Vermont Birder

Some Backyard Birds -2025

Posted on March 23, 2025 by Richard

In the last week or so, we’ve had some interesting visitors to our backyard patch. We get woodpeckers every day and here’s a Hairy.

More often these days, we are delighted to see and here Red-bellied Woodpeckers like this morning’s.

Two days ago we saw Wild Turkeys out back for the first time ever. They hung around for a half hour and then moseyed off.

Yesterday, there was this Red-tailed Hawk perched across the river at the end of our path, patiently waiting for breakfast.

Living on a busy street just a mile from downtown, we have a wonderful backyard from which to see nature. We’ve recorded 140 bird species here over the years.

Many years ago, my grandson Dane and his family was visiting our Vermont home on a lovely summer day. We were relaxing on the back lawn when suddenly, in a flash of brown and an explosion of feathers, a Red-shouldered hawk grabbed a Mourning Dove and flew away as we all gaped and shook our heads. Dane, in his young boy voice announced, “Well, that’s nature.”

Ginger and I had a That’s Nature day yesterday. Our walk on new snow started with watching some birds in the back yard.

We went down to the frozen river to walk a bit when I spotted a pile of feathers which I suspect once was a junco, and Ginger was very interested. Probably a Sharp-shinned Hawk had an early breakfast.

We then walked a few miles on trails and returning, I spotted this dead deer right beside the trail. I suspect a coyote/coydog got it . The sight was grisly and I kept Ginger from seeing the carcass.

We then returned to the relative placidity of our backyard and our American Tree Sparrows and American Goldfinches.

I’m reading a great book – The Courage of Birds – by the noted birder/author Pete Dunne. In addressing the worry about backyard feeding causing birds to be killed, he writes “A Sharp-shinned or Cooper’s Hawk is going to catch and consume two birds per day no matter what.”

That’s nature!

Posted in Vermont Birding | Tagged American Goldfinch, American Tree Sparrow, Backyard birds, bird feeding, Birding with Ginger, Downy Woodpecker, Vermont Birding, Washington County | Comments Off

Let’s Roll

Posted on January 26, 2025 by Richard

Suffice it to say there’ve been a few distractions since my last post. Dog injury, Covid, and lousy weather have hindered my birding but focusing on positive things these days, I’m getting out and working on my bird list for 2025.

With temperatures well below zero at night, nearly everything has frozen up but this week, I found an open spot on the Winooski River downtown. Two Common Merganser were feeding in the icy water — here’s the male.

Just across the stream was a Mallard resting.

One of my target birds was Wild Turkey and I thought, “If I were a turkey (hold your comments), where would I be on a cold windy day like this?” I thought of farms and checked one close by and “sorpresa!”, twenty birds were out foraging. Here are a couple of shots from outside and inside the car.

Our backyard feeders have been very active in this frigid weather, with mixed flocks of chickadees, finches, tree sparrows, and juncos. A couple of Mourning Doves join the action every day.

While I miss the birding I once did down South, it’s a fun challenge to get out in frigid weather and see, and try to photograph, the birds of an old-fashioned Vermont winter.

Posted in Vermont Birding, Winter Birds | Tagged Common Merganser, local birding, Mallard, Mourning_Doves, Vermont Birding, Washington County, wild turkey, Winter birding | 3 Comments

Grey Days

Posted on November 26, 2024 by Richard

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.

Posted in Vermont Birding | Tagged Birding with Ginger, Killdeer, Stick_season, Vermont Birding, Washington County | 1 Comment

Geocaching Again

Posted on November 19, 2024 by Richard

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.

Chicken of the Woods – a favorite of many.

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.

Posted in Geocaching, Vermont Birding | Tagged Birding with Ginger, geocaching, Vermont Birding, Washington County | Comments Off

More Mergs

Posted on November 11, 2024 by Richard

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.

Posted in Vermont Birding | Tagged Birding with Ginger, mergansers, Vermont Birding, Washington County, wild turkey | 1 Comment

On We Go

Posted on November 7, 2024 by Richard

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.”

Posted in Local Birding, Vermont Birding | Tagged Berlin Pond, Birding with Ginger, Mallards, mergansers, Washington County | 1 Comment

June 1st Ride with Mom

Posted on June 1, 2024 by Richard

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.

Posted in Local Birding, Vermont Birding | Tagged Birding with Ginger, Common Merganser, local birding | Comments Off

Early May Birds

Posted on May 5, 2024 by Richard

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.

This pair have been here for weeks but always nice to see.

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.

Posted in Birding With Ginger, Vermont Birding | Tagged Berlin Pond, Birding with Ginger, Canada Geese, Common Loon, Eastern Kingbird, local birding, Solitary Sandpiper, Vermont Birding, Washington County | Comments Off

Cherry Hill – Part 2

Posted on April 23, 2024 by Richard

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.