Friday promised to be a pretty day so in spite of a pretty good list of tasks to do: mow lawn, split and stack wood, exercise the dog, and so on — I headed out early for a paddle on Wrightsville Reservoir with my new Hornbeck boat. (More on that in a future post.)
There was no one on the water as I headed out to the calls of a Belted Kingfisher and a host of Common Yellowthroats and Song Sparrows. I had my binoculars and instead of my camera, my iPhone 6.
I am experimenting with the zoom on the iPhone and finding that the quality degrades fairly rapidly. Coming upon a family of nearly mature Mallards, I coasted toward them, getting this low-res photo.
Moving slowly with the boat, I never startled this group, even though they certainly knew I was there.
A little further up, another family, less the daddy, cruised along. These were younger.
Since the reservoir is a flood control unit, the water levels vary greatly throughout the year. There are many old pine trees that died but still stand starkly along the bank.
Heading back, I came across three River Otters out for breakfast. Mom was chirping away at them as I nosed over toward them and took a few video clips with the phone. I’m learning IMovie to edit but am still low on the learning curve. These guys were neat and again, I never disturbed them.
It was a nice way to spend an hour or so on a perfect Vermont morning, and get a bit of exercise in the bargain. Good paddling.
It’s nearly 80 degrees, muggy under a hot sun, mosquitoes everywhere, and trails just soggy with rainwater. It feels like birding in Alabama or Louisiana but I’m hearing Hermit Thrushes and White-throated Sparrows and not worrying about snakes or alligators. We’ve had days of rain, interspersed with sunshine, but the ground is as saturated as I seen in mid-June.
After loading up with insect repellant, I took the dog for a walk this afternoon to do a little mid-day birding. We are loaded with Chestnut-sided Warblers and one was singing away as we headed out. Here’s a guy that hangs out along our driveway.
Distinctive song, easy markings, stays low. My kind of warbler.
We have several families of Common Yellowthroats living in the brushy areas around our house. This time of year, there is a lot of chipping but few calls. They move fast around the heavy foliage and are hard to photograph. Here’s one with a caterpillar.
You can run but you can’t hide, completely.
The mosquitoes attacked in force as we entered the woods – Deep Woods Off kept them from landing but they were hovering about an inch away from eyes, ears, nose etc. I remembered that birds need insects for food so tried to spin it positively, but it was not fun. I could hear Blackburnians way up high in the pines and Hermit Thrushes far off, and then Penny flushed this little guy who sat, hidden by branches, and finally flew off. I took a photo and believe it is a young Ovenbird. There was no call — I did hear several later on — but I’m basing it on the fact that it was on the ground, and then sat on a low branch, like Ovenbirds do — but the lack of striped chest or chestnut crown make me think it is a juvenile. Any thoughts — feel free to comment.
Of course, Penny, having been cooped up with rain all day, was ready to rock and roll. The red squirrels were out in force and she felt she had to tree and bark at each one.
Maybe if I stand here and bark you’ll come down and play.
As we came back up toward the house, I spotted the three deer that we’ve had around all year. They have their red summer coats and were glowing in the afternoon sunset, but deep in the foliage, watching us carefully. There may be a fourth one — I’m hoping that there is a fawn among them. They’ll be out and about tomorrow.
Approaching the house from our pines, I noted once again how lush everything is. I thought for a moment about the times when we’ve been on these trails, now squishy with water, when my fingers were too frozen to operate the camera. Seems like a long time off but this is Vermont, hang a month or two.
As we approached the house, one of our resident Purple Finches was singing away from the top of our maple.We have several families of Purple Finches that provide us with flashes of color and wonderful music.
The dog and I came home thirsty — I was sweating, she was panting. She’d seen a lot of squirrels, I had heard and seen a nice mix of birds. I’ll try to remember these days when I’m on out snowshoes with hand warmers not doing their job, with only chickadees and nuthatches in sight, and wonder why I whined about a little mud and bugs and heat. Good summer birding to you.
Yesterday, I had to take our living room couch up to Hyde Park – about an hour north – and drop it off for the upholsterer. So bright and early, Penny and I started up Route 12 toward Morrisville. It was a beautiful Vermont morning with the temperature in the 60’s, light traffic, and lots of bird song as we cruised along with the truck windows down. I had not birded Lamoille County, my target county last year, at all so it was nice to get back into parts of the state I explored in detail last year.
I gave myself plenty of time to get there which was just as well because while only one school bus stopped me, this parade of Canada Geese took their sweet time letting me get past.
These CAGO’s were adjacent Lake Lamoille. The goslings sat on the roadway, waddled a bit, walked some more. They seemed pretty accustomed to vehicle traffic. The last one seems to be saying, “I’m tired!” (Taken through truck windshield)
There is a wonderful country road leading to the turn for our upholsters. Part way along, I came across this line of old bicycles, each with a planter in a handlebar basket or on the frame, and stopped on the highway for a couple of iPhone photos. “Only in Vermont”, I thought. It was certainly unique and rather lovely.
I dropped the couch off without problems and we did some more birding – sometimes just stopping at turnouts and listening. Bobolinks, Eastern Meadowlarks, even some Wild Turkeys graced one field. I got about 25 species for the county including a couple of Osprey on a platform nest and many warblers and vireos.
Heading home, I stopped to take this photo of a round barn just south of Morrisville which was restored by the Welch family. Over the years, we had watched it age and were excited to notice and hear about renovation work, which was mostly done by the family over a long period of time.
The barn was painted yellow 45 years ago but the Welch’s matched the original red stain that was there when it was built in 1916. It is a wonderful structure saved through a lot of hard work and is now available for weddings and other functions.
A “boreal grand slam” in Vermont, and perhaps elsewhere, is to see the four boreal species (Boreal Chickadee, Gray Jay, Spruce Grouse, and Black-backed Woodpecker) on one birding outing. Or for others like me, it’s to get them as life birds, period.
I had seen, quite some time ago, Gray Jays and a cooperative Spruce Grouse but had never seen the other two species. Monday, I hoped to remedy that with a trip to the Northeast Kingdom with my faithful hound.
It is about a 1 plus 45 trip to the Victory Wildlife Management Area but it was a beautiful drive – trees showing red buds, some patches of snow, warm temperatures. The dirt road into Victory was in great shape with no traffic and I could hear Winter Wrens, Blue-headed Vireos, and Black-capped Chickadees as we cruised in with the windows down. Did I say that it is too early for bugs — which are treacherous in later spring.
Our destination was a pipeline crossing which had recently been described by a local birder, Tom Berriman of Lyndonville, as one of the good spots for Black-backed Woodpeckers. He wrote on the list serve that they had paired up and building nests and included a digiscoped video of one at work.
I had never met Tom but “know” him through postings, Facebook, and his great photos on the NEK Audubon page. When I got to the crossing, sure enough, his truck was there. Penny and I trekked in for about a half mile when way up ahead, returning, was this guy with a telescope slung over his shoulder. I watched a young Red-tailed Hawk thermal as I waited for him. I knew it was him and he recognized me, from having Penny on a leash, as we shook hands and talked for a bit. It had been a quiet morning for him as well.
When I mentioned that I was looking for a Black-backed Woodpecker he immediately said, “Do you want me to take you to where I saw the two yesterday?” I thought that he was going to give me good directions but as we walked back to our trucks, it became evident that he wanted to take me there.
So, after shedding some layers (it was getting warm), we walked in on an adjacent gated jeep trail quietly talking about all sort of topics and listening for drumming. He has better hearing than I do, or recognizes the light tapping of the Black-backed, and he heard a couple that were off a ways. Soon, we got to the spot where he had seen them.
After a short wait, he motioned and we moved into the woods a bit, through tangles and dead trees (I had Penny on a leash which got tangled here and there) he pointed and climbing a spruce tree was a female Black-backed Woodpecker. I got a great look but no photo with the trees and dog to deal with. She flew shortly and that was it.
As we waited a bit, I asked Tom how he knew she was there. “I heard some light tapping,” he said. I would have likely walked right by the bird.
He’d been tramping for four hours or so but still went out of his way to walk another half mile or so to guide me to this life bird. It is an example of his hospitality – he’s well-known and respected for taking birders to his favorite spots – but also of the kindness that I have found in the birding community here and in other states. It is a wonderful aspect and one more reason why birding can be so rewarding. Thank you Tom for life bird #428.
I saw the silver SUV crawling ahead of me the other day as I did a quick birding check of Berlin Pond and right away, I knew it contained my birding friends, Fred and Chris Pratt who I’d last seen two months ago in the Southern Rio Grande Valley. Sure enough, as I pulled closer to them, I saw the distinctive green license plate, Pipit, which is sort of famous in birding circles.
Fred and Chris bird under the name of Team Pipit, and they are a great team.
We talked briefly, we all had other tasks that morning, but as they moved ahead, Chris driving, Fred scanning (Chris has great skills as well), I knew that they’d probably see about half again as many birds as I did.
They are retired school teachers who live in Duxbury, Vermont and winter in McCallen, Texas. Wherever they are, they are avid eBird posters and are usually in the top five or ten of the particular county.(They are #8 in Hidalgo County, Texas this year.) When in Texas, I always am seeing Fred’s name reporting some unusual bird — and the two describe rarer species with the kind of detail that reviewers love.
In Vermont, birders who identify 150 species or more in a county are inducted into a prestigious “150 Club“. Even in counties with higher avian diversity, a birder must be dedicated and in the field during all four seasons to join this club. Fred and Chris Pratt pulled it off for four counties in 2013, a remarkable effort.
I’m always running into them on the back roads of Vermont and at times, in Texas. They are avid birders but also very sharing of their finds. This year, they are focussing on Grand Isle and Franklin counties in Northwest Vermont. It will be fun to watch their accomplishments.
My dentist lives on a nearby lake (Elmore) so while I was being examined by him the other day, I asked if the ice was out yet. He replied “No, but isn’t it amazing – the first day it’s gone the loons arrive? How do they know?”
I mentioned that they perform recco flights and hang out until it’s time. I related a story of an incident last month at our local airport where a loon crashed landed on the dark runway and had to be rescued. Here’s the report by Eric Hansen, who is the biologist for the Vermont Loon Recovery Project.
…On March 27, a Common Loon crash-landed at the Berlin Airport. Owen Montgomery, who works next door at the U.S. Department of Agriculture office, picked up the bird and found that it had few scratches. It seemed healthy otherwise.
John Buck of the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department transported the loon to Sara Eisenhower at VINS Wildlife Services for examination. The loon was healthy minus making the mistake that the Berlin Airport does not have a runway for seaplanes (airports in Alaska have canals next to their terrestrial runways). VINS released the bird on the Connecticut River.
This loon was likely already performing reconnaissance flights to return to its territory. Males tend to return first, thus maybe this was the male from Berlin Pond. It may have been tired from the flight, possibly from the New England coast. Loons will fly hundreds of miles in a single migratory flight. It saw the black of the runway, and, like the rest of us suffering from spring fever, perhaps had notions of water, sun, and fish.
Yesterday, on a cool grey day, I did some birding up in Caledonia County and heard for the first time this year the wonderful call of a Common Loon lifting off water. It flew right over me at Hardwick Lake, which is open and where were three. Another three were at Joe’s Pond which has very little open water. Here is a low-light shot of a couple who were hanging out together. You can see the ice in the background.
Two loons hanging out together at Joe’s Pond in West Danville, Vermont.
The loons we see in Texas are in winter plumage, essentially solid black, and are silent. The first lesson we learn in distinguishing them from Double-crested Cormorants is the way they hold their bill level while the cormorants have theirs pointed slightly upward.
There were only seven pairs of Common Loons thirty years ago in Vermont. Now there are more than 70 breeding pairs across the state. Due to the work of Vermont Center for Ecostudies, Vermont Fish & Wildlife, and hundreds of volunteers, this is a great success story to celebrate on the day after Earth Day.
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I left early and drove about forty-five minute to the County line encountering some frost heaves and potholes but a delightful lack of traffic – and a beautiful countryside. After several stops, with some success, I arrived at my planned hot spot, the floodplain along the Connecticut River over in Barnet. I followed a farm road toward the river, through a large hayfield toward some big cornfields. The river was high and fast with little on it but the fields had ducks and Canada Geese and some sparrows while American Tree Swallows soared overhead. It was a beautiful morning and I let the dog out to roam around — she loved the spring smells. (We stayed away from the area where they are spreading cow manure.)
After a bit, I heard a loud screeching/calling from the pine trees off to the west and saw a large bird slowly moving in that direction. I got my binoculars on it: Bald Eagle, then another one. The pair moved in to their youngsters, which I could not see, and then rested on the nest. I went back to the truck, got my scope, tried to find my iPhone setup, and returned to watch them. They were not easy to see although the white heads stuck out in the greenery where there were openings. I watched for a while, then they flew and I grabbed these two shots of one of them going overhead.
You can see that there’s a missing wing feather or two from molting.
I waited a bit for them to return but I had a schedule to keep myself and headed back toward the interstate to head north. Just a mile or so up I-91 there’s a scenic pull off and I decided to make a quick stop to scan the far off river area. A car was there with two folks with cameras and binoculars, always a good sign, so I asked them what they were watching.
It turns out that they are part of a group that monitors Peregrine Falcon nesting in the region and they had spent several hours already that morning watching a nest up in the cliffs across the highway. The nest was recessed deep in a shady cave-like opening and out of sight but one of the falcons, probably Dad, was perched not far away. I took a couple of shots of him from long range as I thanked them for their help.
It was a great end to a nice Vermont birding morning and I added about fifteen species to my County list. Fun to be birding again on home turf.
With Valentine’s Day approaching, I thought that "will you be my Valentine?" would be a good caption for these two turtles I saw the other day.
One of the specialties of the Rio Grande Valley is the Green Jay. Here, three contemplate the slim pickings at a feeder.
The biggest dove here is the White-tipped Dove, here shown beside a House Sparrow.
This male Green Kingfisher is quite the dude.
The Great Kiskadee is a beautiful but noisy flycatcher.
This Couch’s/Tropical Kingbird was quiet so he’s tough to identify.
The lighting for this Neotropic Cormorant is not good so you can’t see his bright eye. His long tail is the clue. His Double-crested cousins have much shorter tails (in relation to their bodies.)
We are still awed by the colors and diversity of the species we see and hear. It’s never "Just another Green Jay" day for us. Good birding.
I took a little scouting trip yesterday morning to nearby Caledonia County which I may use for a County Big Year in 2015. It’s a pretty good haul over there and nothing except a few American Crows seemed to be moving. Once I got to the County, it was even worse – nothing but lovely frosted trees (with no birds that I could spot.)
Approaching the Village of Hardwick, I decided to swing north for a moment on Route 16 and just as I made the turn, noticed a car, with a guy in it, parked alongside the road – which overlooks the river. I slowed – didn’t see any binoculars, but waved as did he. I pondered as I crawled northward what he was doing – and then I saw snowy tire marks in the road and thought, “He spotted something and circled back to check it out.”
The truck is too long to “hook a u-ie” on a main road so I drove up to the next driveway, reversed course, and noticed that he had pulled out and departed. I slowed, pulled right into his tire tracks alongside the road, checked the river for mergansers, and then checked the trees. Bingo! He had spotted a Bald Eagle and returned to look it over. So I did the same. Carefully exiting the truck, I took a few shots from behind the vehicle, pausing as trucks and cars past, and quietly watched the regal bird eye the river, eye me, and just quietly sit there. I carefully left the area without disturbing him.
The SX50 Canon is perfect for “grab and go” shots like this.
Sometimes, spotting birders is a great way to spot birds that you might not otherwise see. More than once, I have been put on a good bird by someone who already has it in binos or scope. I probably would have missed this guy today if I hadn’t seen those tire tracks in the road. I have no idea if my predecessor was a birder or just someone who spotted an eagle but in any case, thanks.
