Monthly Archives: March 2013
Songs of Spring
As the days get into the 40’s and the snow slowly melts, it’s great for Vermont’s maple syrup producers but also a spring tonic for birds and birders. Suddenly, there’s a lot more avian vocal activity in our woods and … Continue reading
Posted in Local Birding, Vermont Birding, Washington County
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The Art of Birdering
Here’s a humorous post from a blogger on the West Coast: Last winter, I joined Dennis Vollmar for an epic birding trip to Washington. We saw EMPEROR GOOSE, KING EIDER, YELLOW-BILLED LOON, NORTHERN HAWK-OWL, GYRFALCON, and COMMON REDPOLL. The birding was … Continue reading
Birding on the First Day of Spring
We got about a foot of new snow Monday and all day, the birds hit the feeders pretty hard. It was interesting to see some of them pause under the feeder’s eaves to take a break out of the snowfall. … Continue reading
Posted in Backyard birds, Birding With Penny, Local Birding, Vermont Birding, Yard birds
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Happy Spring – Not!
Normally, we’d still be in Texas this time of year, enjoying some of the early migrating birds, and planning our trip back to Vermont. This year we stayed home – and yesterday’s late snowstorm of a foot or more (and … Continue reading
Posted in Vermont Birding
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April Birding Events in Central Vermont
After a morning of 4 degrees and a forecast of a foot or more of snow, it is encouraging to see calendars of birding events popping up on local web sites. I took three local groups and put their outings … Continue reading
Posted in Bird walks, Local Birding, Vermont Birding
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A Low Expectation Saturday Outing
Things are really slow birding-wise right now with some of the winter birds gone (haven’t seen Common Redpolls for a few days) and just a few early arrivals. We’re seeing some Red-winged Blackbirds, Common Grackles, and a few Killdeer but … Continue reading
Posted in County Big Year, Local Birding, Vermont Birding, Washington County
Tagged Birchgrove_Baking, county bird
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iPhone Digiscoping: Video Grabs
Drew Weber, a young ornithologist originally from PA but now living in central New York, is pursuing a master’s degree at Penn State University studying grassland birds and their relationships with different agricultural practices. Not long ago, he posted a … Continue reading
Posted in Digiscoping, iPhone
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Declining Grassland Birds & Pesticides
A new paper by Canadian scientists Pierre Mineau and Mélanie Whiteside identifies pesticide toxicity to birds as an important factor in grassland bird declines. “Pesticide Acute Toxicity is a Better Correlate of U.S. Grassland Bird Declines than Agricultural Intensification” was … Continue reading
Posted in Bird conservation, Conservation
Tagged grassland_birds, pesticides
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Multi-tasking Birding
It’s a good thing that we have no neighbors close by. We have a 30 acre wooded parcel that has a nice mile long walking trail which I trod with the Vizsla two or three times a day. I always … Continue reading
eButterfly is Ready for Vermont!
Kent McFarland of the Vermont Center for Ecostudies posted this on the VCE blog. In case you don’t get their material, here’s a way to keep track of the butterflies you see — and have seen. It looks like a great … Continue reading
Posted in Vermont Birding
Tagged Butterflies, eButterfly, VCE
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