Tag Archives: VCE

What’s Not To Love About Loons?

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.

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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eButterfly is Ready for Vermont!

 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 international effort and pretty easy to use.  The hard part is photographing and identifying them — they are worse than warblers.  Why not bird early in the day and butterfly while the birds are napping?   And use eBird and eButterfly to keep track.

From 2002 to 2007 volunteer butterfly enthusiasts spent thousands of hours in the field in an effort to record the status and distribution of Vermont butterflies, the first systematicstatewide butterfly atlas to be undertaken. Observers have since made new discoveries, like the first state record for White-M Hairstreak or the incredible invasion of Giant Swallowtails. Where can we share and store all of our collective butterfly discoveries? Introducing our newest tool for the Vermont Atlas of Life, eButterfly, a project in which VCE is proud to be a partner.

eButterfly aims to bring butterfly enthusiasts like you together with scientists like those at VCE. With this new online database you can:
• Record the butterflies you see, photograph, or collect
• Build a virtual collection of butterflies
• Keep track of your butterfly lists (life, year, provinces/states)
• Find butterflies you have never seen
• Explore dynamic distribution maps
• Share your sightings and join the eButterfly community
• Contribute to science and conservation
With the flight of the first Mourning Cloak nearly upon us, I hope you are as ready as we are to discover and report your sightings of Green Mountain butterflies to eButterfly. But you don’t have to wait for the snow to melt. Many of you have records in your notebooks, photo files (must be less than 1mb in size) and collections that can be uploaded right now!First, make sure your internet browser is the latest addition, then visit the tutorial on eButterfly (http://www.ebutterfly.ca/contents/tutorial) to familiarize yourself with the system. Once you learn a few basics and enter some of your sightings, it will become quite fast and easy for you to use.
eButterfly was built for butterfly enthusiasts by butterfly enthusiasts. We are always striving to improve the experience and tools. Should you run into a problem or have any great suggestions for future updates and tools, please don’t hesitate to provide feedback.
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Birds: Making Ends Meet with a Crossed Bill

One of the birds I have yet to see in Washington County, or anywhere, is a crossbill – either a Red Crossbill or a White-winged Crossbill.  This week’s Adirondack Almanac has a nice article on them by Steven Faccio of the Vermont Center for Ecostudies.  Here’s the first part of the piece:

Crossbills are one of our most specialized groups of birds, feeding almost exclusively on conifer seeds. These hardy, nomadic finches have evolved oddly-shaped bills that allow them to exploit a food source before it becomes available to most other birds. However, being so specialized and relying on a single primary source of food means that when that food is unavailable, they have to search far and wide to make ends meet.

Adult female White-winged Crossbill. photo by Wildreturn

Adult female White-winged Crossbill. photo by Wildreturn

North America has two species of crossbills – white-winged crossbills (Loxia leucoptera) and red crossbills (Loxia curvirostra). Both are widespread across boreal regions dominated by conifer trees, and populations extend south into mountainous areas, with red crossbills reaching as far south as Mexico. In the Northeast, the more slender-billed white-winged crossbill, which is more commonly observed, spends most of its time foraging on the relatively small cones of spruce, balsam fir, hemlock, and tamarack, while red crossbills are typically associated with large-coned white and red pines.

Based on their distinctive flight calls, ornithologists have identified 9 or 10 types, or “morphs,” of red crossbills. Although some researchers believe that many of these types deserve species status, taxonomists have yet to agree. Moreover, they can’t seem to agree on just what to call them – are they morphs, super-species, sibling species, or sub-species? What they do know is that six red crossbill types have evolved bills that are each adapted to feed on cones from a single species of conifer tree. Such specialization requires that crossbills depend on finding a particular species of conifer seed, because, compared to other finches, crossbills are rather inefficient at foraging on non-conifer seeds. For crossbills, the most important characteristic of a conifer tree is that its cones stay closed, or partially closed, through late winter and into spring. If cones open too early, less specialized species, such as pine siskins or nuthatches, will eat the seeds.

Read the whole article here.

So, I’m psyched to find some of these for my County Big Year, either pretty soon before they head north or this Fall.  Got to be at the right place at the right time.  Good birding.