Tag: outdoors

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Volunteers needed in 2020

Young man with rake tending the Museum's gardensOne of our favorite things to do is work with volunteers on special projects—regularly in the building and outside in the gardens, as well as special volunteer work parties before our “open season”. This year, unfortunately, the novel coronavirus  interrupted this! But now we are open, so…

We would love to have volunteers in and around the Museum! This is completely up to you and what you find comfortable. As always, we have lots of projects and need your help!

Indoors, volunteers greet visitors, tend the gift shop, organize materials, record data, and help us clean.

Outside, there are opportunities for trail maintenance, collecting natural history data, sanding and painting, and weeding. We have a few projects that can be done off-site. We could also use the help of a carpenter. It is pretty easy to maintain social distancing and get fresh air while you do these!

If you are interested in volunteering this year, please call us at 802-434-2167. We look forward to hearing from you!

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Through the Window: May 2020

Eastern Phoebe pair at nest, woodcarving by Bob Spear
Eastern Phoebe pair at nest. This woodcarving by Bob Spear, finished in 1981, is upstairs in our Nesting Gallery.

This exhibit of Eastern Phoebes nesting sure puts us in mind of spring. And spring truly is here: a bit of mud, early leaves, returning migrants.

We look forward to the days when the dangers of this coronavirus are past or at least well-mitigated, and we can offer early morning bird walks again. In the meantime, please enjoy our records from our view-through-the-window, and take a turn on our trails yourself, if you can.

May birds

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Through the Window: March 2020

Gray Squirrel in snow
Squirrels seem to appreciate the spillage from the feeders above. The snow has pretty well gone by the time of posting.

Well this was not the March we expected. Admittedly, the birds here seem quite unaffected.

We did keep observing birds from our windows and cams, just with fewer human friends (in person).  Welcome back, Common Grackle and Song Sparrow!

We’ve rearranged our schedules and updated some policies to deal with COVID-19. Details soon! The birds are being fed less often, and we’d already changed what and where we’d fed them. (We do that each spring anyway, because the forests in Huntington do have bears and we’d prefer only smaller mammals take advantage of what the birds leave.)

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Through the Window: February 2020

Snow-covered wooden bird in the Museum's rain garden
The rare white pseudoheron freezes in place to stalk prey more effectively. Possibly.

Sometimes, a month with nothing unusual is really quite comforting.

But that was just old friends who are birds! For our human friends, in February we also shared programs about Kinglets, opened up for the Great Backyard Bird Count, painted signs, installed our Little Free Library, played Wingspan at the Museum, and hopefully inspired art! Of course, you’d have to look through the window the other wayto see most of those things (or come inside).

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Through the Window: January 2020

Wild turkeys = traffic delay on Sherman Hollow road (photo copyright © 2020 Erin Talmage)
Wild turkeys = traffic delay on Sherman Hollow road (photo copyright © 2020 Erin Talmage and used by permission)

It’s been a somewhat snowy month (with what feels like big temperature swings and more thawing). This has made for lovely photos (check out our instagram), and not-too-troublesome road conditions for people coming to our events (a series of bird talks and a few walks). The feeders aren’t quiet, exactly, but they are slight less diverse. Still, it’s a joy to see turkey tracks when you go out in the morning to fill the feeders!

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Through the Window: December 2019

Red-breasted Nuthatch. Carved by Bob Spear in the early 1960s.
Red-breasted Nuthatch. Carved by Bob Spear in the early 1960s.

We’ve enjoyed welcoming some new birders to our monthly bird monitoring walks. This more than makes up for the quiet of the winter species counts at our a Viewing Window. These walks are the last Saturday of every month. We record those observations over on eBird.

Before you head over there, though, enjoy this short but sweet December window observation list. What’s your favorite of the species listed here? How come ?

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Through the Window: August 2019

teaching warblers
Teaching warblers: half of the set carved by Bob Spear.

Summer is nests and fledglings, flowers and pollinators, greens and golds and more. Young birds come to the feeders, squawk … and sometimes get ignored by their parents! Hummingbirds defend the feeders and the bee balm; some hawk moths get mistaken for hummingbirds. The forest canopy is thick and provides deep cover for the warblers and more. It’s a rich and beautiful time. Who needs a feeder, with so much to eat in the forest?

No one, really, but some come anyway:

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