Category: Vermont Birding

Today I saw the Varied Thrush which has been hanging out in upstate Vermont since last weekend.  I’ve been monitoring the email reports but reluctant to bother the couple whose backyard it is visiting.  Hearing of their hospitality and realizing that I knew them from my affordable housing activities, I drove over today and sat in the truck, hoping to see the bird from the road.

Shortly, Don came out and invited me to come into the house to see the bird.  So before I knew it, I was sitting on the bed in their bedroom, watching for the thrush out the window.  June kept saying, “Be patient, it was here earlier.  It will come back.”  I was out of the snow and cold, watching Blue Jays and a host of winter birds hit the feeders, and having a wonderful conversation with June about our work together converting a Vermont Inn into a successful elderly housing unit.

The bird popped into view and was very accommodating, perching high in the tree, coming down to ground feed, and leaving and returning.  It was bigger than I expected and looked very healthy.  The colors are striking — but it’s thousands of miles from its normal winter location out west and one wonders where it will go, how it will survive.  I guess that’s always the questions on vagrant birds so far off course.

The photos are poor because they are shot through several panes of cloudy glass (plus I am never good compensating for snow) — but who’s complaining?  It was such a wonderful pre-Christmas gift and the couple feeding the VT (as they call it) could not be friendlier or more inviting.  If you want to find out more, email Pat Folsom.  It is a life bird for me and a beautiful sight with the newly fallen snow.   I have posted photos here.

Downy Woodpecker

Hairy Woodpecker

We’ve had a pair of Hairy Woodpeckers and a couple of Downy Woodpeckers hitting the suet pretty steadily for a week or so.  It’s given me a chance to lock in the differences — particularly the longer bill of the Hairy and the more pronounced nose tufts of the Downy.  They are also decimating the old apple tree out back — it’s amazing it still is alive.

For the last several days, I’ve read reports of folks spotting groups of Bohemian Waxwings throughout central Vermont, including a sighting yesterday in Montpelier.  I had errands to run this morning and sort of looked around with no results and sort of forgot about them.

However, I forgot the videos I had to return so this afternoon, I fired up the truck and returned to town — and spotted a gaggle of birds in a maple tree off Elm Street.  Hoping that they were not starlings, I got the binoculars on them as they flocked to a couple of fruit trees on the corner of Pearl Street.  They were waxwings alright — beautiful in the afternoon light, and fairly cooperative.

76 Bohemian Waxwings in downtown Montpelier, VT

They stayed put for about five minutes in a maple while I counted them — I got 76 of them give or take a couple.  I did not see any Cedar Waxwings mixed in.  The only camera I had was a small point & shoot so the image captures the number but not the beauty.  When I came back 15 minutes later they were off somewhere else.  For me, it was a great reward for the extra trip to town.

After a Thanksgiving trip to Maryland sans Airstream, we returned for a week in Massachusetts to do some child care and retrieve the trailer.

Not surprisingly, mice had taken up residence in the ‘Stream, leaving little piles of insulation and droppings here and there. I had set traps but they weren’t tripped – in fact one had the peanut butter licked off and mouse “calling cards” all around. The dog was very interested in a wall where undoubtedly the culprit(s) resided.

With sub-freezing temperatures, staying in the trailer was more of a challenge but the new propane heater did a nice job. The dog and I stayed comfortable, especially at the end with the heating unit, but we were going through propane pretty fast.

I did a little birding (see my new vtbirder blog) and celebrated Mary’s 70th birthday with Jen and family. Watching the weather, we left for home a day early since snow was forecast for our original travel day.

It was cold and windy hooking up and of course, the trailer had not moved in several months. I noted that the right turn signal on the trailer was not working but decided to press on — it was daytime and the weather was clear.

Monday mid-day is a good time to travel. It seems like the trucks are still loading and there is mainly local traffic. We made good time up through New Hampshire in spite of pretty stiff winds. The Airstream handles wind quite well.

I noted a warning signal on the trailer brake controller – “H05” – but had no idea what it meant. (The manual was back home.) It would flit back to .C. for connected and then back but everything was handling ok so we pressed on. It was too bitterly cold to troubleshoot along the highway.

As we descended the final hill into Montpelier, the brakes started acting a little strange – grabbing a bit. I cautiously wove my way the last eight miles, wondering what condition our driveway would be in. Our road was rutted (from early thaws) and the driveway had several inches of snow, but there’s no way to pause — you make the sharp turn and start climbing. Saying “hang on” to Mary and the dog, I gunned it up in 4 wheel drive and while it was a little exciting, we made it up and around the large rock and were home.

With snow on the way, I got the Airstream blocked and unhitched and settled in place until we leave in mid-January for Southwest.

I believe that I have some shorting issues again in the pigtail connector. It’s way to cold (0 degrees this AM) to work on it right now but I need to pick a day where the temperatures moderate a bit and check it out. We don’t need failures like we had last year.

After attending early church at St. Paul’s in Newburyport, I bundled up, bought a duck stamp, and visited the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge for some chilly bird watching.  It was 31 degrees with a stiff NW breeze – bracing weather along the Atlantic.

Northern Pintails

Mallards

I was looking for the razorbills reported off Lot 1 and sure enough, with help from a couple of local birders, saw three or four of them bobbing and diving in the ocean.  They were easily seen with the scope but too far out for my photo gear.  A red-necked grebe, common loon, and a couple of scoters were also out there.  Both the razorbills were life birds for me.

Further down the island were hundreds of black ducks, Canada Geese, and Mallards.  I was looking for some Redheads that have been hanging out at a pool on the southern end but did not spot them — I was freezing and wishing I had my Vermont winter gear on.  I did see a couple of pair of handsome Northern Pintails.

As I was leaving, a Great Blue Heron alighted in a marsh just off the road and posed as I slowed the truck and shot its picture out the window.

The refuge is such a wonderful resource for birding.  Bird walks from Joppa Flats Education Center go there most Wednesdays and Saturdays and you can keep up with observations and news by joining the Yahoo Plum Island Birds group.

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Author Gabriel Aldaz is an email acquaintance of mine. I’ve followed with interest the development and publication of his book and blogged about it last year. You can now order it here from Amazon.