Mouser atop our bird feeder pole

 Barred Owl photos in our Jericho, VT backyard were taken from 7:19 AM to 10:58 AM, Jan 15, 2025. We think its name is either Fred or Fredericka. 

I hear a mouse, but I don't see one.

Distance from our kitchen window to the owl 7. 3 feet. 

Cock-a-doodle-doo!

                                            We look the same way before our morning coffee.

My, that other bird is so small.                                 

My, that other bird is so big!

Life is a balancing act.

Smug as a bug in a rug. 

Reflecting on last night's Rabbit Stew. So good.

Barred owls (Strix varia) are generalist predators. They feed primarily on mammals (rats, shrews, and voles to name a few), but will also consume other birds, reptiles, amphibians, crustaceans, and even fish and earthworms. In the Pacific Northwest flying squirrels make up a large portion of barred owl prey, while in urban North Carolina birds made up 50% of barred owl diets.            - Hawk Moutain

A few years back we viewed an owl eating a rabbit it had taken on our driveway. 

Picturesque

Smiley face - one Happy Owl

"Is that big fellow gone?" 

"I think so." 

I won't say goodbye; "Owl be back". 

In a year, an owl can eat over 1,000 rodents. 

If you poison mice, you poison owls too.

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.