where natural history meets art
We had rather a good number of visitors (by appointment) as we worked away on the behind-the-scenes things we do (preparing for opening in spring, if all goes well). One of our month’s highlights wasn’t birds at all, but lady beetles! You can read more about them here: https://birdsofvermont.org/2021/03/12/lady-beetles-in-vermont-j-pupko/
But back to birds… quite the exciting mix!
Aside from about a gazillion redpolls (I’m sure that’s a technical measure), not too much unusual for winter birds at the Museum this month. Our list is below!
One thing we love about January is the potential for surprises. Irruptions, mutli-species flocks, or interesting marks in the snow can all happen. Which bird might we get to see this month? Will we be lucky enough to see it from the window? Will there be many? Which ones would we expect and not see after all? Each possibility is a delight.
We hope your final month of 2020 was as easy and comfortable as possible, with good birding, friends near and far, and rich in love.
Decembers are often quite quiet at the Museum and this month’s bird list certainly shows it. Which ones come to your feeders?
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.)
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).
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!
April is upon us! You know what that means: hiccuping weather. Winter today, spring tomorrow, and a whole lotta mud, especially on the roads. Drive with care, especially if you’re birding at the same time. (We recommend pulling over. I mean, really.)
What? It also means returning species? You better believe it. What’s your favorite harbinger of spring?
So this is the second time we’re posting this month’s entry, because Things Happened (not caused by us) at our host and our site had to be reset to a backup version. Anything we added or edited after that date went “poof”! Eeek.
However, we now have even more frequent backups (lesson learned!)… but I can’t remember much about February! Of course, we did keep the bird list record, so there’s that. Also, if you run a website using anything like wordpress or joomla or squarespace or such, please keep your plugins and site software up-to-date. It’s good for all of us. Go get your updates and backups scheduled and running… then get outside and check out the birds! You deserve it.
It’s pretty quiet this month for the birds, but we’ve had some great school groups and our It’s A Bird’s Life talks for 2019 started up. Continue reading “Through the Window: January 2019”