PADDLING THE LAPLATTE FOR BIRDS AND CRITTERS

SCROLL DOWN TO THE NEXT POST FOR INFORMATION ABOUT MAEVE'S NEW BOOK!! Birds and birders, familiar Vermont birding locations, and spicy romance - It's got it all! 

BUT NOW - Paddling the LaPlatte

words by Maeve, photos by Bernie and Maeve

Put your kayak or canoe in at the Shelburne Bay State Fishing Access and paddle up the LaPlatte River. 

It's best to go fairly early in the summer, when water levels are usually high and you can explore the marshy areas to the sides of the main current and maybe float over or around any fallen trees. 

Great Blue Heron

But any time during late spring, summer and fall, the river and marshes are full of life! 

Herons love the marshes!

Green Heron

immature Green Heron, preening

This is a first-year Great Blue Heron. At first glance, all that mottling in front puzzled us!

Black-crowned Night Heron

Great Egret

Other water-loving birds also love this place!

Marsh Wrens rattle from all sides, although only the fortunate get to actually see one. (This photo was taken at a different paddling location; we don't have any from the LaPlatte.)

Double-crested Cormorant

Canada Goose

Osprey - female and chick

Caspian Tern

Mallards

And LOTS of other birds! I have seen a total of 93 species along the LaPlatte, including a Common Gallinule (2024), a Snowy Egret ('23), seven species of ducks, Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs, a Solitary Sandpiper, Wilson's Snipe, six members of the woodpecker family, six kinds of flycatchers (Eastern Kingbirds regularly nest on a fallen willow tree not far from Shelburne Bay), and almost fifty species of song birds. One of my favorite memories is paddling on an overcast day, surrounded by quiet, and suddenly the clouds parted and a ray of sunlight highlighted a male Scarlet Tanager on a branch close to the water!

Ring-billed Gull

Paddling the LaPlatte is also a great opportunity to observe other wildlife.

Painted Turtles were sunning on logs and swimming right by our boats. Bernie photographed several, and Maeve reached out and petted one.

At least two dozen tiny green frogs were leaping up the muddy bank alongside the river. Bernie looked them up when we got home, and they were young Northern Leopard Frogs, Vermont's state amphibian.

The Nature Conservancy has a trail that runs along part of the LaPlatte. Here are information and photos about that!

ANNOUNCEMENT: MAEVE'S BOOK RELEASE!!!!!!

Maeve's new book, A First for Ivy Pritchard, will be released August 7 through Wild Rose Press. Ivy is the first in the series Love Stories of the Burlington Bird Club.

Ivy has friends and a successful business, and she has finally stopped fretting about her solitary life. She’s been alone forever and expects to remain that way. Then a surly newcomer shows up for her monthly bird walks, a bitter man whose one experience of love left him with physical and emotional scars. There is nothing in his face or his words to suggest he could ever show warmth or passion. But when a rarity is found, thousands of miles from any others of its kind, that lost little bird forever changes the lives of the two lonely people. 

A First for Ivy Pritchard is now available through the publisher and at Barnes and Noble, iTunes, Kobo, Amazon, BooksAMillion, and Indie Bound. Some vendors offer only paperback, some only ebook, and some both. You can also order the book through any independent book store - and buy local! The second book in the series, Beck’s Grouse, will be released in late January 2025, with the third following later that year. Beck's Grouse features a solitary woman grieving for the love of her life, who died four years earlier, and an outgoing man still grieving for his wife who died twenty years ago. As with the first book, birds and birding bring the two together.

Here's what others say about A First for Ivy Pritchard:

“This beautifully woven story invites you to glimpse the extraordinary in the ordinary, following the stumbles of our heroine in life and love (and birding).”

~ Elizabeth Spinney, writer and board member of Birds of Vermont Museum

“An enjoyable, memorable read with beautiful descriptions of the natural world. Avid birders and non-birders alike will delight in this sweet story.”

~ Julie Cadwallader Staub, Author of Wing Over Wing

Not Yet Spring - But Good Birding Anyway!

Over the past few months, Bernie and I have taken three days to visit well-known birding hotspots in Shelburne, Charlotte and Ferrisburgh - and we were struck again by how much LIFE there is outdoors in the winter!

Our walks and "sits" on those two days were enlivened by diving ducks, grebes and loons, dueling eagles, hawks, noisy woodpeckers and others - two dozen species in all!

We didn't concentrate on taking photos, but here are a few:

Northern Harrier

Snow Geese on Christmas Day!

Red-tailed Hawk

part of a large flock of Cedar Waxwings

Black-capped Chickadee

not a great photo because this Bald Eagle was far away,
hunkered down over something yummy

Double-crested Cormorants don't usually overwinter in Vermont,
but this one at Fort Cassin is doing just that!

Fort Cassin

Shelburne Point

We're inviting you to revisit several previous posts about winter birding: here and here and here. And we did a post about the Tri-County Christmas Bird Count, now renamed the Tri-County Winter Bird Count. And two posts about a more local winter bird census, here and here. And one specifically about winter owls, always a treat!

We also shared our photos and excitement about a winter "irruption", when birds that usually stay in Canada come down to Vermont.

SPRING BIRDING IN THE CHAMPLAIN ISLANDS

Memories by Maeve

As a birthday gift, Bernie gave me two nights at Shore Acres Inn, a home base for solo birding and walking in The Champlain Islands.

I lived in Vermont for over twenty years before I was fully aware of the Champlain Islands. After my first birding day there, I was hooked! The nearness of the lake no matter where you are, the small towns, the twisting back roads, the open farm fields, towns, farmland, swamps and marshes, areas dense woods and miles and miles of shoreline - All that diverse habitat means lots and lots of birds, over 300 species and counting. 

Click on the blue links for each section to see a list of birds that Bernie and I have seen at each location!

Good birding starts before actually getting to the islands. Just drive slowly along Route 2 along Sandbar Wildlife Management Area, looking into the many acres of water and wetlands. This is an important migratory stopover for waterfowl in the spring and fall, and one of the most productive waterfowl breeding sites in the state, supporting Black Ducks, Mallards, Hooded Mergansers, Common Goldeneye, and Wood Ducks. And people from all over come to ogle the nesting Ospreys.

This female did NOT want anyone taking her photo!

Great Blue Herons also nest there, making big messy nests in trees.

Sand Bar State Park is open all year, the road and parking lots are plowed, and the port-o-let is clean and serviced. I've seen over seventy species of birds in the park, all during spring, fall and winter.

One of our favorite spring migration sights was a Wilson's Snipe right beside the parking lot!

The southernmost island, reached by driving across the Sand Bar causeway, is 14 miles long and over 3 miles wide, making it the largest in Lake Champlain. It's sometimes called Grand Isle and sometimes called South Hero because it’s shared by those two towns. 

Not far from the causeway is the Landon Community Trail. There’s a good-sized gravel parking lot with an informational kiosk and a loop trail that's about a mile long. 

Even with a fierce cold wind, I enjoyed over twenty species of birds.

American Redstart (a type of warbler)

I was busy watching a singing American Redstart when my eye was caught by movement almost at my feet. A Veery walked within six feet before suddenly realizing that I wasn't some sort of shrub. 

Veery (a kind of thrush)

Landon Community Trail

Just outside the town of South Hero are two birding "hotspots".

A little pond on Tracy Road often has a surprising variety of ducks and herons. 

The nearby South Hero Marsh Trail (also called the Roy Marsh Trail) is straight and flat, about two miles along a former railroad bed. Osprey nest along the power line cut and soar overhead. And Black-crowned Night-herons are regular nesters in the swamp.

There truly is something called “island time”. I start living on island time as soon as I cross over onto North Hero. Traffic becomes less and goes slower and vistas open up more. I breathe more deeply. I relax. And I head for two of my favorite places in the whole state: North Hero State Park and Pelot's Point Natural Area.

North Hero State Park is almost four hundred acres of lakefront, wetland, forest and mowed areas. 

The park used to offer camping but now it's for day-use only.  

Less than ten minutes from Shore Acres is Pelot’s Natural Area. 

This has become one of our favorite places on the islands. The diverse habitats are peaceful and beautiful, the trails are well-defined, and there are many, many birds. Bernie and I have seen or heard a total of 77 species at Pelot's!

Here are some photos of this wonderful spot.

Here are a few more places in the islands for birding and nature walks. 

Butternut Hill Natural Area was protected by The Nature Conservancy, the Vermont Land Trust, and two North Hero families. This beautiful and unusual area has a mile-long trail to a shale beach on over a thousand feet of undeveloped Lake Champlain shoreline.

We haven't spent much time at Butternut Hill yet, but we definitely will in the future!

The Fisk Quarry Preserve is best-known for fossils. It's part of the Chazy Fossil Reef, a U.S. National Natural Landmark extending from Isle la Motte into Clinton Country, New York. This is the oldest known diverse fossil reef in the world.

fossil

The Ed Weed Fish Hatchery (up the hill from the Grand Isle Ferry Landing) has a pond and a viewing blind as well as a building with lots of information about fish hatcheries and stocking in the state. 

Wherever you go in The Champlain Islands, there are lovely places to walk, sit, enjoy the lake and the birdsong and the breezes!

text by Maeve, most of the photos by Bernie