Freezing rain, drizzle, wind – late November in Vermont can get on your nerves. I stopped at the local airport yesterday while a was gale blowing. Aside from a few wind-ruffled crows, no birds were about but I remembered a past visit, just a few weeks ago, and it made me smile, because of this guy.
See you next spring buddy – you got out of Dodge at the right time.
I’ve been an intermittent geocacher since 2012 when, as I described here, got hooked on one of the world’s most popular outdoor activities. Since then, I have found over two hundred caches in many states and a few in Spain, usually when I am traveling on vacation. I can search for descriptions and addresses of each cache with my cell phone. There are more than three million around the world.
More recently, in addition to looking for caches, I have placed a few of my own in local forests. I placed my latest one, “Off the Beaten Path -Barely,” last month. It’s an multi-tasking trek – exercise, dog walking, bird watching, and enjoying nature as I looked for an interesting site.
After a mile or so of hiking on trail system, I found a place I thought would be easy and also accesible in winter. Here’s what it looked like:
So far, three groups of geocachers have found it including one person who logged it the next day as a “first to find.” This cache is near a trail that is lightly used so it will be interesting to see how many notification emails I get before spring. Why not add geocaching to your activities in the year ahead.
While most birds along river have departed, we still are seeing mergansers on our daily walks. Here are a few from the last few weeks.
And a few Hoodies.
With Thanksgiving coming, here are some Wild Turkeys from this mornings back road drive. Not a great shot but they weren’t waiting around to pose for me.
For a variety of reasons, I haven’t blogged for months. On a day where I have disconnected from news feeds for mental health, I’ve started an initiative to focus on topics such as birding, travel, dogs, and family that enliven my spirits. We’ll start with these Hooded and Common Mergansers I recently saw on a grey windy day at Berlin Pond, one of our local hotspots.
There were about twenty Hoodies and nearby, sixteen Mallards.
We’re in the season of no leaves, few birds and numb fingers on the camera but Ginger and I get out daily and do our normal multi-tasking of walking on leash, looking for birds, and for me, practicing Spanish. Enjoy this transition time, at least the seasonal one. As a friend wrote me today from Spain, “Hay que pensar en lo bueno” – “You have to think about the good.”
Early this morning on a dog walk/birding outing, I came across this merganser family out for a cruise. For once, the dog was not moving, the sun was behind me, and there was no foliage in the way. I count ten or eleven youngsters – including the two getting a ride.
New migrants are arriving daily and the trees are just budding — it’s a great time to get out an check things out. Here are a few recent sightings.
Eastern Kingbirds showed up last week, as did Common Loons.
And I’m still sorting out sandpipers — this one, which I saw just up from the house, I’m calling a Solitary Sandpiper, not a Spotted.
Warblers are here but their movement and the dog’s leash make them difficult to photograph. But all the Yellow Warblers and American Goldfinches add lollipops of color to enjoy.
As we walked a couple of miles alongside the reservoir, there was a quite a mix of birds. Here are more — some of the images are poor because of the grey skies. The first was this American Kestrel which we flushed walking in but was perched again of the same branch an hour later.
This Red-breasted Merganser was moving away from us.
My “helper” who like me, enjoys our birding outings.
When I visit my daughter in Massachusetts, I often try to go birding with Ginger at Cherry Hill Reservoir. We spent a few good hours on a chilly morning last Thursday. Here are a few of the waterfowl we saw.
There were also a number of Scaup – I’m calling them Lesser due to the rounded head.
Ruddy Ducks are often here, in large rafts, resting. They are delightful to watch as they dive and re-appear, usually farther away.
We had a great hike and saw 33 species. I’ll include more in the next post. Happy migration birding.
I seldom watch birds without our dog, Ginger, along on a leash. It adds a challenge of stabilizing dog and camera when photographing but we often log 15-20 miles a week together. With mud season in full bloom here, most of our walks are on the great network of sidewalks throughout Montpelier. Here are some recent shots, a couple from today.
Yesterday, I came across this Pileated Woodpecker in a close-by neighborhood. I’ve heard them this year but this is the first I’ve seen.
Then, this morning, just as we were heading out, this Wood Duck pair, recently arrived, were riding the river current downstream. They are very shy, unlike our Mallards, but just wonderful to see.
Female (this is the year I master manual focusing.)
We’ve had a long stretch of gray days and with icy trails and muddy back roads, one can long for warmer climes. Then, out on a chilly walk, you get a look at a neat bird, it could be a Chickadee or Blue Jay, and your attitude is adjusted. Such it was this morning when this Hooded Merganser, just tooling down our river, brightened my day.
