It’s a great time for birding here: birds are back and singing and flirting, foliage is just starting to pop, and it’s getting a little warmer. Here are some photos I took in the last two days.
Birds provide a wonderful respite anytime but especially now. Good birding and good health to you.
Last week I came across several singing Winter Wrens on a nearby preserve and grabbed this shot of one, in spite of the dog tugging at the leash.
Yesterday, several House Wrens showed up in our back yard and seemed to be interested in our one bird house.
Here are some more shots — it’s wonderful to hear their singing and chattering.
We’ve had a nice variety of new visitors in our back yard this week including a Ruby-throated Hummer, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Gray Catbird, Black & White Warbler, and a Spotted Sandpiper. Still waiting for the Great Blue Heron.
Many winters ago in Texas I met a Canadian birder who had an interesting side hobby: she collected birding vanity license plates. So for a while, one of the things I did as I traveled the country was to keep an eye open for vanity license plates and snap a photo of each one. I tried to get a little info on the owner but sometimes the vehicle was unoccupied. It did led to some interesting stories and some interesting people.
However, the project slid as I started to do less traveling — until a couple of weeks ago. In the midst of the Covid-19 homestay I got an email from a Michigan birder who is an avid collector of license plate images. He suggested that we trade a few of his for a few of mine. Thus, another initiative gets underway for this period of waiting. I arranged my images into a gallery and hope to start up my collecting again this summer. Here is the image Don sent me to pique my interest.
Here’s what Don told me about the plate — “My own SCREECH is quite popular, as it raises questions from non-birders. One man from Maine asked me about it, and asked if I was from Newfoundland. I asked why he might think so, and he responded that screech is the name of a local moonshine made in Newfoundland! Certainly not what I had intended.”
I’m going to put up Don’s images in a gallery soon. In the meantime, do you have an interesting plate or know someone who does? Why not take your phone a grab a photo of it and send it to me: vtbirder at gmail.com.
This morning on a dog walk at the airport, I heard and then saw Killdeer — a neat sign of spring and a diversion from the terrible news around us. The striking plumage, frenetic feeding, and noisy chatter are a nice tonic.
Birds are bringing us a special bit of joy during this tough period of our lives.
Snow Geese are relatively uncommon in this part of the state so it’s sort of a big deal when some show up, which they did late last week. Reports ran as high as 60 birds with a mix of blue morphs and after a couple of days, I was able to swing by and check them out. The photos are not great but you can get the mix of young and adult birds, perhaps see a blue morph in one photo, and see why these birds, often found in flocks of thousands, are fun to have locally in small groups.
Over the weekend, the dog and I took several nice walks through the neighborhoods of Montpelier. I had my camera along so we had pee stops (her) and photo stops (me.)
We are fortunate, in this time of limited contact, to have a lot of birds that we can see from the house or on a short jaunt to the river. Here are a few from the weekend.
During these challenging times, one of the safe things we can do right now is bird, and with migration starting, we can see a many new arrivals out back on the river. Yesterday, Ginger and I took a drive to check out some nearby farm fields and we saw hundreds of Canada Geese. I was looking for something like a Snow Goose or Cackling Goose while sorting them out from the roads.
Stay safe and be glad that we have our avian friends (and sometimes a canine buddy) to enjoy as we navigate the months ahead. Good birding
This morning, there were all sorts of birds out back at low tide. This group had Wood Storks (the ones with black on the back), American White Pelicans, Roseate Spoonbills, Great Egrets, Snowy Egrets, and White Ibises,
Groups of Roseate Spoonbills came and left.
Later we went downtown and found these groups of Double-crested Cormorants and Brown Pelicans hanging out in the sunshine.
We’ve seen 65-70 species here this week, more than half from our deck. We’ll head north in the morning after a nice stay in Cedar Key.
We are enjoying good weather and birding in Cedar Key but an extra leash tug from Ginger ended up with a dropped camera and a jammed lens on my SX60 Canon. So it’s iphone time and the birds here are out there a ways.
We’ve been enjoying pelicans, ibis, oystercatchers, ospreys etc from our back deck and going on some nice outings, but missing the Canon.
We have an Osprey who spends hours on a post just behind the cottage. Here’s a shot of him – sorry about the quality. 
Right beside him this morning was a yellow-crowned Night Heron.
We drove out to the little airport today and found hundreds of shorebirds whirling through the wind and alighting on the tarmac. There were hundreds of Semipalmated Plovers, and many dowitchers and sanderlings. Who knows what else was huddled in that avian mass? 
A storm is coming and birds are seeking shelter. Here are a lot of Royal Terns huddled on a roof.
New camera time when we get home.