We’ve restarted our Early Birder Morning Walks, and Shirley Johnson (Board President and Expert Birder) led the first one. She was kind enough to provide us a list of what the walkers observed on Sunday May 12. How many of these do you recognize by sight or sound? Come on the next walk and practice!
Wood Duck
Great Blue Heron
Mourning Dove
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
Downy Woodpecker
Great-crested Flycatcher
Blue-headed Vireo
Blue Jay
American Crow
Black-capped Chickadee
Brown Creeper
Red-breasted Nuthatch
White-breasted Nuthatch
Winter Wren
Veery
Hermit Thrush
Northern Parula
Blackburnian Warbler
Pine Warbler
Black and White Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Louisiana Waterthrush
Ovenbird
Rose-breasted Grosbeak
Song Sparrow
Red-winged Blackbird
Join us next time, for an early morning ramble in the Birds of Vermont Museum’s forest and meadows every Sunday from May 12 through June 30. Enjoy the start of the day with us, birds, and other woodland inhabitants. Walks are led by experienced birders familiar with Vermont birds. Come to several walks to hear the changes in who calls and when!
Finish the walk with bird-friendly coffee at the viewing window inside the Museum.
Bring binoculars and good walking shoes. Park at 900 Sherman Hollow Road, in the Museum parking lot.
Appropriate for: Adults and older children • Free, donations welcome.
Pre-registration is helpful but not required. Call 802 434-2167 or email museum@birdsofvermont.org
“Spring has sprung, tra-la-la-la-la / Spring has sprung!” — the Swing Peepers
Look at these lists! Spring is amazing. All of these in the first list were seen April 1st (and generally also later in the month). Bold ones are those we didn’t see last month!
Red-winged Blackbird
Black-capped Chickadee
Dark-eyed Junco
Red-breasted Nuthatch
Hairy Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Common Grackle
Blue Jay
Fox Sparrow(four on 4/9, 4/20)
Tufted Titmouse
American Crow
Northern Cardinal
White-breasted Nuthatch
Then we saw…
Common Redpoll (4/6, 4/24)
American Robin
Tree Sparrow
Mourning Dove
Cooper’s Hawk(4/3, 4/15)
Song Sparrow
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker(First of Year 4/9)
Northern Goshawk (4/13)
Evening Grosbeak (the female with the healed-but-dropping wing, and returnees)
Brown-headed Cowbird (4/18 and later)
White-throated Sparrow
American Goldfinch
Wild Turkey
Eastern Phoebe
Northern Flicker(4/23)
In the Little Pond (we have this as bird bath/water source, among other reasons):
Wood Frogs (20 frogs all at once on 4/15! then tadpoles 4/30)
Mammals included the mink, a cottontail rabbit, red and gray squirrels, and the eastern chipmunk.
At the Big Pond (across the road and up through the meadow, then into the forest):
A pair of mallard ducks (4/15)
Wood ducks (~4/20)
If you want to get involved with NestWatch, let us know how we can help you!
The “Through the Window” series is an informal record of observations made by staff, volunteers, and visitors. Anyone at the Museum may add to this list. Observations are usually through our viewing window: a large window with a film to make it more difficult for birds to see the watchers. We have chairs and binoculars to try there, a white board, and many identification guides. Outdoors, several feeders are attached on a single, bear-resistant pole. A small pond, flowers and water plants, shrubs and trees add cover and other food choices. You can sometimes see what we see via our webcam.
Guest post by Kari Jo Spear, Photographer, Novelist, and Daughter of Bob Spear
“Take a shot in that direction.” My father pointed down toward the brook through some hemlock trees. “Good ruffed grouse territory.”
“Okay,” I said. My job was to take an interesting photo. So I crouched down, trying to get into ruffed grouse mode, going for an eye level perspective. If I was a grouse, I’d lay my eggs right under the trees. Of course, I wasn’t a grouse, and this was another of my father’s crazy attempts to get me into his “carve all the birds in Vermont” project. He thought it would be helpful to have a plastic sleeve hanging from each display case with some facts about the bird and a photo of its nesting habitat. I thought all the leaves and flowers and stuff he was putting in the cases would be enough to clue people in, but he wanted photos, too. Wouldn’t it be nice if I took them?
Well, I liked taking photos, and my father’s fancy Nikon with interchangeable lenses was pretty cool. But nesting habitat was not exactly an exciting subject to photograph. We’d been hiking for hours, and I’d been dutifully taking shots of deciduous trees, evergreens, moss, and even dead stumps. That part wasn’t really so bad. The real problem was that habitat shots had to be taken in the spring when the birds were nesting. The birds needed to take advantage of insects, who were also doing their multiplying thing. Right now, every black fly in Huntington was taking advantage of their favorite food source—me. They didn’t care about my artistic endeavor, they didn’t care that I reeked of insect repellant, and they didn’t care that I was allergic to them. My eyes were going to be puffed shut tomorrow, I knew it.
I am a grouse, I thought. I snapped two more shots down toward the brook, even climbing into the brush to get a nice, curving limb to frame the top.
“Okay,” my father said. “Now I want to go to a farm up the road. There’s a pair of cliff swallows building under the eaves of the barn. We can get barn swallow habitat inside. And all the apple trees are in bloom. They’re real pretty, and they’d be good blue bird habitat.”
Anything to get away from the buggy brook. I swatted my way out of the woods—flies never seemed to bother my father—and scratched my way up the road to an old farm that looked as thought it had been there since the glaciers moved out. I liked the way the buildings nestled into the hillside. Sure enough, there was a small colony of cliff swallows building their funny little jug-like nests under the eaves. I didn’t even ask how my father had known they were there. While he chatted with the farmer, I photographed the eaves, then some rafters inside where some barn swallows were busy irritating the cows, and then I wandered around the apple trees in full bloom and thought about how nice a big bee sting would look right between my puffy eyes. Maybe some poison ivy to set it off. Then I tripped over a branch buried in the new spring grass and landed in a woodchuck hole, twisting my ankle.
My father got the car and drove me home. Fortunately, I wasn’t bleeding—my father was not good with blood—and the camera was okay, so there was no harm done. “An old war horse,” my father said, seeing me looking at it on the seat between us.
I didn’t think he was referring to me. A young warhorse, maybe.
“You may as well keep it,” he added.
“Until next weekend?” I asked, wondering if my ankle would be up to more traipsing around.
He kind of shrugged. “Till whenever. If I need it for something, you can bring it back.”
“Oh,” I said, it slowly sinking in that he’d just given me a really nice camera. On a kind of permanent borrow.
“Might as well take the lenses, too.” I noticed that they were in the back seat. A 300mm lens and a wide angle.
“Thanks,” I said, meaning it.
“It’s a good camera,” he said. And that was that. Then he added, “But we need to get the film developed right away.”
“What’s the rush?”
“Montpelier.”
Right, I thought. The state capital.
“Library,” he added.
“You’re going to carve books next?” I’d believe anything.
He shot me a look. “No. Going to have the carvings there next week.”
“What?”
“There’s an art gallery upstairs in the library,” he said patiently. We’re going to have a big opening. Newspapers will be there.”
I looked at him, wondering how he’d known how to set up something like this. He’d probably enlisted Gale. He didn’t even look nervous. I’d be frantic.
“We’ve got to start getting people interested in the project, you know,” he went on. “Need to find someplace to house them.”
At the rate he was carving, he wasn’t going to have room to breathe in the shop much longer.
“There’ll be a reception. With food.” He looked at me hopefully.
“Of course I’ll be there,” I said. And not just for the food.
“Good,” he said. And then he smiled, just a little. “It’s upstairs. Your ankle will be better by next weekend, right?”
Of course it would be. Who wouldn’t want to get all hot and sweaty lugging bird cases to an upstairs gallery? I heaved a sigh. I’d never figure out how he managed to talk me into getting deeper and deeper in this project of his.
The next morning, I limped into school with my eyes puffed mostly shut, my arms and legs sunburned and dotted with red spots, and my left ankle wrapped up.
“What happened to you?” my homeroom teacher asked. All around us were kids with honorable injuries, acquired by heroically sliding into home plate or after bursting through a finish line. Everyone turned to me, waiting to hear my glorious tale.
I dropped into my desk with a sigh. “Wood chuck hole.”
Everyone’s eyebrows went up.
I nodded wisely like this was a big deal. Lowering my voice, I said, “Okay. Let me tell you guys about… habitat shots.”
Author’s Note: Visitors to the museum will notice that there are no photographs hanging from any of the cases. My father finally realized, as someone had tried to tell him, that people would get the idea where the birds nested from all the leaves and flowers and stuff in the cases. The habitat shot phase passed quickly, but to this day if I take a photo with no apparent subject, my father will look at it, smile a little, and say, “Looks like a habitat shot to me.”
And I still have the camera, tucked away somewhere safe. Permanent borrow: thirty-five years and counting.
Kari Jo Spear‘s young adult, urban fantasy novels, Under the Willow, and Silent One, are available at Phoenix Books (in Essex and Burlington, Vermont), and on-line at Amazon and Barnes and Noble.
After yesterday’s rain it was perfect weather this morning for a leisurely walk along the forest trails behind the museum. Five birders enjoyed great looks at Ovenbirds, a Hermit thrush, a Blackburnian warbler, a Yellow-rumped warbler and two Yellow-bellied sapsuckers. The Northern flicker nesting near the museum also made several appearances for our delight.
After the walk we enjoyed coffee and cake seated in front of the viewing window while Rose-breasted grosbeaks and Ruby-throated hummingbirds came in to the feeders. What could be better than that?!
Did you know we just list them in the order we see them? Usually the first several are from the first day of the month. We put the ones not seen last month in bold. We’ll try to be more consistent with that!
American Goldfinch
Red-winged blackbird
Black-capped chickadee
Blue Jay
Hairy Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Mourning Dove
Common Grackle
Tufted Titmouse
Wild Turkey
Eastern Phoebe
Pine Siskin
Dark-eyed Junco
American Robin
Brown-head Cowbird(FOY* 4/12)
American Crow (2 on 4/21)
Evening Grosbeaks (male and female)
White-throated Sparrow
Purple Finch
Rose-breasted Grosbeak (male, FOY)
Spotted Salamander(8 eggs noted March 31, and a headless adult in the small pond)
Red squirrel
Gray Squirrel
Chipmunks
* FOY stands for First of Year.
You can always compare this list to last April, or check out sightings in the area on eBird. The wood frogs eggs seen in March may have gotten a little too dry, but some live frog (moving too fast and hiding too well to be identified) was seen in the small feeder area pond this month as well.
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.
It was great to go on the West Haven Field Trip! Birders saw and/or heard 56 species. One participant sent us an email, saying, “A highlight was seeing the Brewster’s Warbler, and Kris saw and heard a Golden-winged Warbler. … It was also fun to see Bobalink [sic], and to watch as a parent fed three young Cliff Swallows sitting on the road. Of course, we got a little herping in too – lots of Green Frogs!”
Weather: Cloudy and breezy with rain starting right after 2:00 p.m. Temperatures in the 70’s F. Location: West Haven, Vermont and surrounding area
As mentioned in the winter’s Chip Notes, we were eagerly awaiting the debut of Dick Allen’s Bufflehead Duck carvings. They are here!
Bufflehead Ducks are characterized as small, diving ducks that migrate through the region on their way to summer grounds in Canada and Alaska from wintering sites in coastal and southern United States and Central America. Inhabiting ponds and small lakes where they consume crustaceans, mollusks, and insects underwater, Buffleheads nest in aspen and poplar tree cavities created by Northern Flickers. The male Bufflehead’s striking triangular white patch extending from the eyes to the rear of the head inspired the bird’s name. The Bufflehead’s ability to achieve a near-vertical take-off from the water’s surface is another reason we take special notice of this notable species.
The male and female pair will take their places with other waterfowl near Dick’s pair of Lesser Scaups in the Spring Migration scene of the Wetland Diorama.
Join us for an early morning ramble in the Birds of Vermont Museum forest and meadows. Share your sightings, practice identifying birds by ear, or learn from other birders. Enjoy the start of the day with us, birds, and other woodland inhabitants.
Walks are led by experienced birders familiar with Vermont birds.
Finish the walk with bird-friendly “birds and Beans” coffee inside the Museum.
Bring binoculars and good walking shoes, rain gear if needed. Park at 900 Sherman Hollow Road, in the Museum parking lot.
Sundays, May 15 – June 12, 7:00am – 8:15am
Outdoors on Museum property
Appropriate for adults and older children
Free, donations welcome.