Vermont Birding – Page 23

Brown Creeper for the County Big Year List

As I noted in a blog post in October, I love Brown Creepers. However, I haven’t seen any since that day in October and while I know they are in our woods, I’ve dipped on them.

They were one of the 35 species on my County target list for January. They’re tough to spot, being really small and blending in with the tree trunks. We’ve had a lot of very cold temperatures with wind so their calls may have been masked by the woods noises. They remained the only bird I hope to see in our woods until today. It’s been tough birding, temperature aside, with the snowy trail very rough from the times I walked it when the snow was warmer — now it demands attention to the trail, not the trees. So I know I’ve probably walked right by Brown Creepers.

This afternoon, it was sunny but windy with a wind chill down around zero. I took the dog out and noted that there were many Chickadees active in the pines — more so than usual. Then, just several hundred yards from the house, I saw movement on a big white pine tree trunk and Bingo, there’s the little creeper. I wanted to get a photo (I’m trying to record each of my County birds) so I dropped my mittens, hauled my camera out of the parka, and in doing so lost the bird. They are tough to see. Then, I heard it call from another tree and then it flew to the next. I followed it down into the woods, trying to get it in the camera. They blend so well and are constantly moving — and my bare hands, already aching from the cold, fumbled with the camera controls. But I got a couple of shots for the record — and got back to my mittens and their “hotties.”

A Brown Creeper working up the trunk of one of our White Pines. Canon PowerShot SX50 HS 1/100ƒ/5.6ISO 64059.4 mm

It then took the rest of the walk to thaw out my fingers. I heard a woodpecker working away and just ahead, this male Hairy was going after an afternoon snack.

A male Hairy Woodpecker Canon PowerShot SX50 HS 1/160ƒ/6.5ISO 250215 mm

Now, the task is to find a Golden Crown Kinglet. Again, I know we have them and that I’ll see them later in the year but it would be great to spot on before January ends. They’re small, flitty, and their call is even higher pitched than the Brown Creeper. So, that’s tomorrow’s target bird.

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Why Not Head To Montreal For A Great Gray Owl This Weekend?

I just read, thank to a post by my friend Pat Folsom, that Great Grey Owls are back in the Montreal area for the first time in eight years. She pointed out a blog post by Chickaddd which I excerpt below:

One of the great things about winter birding is that every year is different and you never quite know how far south different species of birds will travel in search of food. Summer species are mostly predictable, as species typically return to the same nesting habitat each year since each species has fairly specific requirements for nesting. Finding a good place to nest requires the right type of vegetation, a good source of high-protein food for nestlings, and protection from predators. But in winter each species is only focused on one thing–finding enough food to survive the winter so that it can breed again next year. The availability of food changes each winter based on the cycles of temperature and precipitation, and thus determines how far a bird may have to migrate to find these food sources. Most of our insectivorous species have to travel to tropical climates where insects are available year-round, but frugivores (fruit-eating birds), granivores (seed-eating birds), carnivores, and omnivores can usually find year-round food sources in or near their breeding habitat and won’t migrate south unless conditions such as drought or extreme cold diminish their food sources. When food becomes scarce non-migratory species will slowly move their range south in search of a reliable food source. For some species, such as Redpolls, this happens regularly, on a fairly predictable 2-3 year cycle, but for other species the cycles are much less predictable, and may only happen every 5-10 years. One such species is the Great Gray Owl, which relies mostly on voles and other small rodents to get through the winter. Rodents are prolific breeders, so they tend to be abundant year-round, but occasionally the lack of food will cause rodent populations to crash, forcing the Great Gray Owl out of its northern boreal forest habitat and into areas where rodents are still abundant. Surprisingly one of the best places for an owl to find a good supply of rodents this time of year is the bustling metropolis of Montreal.

A Great Gray Owl, photo from owling.com

About a month ago reports of Great Gray Owls throughout Quebec started appearing on birding list-serves, mostly from urban parks that are in and around Montreal. Great Gray Owls need open fields to hunt, and mature trees to hunt from, which many of Montreal’s parks provide. The last Great Gray Owl invasion was eight years ago, in 2005, when there were dozens of them across the city. The greatest concentration of them was on Ile Bizard, an island on the northwest side of Montreal, that has a large nature park surrounded by suburban housing–perfect rodent habitat. In 2005 I had just moved to Plattsburgh, only an hour from Montreal, and so I made the trip up there to see the owl invasion. It was an incredible experience, Great Gray Owls seemed to be everywhere, I saw at least half a dozen that day. Even more amazing was how close you could get to them, you could practically walk right underneath them and they still wouldn’t leave their perch. Being such a large bird, 70-80cm in length and a wingspan up to 152cm, they don’t take flight unless absolutely necessary due to the energy involved, so they just stay perched most of the day. Since they aren’t hunted and have few natural predators they don’t seem to feel threatened by humans, they simply stare at you as you walk by with their gorgeous yellow eyes. Then they look quickly look away and return to what they were doing before you disturbed them–using their incredible senses to listen for food. Though owls have excellent eyesight it is near impossible to spot a rodent in snow-covered fields so they rely on sound instead to find rodents burrowing beneath the snow.The disk-like appearance of a Great-Gray Owls face serves a purpose–the arrangement of the feathers funnels sound into the owl’s ears, making its hearing keen enough to hear a vole tunneling beneath a foot of snow. When they hear a vole they take to the air with very slow stiff wingbeats and then glide silently over the field so that they can use their ears to pinpoint the vole’s exact location before it plunges into the snow to capture its prey. Their silent flight has earned them the nickname “Ghost Owl”, because they glide like a ghost over the field, undetectable by their prey.

Such a cool creature is certainly worth making a second trip to Montreal to see, eight years later, so this past weekend I assembled a car full of birders to ride with me across the border in search of one of these amazing birds, two of which had never seen a Great Gray Owl before… (read whole post)

I checked eBird for listings with no success on recent sightings but, as you will read in Chickaddd’s post, many are concerned about reporting Great Grays because of the actions of over-eager photographers who bait and bother owls for better photos.

Most of these sightings are two or three weeks old. Chickaddd and friends report where they saw one last weekend.

Bryan Pfeiffer Takes A New (old) Trail

photo credit - Bryan Pfeiffer — photo credit – Bryan Pfeiffer

Bryan Pfeiffer is a well-known Central Vermont writer, naturalist, photographer and educator. Many of us have enjoyed his bird walks/tours, his humor-filled lectures, and his photographic skills. His blog post the other day caught many of us by surprise — not that he’s abandoning some of his many ventures to work on a book — but that he is cutting way back on his electronic activity. For me, tethered to a MacBook, iPad, and iPhone too much, it was a call to look at how I balance my outdoor and other activities with blogging, Tweeting, and Facebooking. (I made that a verb to see if my English-teacher wife reads this!

Bryan outlines his decision with his usual clarity and thoughtfulness. It’s a good read for any birder:

Fifteen years ago I left journalism for nature. I swapped a necktie for binoculars, a reporter’s notepad for a naturalist’s field book. Although my income sank to levels of voluntary poverty, I inherited wealth in a new currency: a warbler’s dawn melody, an orchid’s purple glow, a dragonfly’s ancient tenacity.

This life outside I have been eager to share with others. Coded into my DNA is a drive to bring nature and people together. It is how I’ve made my living. It has given me purpose. I suppose it’s no different than journalism. If the free trade of facts and knowledge are essential to a functioning society, then so too is the discovery and enjoyment of nature critical to its future. And to our own.

If I couldn’t get you outside, your ears tuned to a Mink Frog, your nose tingling with the scent of Balsam Poplar, your eyes wide and locked on a Regal Fritillary, your mouth savoring serviceberries, or your feet wet in a spruce bog, then here at The Daily Wing I ventured to unite your senses with wildlife and wild places. For three years this blog, with all due humility, has been my intersection of nature and journalism.

Now it will rest.

My blend of the wild and the wired will enter diapause, nature’s state of dormancy. Not only will this blog rest, but so will my fling with Facebook, Twitter, digital photography, radio television broadcasts, PowerPointing and other electronic communications. I’m dimming the lights and heading for the woods with a notebook and pencil. (Read the whole post here.)

It’s minus 16 F this morning and still dark out so I think I’m comfortable drinking coffee and writing — but I’m giving Bryan’s diapause idea a lot of thought as we move to saner temperatures and arriving birds.

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Bird Heat Regulation in Winter

Today, I spent some time watching two female Hooded Mergansers along the Winooski River. One was sitting on the ice shelf while the other was fishing in the river with chunks of ice passing by. The air temperature was about 10 degrees F and even though I was sitting in the truck, shooting out the window, it looked cold. I kept wondering about the merg on the ice, just huddled there all puffed up and tucked in. Here’s what she looked like:

A female Hooded Merganser on the ice shelf this morning.

Here she is with her sister who is doing the foraging.

When I got home, I happened across a Facebook post by an author, Mary Holland, whose work I really like. I wrote about her book, Naturally Curious, last Fall. Here’s what she wrote:

On a cold, winter day, why would any bird choose to sit down on ice? While feathers are excellent insulators, the legs and feet of most birds lack this protective covering. Because of this, legs and feet are a major source of heat loss for birds. Physical adaptations to this loss of heat include constricted blood vessels in a bird’s feet, as well as the proximity of arteries and veins to each other which aids the transfer of heat. Birds exhibit behavioral adaptations as well, such as ducks and gulls standing on one leg and tucking the other among breast feathers, reducing by half the amount of unfeathered limb surface area exposed. By sitting down and covering both legs, even on ice, heat loss from limbs is minimized. If you observe closely, you will see many of the ground-feeding finches such as sparrows and redpolls also occasionally drop down and cover their legs and feet with their breast feathers for a few seconds.

So, I got my answer pretty fast. Meanwhile, here’s a couple of shots of the exercising merganser fishing successfully. I didn’t see her share it!

Commencing to eat it -- it's hard to tell if it is a fish or a crayfish-type meal. — Commencing to eat it — it’s hard to tell if it is a fish or a crayfish-type meal.

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Regrets – I’m Having a Few

I checked the outside temperature as I got up to make coffee this morning and read five degrees. Then, listening to the local news, I heard the forecast of even colder later in the week. I know, it’s winter in Vermont but this is getting a bit old.

And then, I made a big mistake. I thought, “I wonder what we were doing last year, and the year before?” So I checked the archives of this blog and said to Mary, “You know, two years ago this day was the day that we saw that Mama Great Horned Owl at Fontainebleau State Park.” That didn’t exactly make Mary’s morning!

Mary and I have fond memories of the Mama Great Horned Owl that nests in the same tree year after year at Fontainebleau State Park in Louisiana.

Doing a little further checking, I remembered that three years ago was when I got hooked on birding after being exposed to the many birds of the Gulf Coast. Last year in late February, I was posting a bunch of colorful photos of southern birds we had just seen.

Penny, our Vizsla, was getting antsy for her morning walk so I bundled up, scarf over face, “Hotties” in the leather mittens, and grabbed my binoculars and camera out of the truck. The temperature had dropped a few degrees, as it does in the morning, but the Common Redpolls and Black-capped Chickadees were active at the feeder. I could hear both White-breasted Nuthatches and Red-breasted Nuthatches in the still morning air as we trudged along on our forest path. Not much else was moving — a Hairy Woodpecker, all puffed up because of the cold, was working on a dead White Pine. My binoculars were too cold to even focus and I didn’t even try to use the camera. The sun was trying to peek through the trees as it rose but losing the battle.

I thought I heard a Brown Creeper but never saw any movement. I tried not to think of the dozens of birds I’d be seeing in Texas now, but ….

As we returned to the house, I saw the poor old Airstream, covered with snow, waiting to Spring to come so that we can finish repairs and get her ready for travel again. If I had to bet, I’d say that this experiment, staying in Vermont for the winter, is just that, an experiment. I think that we’ll be well south of here next year at this time.

Meanwhile, my County Big Year is going well in spite of the frigid temperatures. I have 29 birds toward a January goal of 35. Time to warm up the truck, and go looking for some Pine Grosbeaks.

Foresters for the Birds

On Saturday, January 26, 2013, Audubon Vermont and the Vermont Department of Forests, Parks, and Recreation (VT FP&R) will be hosting a woods tour of an active logging job that demonstrates concepts and practices developed through a unique and innovative partnership between the two organizations: the Foresters for the Birds project. The tour will take place at the 255-acre Green Mountain Audubon Center in Huntington, Vermont where a timber harvest designed to improve timber and forest songbird habitat for species including wood thrush and black-throated blue warbler is underway. The tour is open to the public and press, and will run from 9:00 am to noon. Space is limited; pre-registration is required. Forest landowners, municipal volunteers and officials, foresters, and other natural resource professionals with an interest in applying similar practices on land they manage are especially encouraged to attend. Featured highlights of the event will be meeting with the foresters, biologists, landowner, logger, and other leaders who are all working together on this harvest, and seeing the logger and his equipment in action.

The timber harvest is designed to improve timber and forest songbird habitat for species including wood thrush and black-throated blue warbler. photo by dick mansfield.

The harvest at the Audubon Center is one of nine being done across Vermont and New Hampshire as part of the Foresters for the Birds project to test and demonstrate how timber management can be used as a tool to improve bird habitat while also generating income from forest products to offset land holding costs and keep forests forests. The tour will be led by VT FP&R county foresters and Audubon Vermont biologists. VT FP&R Commissioner, Michael Snyder, and Agency of Natural Resources Secretary, Deb Markowitz, will also discuss how the Foresters for the Birds project is making a positive difference for forest stewardship, forest health, and the forest-based economy in Vermont.

The tour will begin with a brief introduction at the Birds of Vermont Museum located at 900 Sherman Hollow Road in Huntington. The group will then take a short walk to the harvest area at the Audubon Center to see how forestry practices such as thinnings, crop tree management, and selection harvests are being used to benefit birds and other wildlife as well as the long-term vigor and growth of the forest. Participants will learn about services and resources available to landowners interested in doing a similar harvest on their own land. Logistics and financial considerations, including Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) incentive programs, will also be discussed.

For information and registration visit the Audubon Vermont website or call Charley Wilkinson at (802)434-3068. Registration is $10 for Audubon Vermont members and $15 for non-members. Come ready for a winter walk in the woods; snowshoes are recommended. Hope to see you there!

A Snowy but Birdy Day

Last night, I was at a meeting when a non-birding friend of mine said, “Dick, I saw a beautiful Bald Eagle today down on the Dog River.” He went on to briefly describe the location and then the meeting started.

Bald Eagles are much more common in Vermont these days but still pretty unusual in Washington County — none have been recorded this year — and it’s a bird I need for my county big year so this morning, Penny and I were off in the truck to go birding. It was snowing with an inch or more on the ground as we drove around Montpelier looking for Pine Grosbeaks. (Another friend had emailed me about a flock of 16 the day before.) We saw nothing bird-wise and the snow was just steady enough to make the trip questionable.

We drove south about four miles to where Shawn had seen the eagle but I couldn’t spot anything. Route 12 has a lot of traffic and with the snow, there was no shoulders to pull off on — and so we trudged along southward to Northfield, thinking the there might be some Grosbeaks at Norwich University. There weren’t.

A bit discouraged about wasting gas on wild eagle chases, I back-tracked and just where it should be, perched the eagle, regal in a Birch tree with a couple of crows mobbing it. It was on the passenger side so I drove up ahead, found a driveway to turn in, (thank you 4WD), and drove back with the window down. I pulled partway off the highway, with blinkers on, and took photographs through the open window for about five minutes as cars wooshed by. It was a great bird to get. Here’s a photo from quite a distance.

Bald Eagle, Berlin, VT CanonPowershot SX50HS 1/400ƒ/6.5ISO 1250 215 mm

Returning to Montpelier in the light snow, I decided to try a few more spots for birds I need. I drove up Junction Road which parallels the Winooski River and spotted a couple of Blue Jays and slowing, two American Tree Sparrows foraging. Just ahead was a parking area so I pulled in, got the dog on a leash which I tied to my belt, and she pulled me up the snowy dirt road to where we had seen the birds. It was a literal jackpot: first the Blue Jays, then a few Chickadees, then three American Robins. Robins are a bit sparse in January in central Vermont and these were my first of the year. After watching a couple more tree sparrows, several birds flew in and the robins hassled them. I got my glasses on them: waxwings — another bird I need. Soon about a dozen Bohemian Waxwings were going after the fruit on one of the trees.

American Robin in light snowfall, on sumac. Canon PowerShot SX50 HS. 1/1600ƒ/7.1ISO 1250154.8 mm

Bohemian Waxwing in light snow. Canon PowerShot SX50 HS. Settings: 1/400ƒ/6.5ISO 400215 mm

It was a great morning after a poor start. I added four birds to my county list bringing my County Big Year total to 29. January goal is 35 — may just make it with a few more outings like today’s.

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Mergs Chilling Out

One of the neat things about birding locally is that you can combine it with other errands – and since most of us carry binoculars and camera with us, the trick is to stay on the road while scanning the trees for birds.

Vermont has a law against texting while driving – we don’t want to instigate a “no birding while driving” although Mary has had to warn me a few times as I drifted while saying, “Is that a crow or a hawk?” No, you don’t want to add a Subaru to your life list!

We were picking up some items yesterday downtown and checking out the Winooski River for mergansers. Most of the river is frozen but there are still some open spots. Mary was checking for me but we had no luck and headed westward for a coffee stop at Red Hen Bakery in Middlesex. We then continued up Route 2 to look for gulls at Grow Compost. As we crossed a bridge, I noted that the Winooski was ice-free so we swung down a dead end dirt road called Lover’s Lane. I immediately noticed a couple of small ducks feeding in the icy water. We pulled off to the side (there’s little traffic except for the residents) and I took a few photos, first with the Powershot and then, getting the scope out, digiscoping with my point and shoot. These were County Bird #20.

The two female Hooded Mergansers were feeding -- on was wrestling with a small fish as I was getting the camera ready. — The two female Hooded Mergansers were feeding — one was wrestling with a small fish as I was getting the camera ready.

They then stood on the ice at the edge of the river.

Mergs2W — Finally, as I got them in the telescope, they tucked their bills into their downy coats and took a nap on the ice.

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Nemesis Bird – Northern Shrike – Yes!

This is my fourth year of birding and for the last two of them, I’ve been whining about not finding a Northern Shrike. I’ve sort of whined in posts here and here. A couple of days ago, I saw Chip and Larry, young friends of mine from the North Branch Nature Center, and I began again. I noted to Larry that he was on my bad guy list because he keeps seeing shrikes and I never do. He replied, “Dick, I hate to tell you. I just saw one on my way to work” and went on to tell me where — up near my eye doctor’s office.

Fast forward a couple of days. Yesterday, I had to take Mary up to the hospital for an appointment and had some time to kill so off the dog and I went in the truck to bird. I headed right up to the spot Larry had mentioned, figuring it was another wild shrike chase. I scanned the tree line way off as I drove in and saw a dot way off. As I parked and got the glasses on it, aha! Definitely a Northern Shrike perched at the top of a big birch tree, over a quarter mile off. I watched a bit, took some long-range photos from the truck, and then got out to get my scope. As I set up the rig, I noted that the bird was gone. I doubt with all the coming and going in the parking lot I spooked it but it was a find — life bird number 355. Here is a lousy image that I got from far away:

Life bird 355. Hope to see it closer for a better photo.

After packing up and warming up frozen hands, I turned the truck around and up ahead, a small flock of birds flew right in front of me. I turned into another lot, noting that they were snow buntings. They kept moving away from me as I tried to photograph them through the open window – and of course, I was blocking someone coming in for an appointment. I got better positioned as they settled along the driveway edge and was able to grab a couple of shots before a car came along and flushed them for good — off they went sailing across the snowy fields with a 20 knot tailwind. They were a County first for me and County Big Year bird 19. About then, Mary called to say that she was getting fitted for a new support boot for her broken toe and would be ready soon. I think I had more fun than she but we both had successful afternoons.

Snow Buntings working the edge of a driveway. County bird #19 for 2013.

Birding on Backcountry Skis

We’ve had some wonderful powder snow and I’ve been able to break some trails in our woods and adjacent forest with snowshoes. I carry binoculars on every outing but with some sub-zero days and brisk winds, the birds have been a little sparse. Most of the action seems to be back at our feeders.

Yesterday, the wind quit, the sun came out for a while, and it was a perfect afternoon to get into the pine forests that surround us. Of course, my birding companion, Penny the Vizsla, was ready to roll. Just as I was getting my skis out of the garage, I noticed a couple of birds in trees down the driveway. I already had my binoculars under my windbreaker and so I took a look, and decided that I needed to get closer. Of course, Penny was already heading down the driveway. The two birds were high in a tree and as I got closer and past a tall spruce tree, I could see about twenty “golden globes” perched on the branches of a tamarack. I intially thought that they were female/juvenile Pine Grosbeaks. They flew off in a large group – spooked by the dog – and that was it. I realized later that they were Evening Grosbeaks when I read in The Crossley Guide that they ” form flocks that can often be spotted perched like Christmas lights on a tree….

"Hey Dad, why do you keep stopping and checking the trees? Let's go!" — “Hey Dad, why do you keep stopping and checking the trees? Let’s go!”

We headed out on the trail that I had earlier packed with snowshoes and enjoyed a nice romp, seeing and hearing chickadees and the usual suspects like crows and blue jays. It was one of those outings where it was unimportant that I didn’t see any target birds — the fresh air, fresh snow, energetic dog, and perfect ski wax made it a wonderful birding trip. And perhaps next trip, we’ll spook some Ruffed Grouse or an owl. The Evening Grosbeaks just added icing to the outing.

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