds identification opportunities, and our annual race!
We’re open Wednesday – Sunday, 10-4, until Halloween. We’re open by appointment other days and after. The trails are open sunrise to sunset, every day. Libraries have passes, and admission is always free for members (https://birdsofvermont.org/membership/).
Beetles (Order: Coleoptera) are a fascinating yet vastly understudied taxonomic group. In Vermont alone, there are over 1,000 different species! Some groups provide important roles as pollinators, biological controls, decomposers, and more. Other beetles, such as the invasive Emerald Ash Borer (Agrilus planipennis) threaten the health of our ecosystems.
Join us to learn about the ecology and identification of different groups of beetles found in Vermont.
In this two hour workshop, we will spend about 45 minutes focusing on a few families, genera, and species of note. For the remaining hour and 15 minutes, we will go outside and search for beetles around the Birds of Vermont museum, identifying as we go.
Julia is the former coordinator of the Vermont Lady Beetle Atlas through the Vermont Atlas of Life at the Vermont Center for Ecostudies. Currently, Julia works for Vermont Forests, Parks and Recreation at the Forest Biology Lab, with a special interest on the intersection between forest health and entomology.
Additionally, Julia volunteers in a number of roles for Sosyete pou Rebwaze Duchity Haiti (SRDH) – a community-based reforestation and agroforestry organization operating in Duchity, Haiti. In their spare time, Julia enjoys painting, spending time with their birds, hiking, and (of course) searching for insects.
Images provided by Julie Pupko of Vermont Center for Ecostudies.
All birders (current, experienced, newbie and would-be!) are welcome! Attend 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: Photo of Yellow Warbler ©copyright Bob Johnson and used by permission.
We’re sorry we had to cancel this walk!
Even so, the trails are open sunrise to sunset, and the Museum is open for regular weekend hours (10-4, both Saturday and Sunday).
All birders (current, experienced, newbie and would-be!) welcome! Attend our monthly monitoring walk outdoors on the Museum’s trails in forest and meadow.
Most fun for adults and older youth. Please bring your own binoculars, and dress for the weather. We recommend bringing tick repellent and a water bottle.
Max: 12 people
Suggested donation $10 – $15
Photo: Unidentified hawk overhead against a brilliantly blue sky. Photo copyright Erin Talmage and used by permission.
Many birders—and artists—have a “spark” moment that fueled a lifelong love of birds and birding and took them in unexpected directions. What’s your spark story? Did you start combining birds, birding, art, and science in your art? Does it show in your work? It does for these artists, writers, photographers, and poets!
Visitors are invited to our low-key informal welcome reception for our 2023 show, Spark! fueling a love of birds.
Explore visual and written art at your own pace, meet creators, be inspired, ask questions, and browse through the book of artists’ statements. You are welcome to come early to the Museum and stay for the reception; come at the time of the reception; or just drop in part way through.
Included with Museum admission, but donations welcome. Please register! If we know how many people are coming , we can have enough refreshments, chairs, and so on.
Although the art is indoors, the reception will be generally outdoors, weather permitting.
Read more about the show elsewhere on our website.
Early summer mornings are terrific for birding.
Who’s singing, calling, nesting, or flying around the Birds of Vermont Museum? Discover birds on an early morning ramble in the Museum’s forest and meadows. Walks are led by experienced birders familiar with Vermont birds.
Bring binoculars and good walking shoes. Early mornings are often damp with dew and boots are definitely in order. Don’t forget bug spray/tick repellent!
Park at 900 Sherman Hollow Road, in the Museum parking lot.
Suggested donation: $10-$15
Max: 12 people • waitlist available if walk fills
Masks recommended inside the Museum.
This typical view of a warbler is copyright © E. Talmage and used with permission.
