TWENTIETH PANDEMIC POSTING
We started this series with: We are all anxious right now. We are all scared. We're all confused. We're worried for loved ones; we're worried for ourselves.
We're still scared, worried and anxious, but many of us have also come to terms with the new reality of living through a global pandemic. Many, many people are starting or enlarging home gardens so they can grow more of their own food. Packets of seeds are "flying off the shelf", as John said at our local country store. Orchardists are sold out way earlier in the season than usual.
And more and more people are turning to nature, to the outside, for solace and delight. Here in Jericho Center, we've never seen so many families outdoors, parents walking with their children (and not even staring down at their phones!), kids on bikes and trikes and scooters, even moms playing in sandboxes with their toddlers.
We two have been getting to really know our own backyard. Bernie has taken hundreds and hundreds of photos of "our" birds. We both smile at the sweet songs of White-throated Sparrows and Song Sparrows, laugh at the strutting antics of grackles, and gasp when a Cooper's Hawk zips through the yard.
We've also been pursuing a goal we made back in January, before we'd ever heard of COVID-19: to walk every road in Jericho. (We've tweaked the goal a bit, walking only dirt roads and the less-traveled paved roads.) You can read about this very satisfying project and see Bernie's wonderful photos of oddities, beauties and whimsies here.
This is a great time of year to be outside! Vermont's year-round birds are noisily choosing nesting territories and finding mates. More migratory birds are returning every single day. We've now seen 40 species of birds on our road walks. (The complete list is at the end of today's post.) Photos of many are already part of Birding from Six Feet, but there are some conspicuous absences. So today is all about some of the Birds of Jericho's Dirt Roads that we haven't yet celebrated - a mix of year-round birds and newly-arrived migrants, in no particular order.
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| White-breasted Nuthatch |
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| Pileated Woodpecker |
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| Blue Jay |
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| American Robin |
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| Common Raven |
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| female Northern Cardinal |
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| male Northern Cardinal |
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| Golden-crowned Kinglet |
This little kinglet gifted us with a very brief flash of its golden crown!
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| female Brown-headed Cowbird |
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| Mallards |
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| Sharp-shinned Hawk |
This will be the last post about pandemic birding for a week or so. There are onion sets to be put in the ground, early peas and lettuce to be planted, and at least one hugelkultur to be built!
Stay safe, everyone! And enjoy Vermont's birds!
American Crow
American Goldfinch
American Kestrel
American Robin
Black-capped Chickadee
Blue Jay
Brown-headed Cowbird
Canada Goose
Chipping Sparrow
Common Grackle
Common Raven
Dark-eyed Junco
Downy Woodpecker
Eastern Bluebird
Eastern Phoebe
European Starling
Golden-crowned Kinglet
Great Blue Heron
Hairy Woodpecker
Hermit Thrush
House Finch
House Sparrow
Mallard
Mourning Dove
Northern Cardinal
Pileated Woodpecker
Pine Warbler
Purple Finch
Red-winged Blackbird
Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon)
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Sharp-shinned Hawk
Song Sparrow
Tufted Titmouse
Turkey Vulture
White-breasted Nuthatch
White-throated Sparrow
Wild Turkey
Winter Wren
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
NINETEENTH PANDEMIC POSTING
Yesterday was Earth Day, first celebrated in 1970 and now recognized in almost 200 countries worldwide as a time to increase support for environmental protections. Unfortunately, the current leaders of three large and important countries (Australia, Brazil and the United States) came to power in part because they scoffed at the very idea of climate change and promised to resist environmental programs.
As with COVID 19, we humans can ignore the scientific facts about climate change only so long, and only at our own peril. Let's hope and pray that we wake up to the indisputable fact that nature is bigger than even the richest and most powerful humans.
The land was here long before a primate climbed down out of a tree and put a kink in his back trying to see over the grass …The land will be here long after we’re gone. That frightens some people because it makes them feel small and worthless. But some people are made whole by touching something that’s bigger than they are, something enduring, something that lives on a different time scale than man. – Elizabeth Lowell
Yesterday Bernie was watching chipmunks race across the back yard, their little legs a blur. "How do they move so fast? They must live in a reality that's set to a different kind of time than ours!"
Nature does move in a different kind of time - many different kinds of time: insects that live their whole lives, their whole life cycle, in only a few hours; trees that live for thousands of years; mountains that grow for millennia and then erode for millennia more.
For birds, the most important time of the year is now. Spring is their chance to pass on their DNA, to insure a new generation of their species.
Today, on the day after Earth Day, let's celebrate two related species that will be nesting here in Vermont by mid-May, two species that came to the area through very different routes.
House Finches used to be found only in Mexico and the western U.S.
In 1940, an enterprising pet store owner on Long Island imported a few, dubbed them "Hollywood Finches", and tried to sell them as cage birds. It wasn't a success.
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| male House Finch |
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| female House Finch |
The shop keeper ended up releasing his stock of Hollywood Finches into the wild - and they loved it. Within fifty years, the species had spread over all of eastern U.S. and southern Canada. Their explosive success might be a factor in the decline of a related species, the Purple Finch.
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| male Purple Finch |
Roger Tory Peterson described a male Purple Finch as "a sparrow dipped in raspberry juice". Every bit of the plumage is dyed with rosy color.
These birds are natives of southern Canada, northeastern U.S., and along the spine of the Rockies. They winter in much of the southeastern U.S., usually in coniferous forests where they chow down on cone seeds.
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| female Purple Finch |
Female Purple Finches have strong streaks underneath and very definite facial markings while female House Finches have blurry and paler streaking.
Both Purple and House Finches will eat fruit when it's available, including blackberries, crabapples, juniper berries and cherries.
It's not always easy to distinguish between a particularly pale Purple Finch male and a particularly brightly-colored House Finch male. Here's a grab-bag of finches. Which ones are which???
EIGHTEENTH PANDEMIC POSTING
A Tale of Two Sparrows
It's time to say goodbye to one of our favorite winter feeder birds and to welcome a warm weather friend.
American Tree Sparrows will soon be leaving our area, to be replaced by a near look-alike.
"Tree Sparrow" is a misnomer. These birds nest on the ground, way up on the Canadian tundra where trees are few, small and far between. While they're wintering here in balmy Vermont, they are much more often seen foraging on the ground or in low shrubs than up in a tree.
At about the same time that Tree Sparrows are beginning to head north each spring, the first Chipping Sparrows show up.
The two species look quite similar. They both have primarily brown plumage, brownish red caps and dark stripes behind the eyes. Tree Sparrows, though, have two-tone bills and dark dots in the middle of their pale breasts. The two-tone bill (dark upper mandible, yellow lower) is a good identifier even if the bird is turned sideways.
The bills of Chipping Sparrows are all darkish, and their breasts are clean pale gray or whitish. These little birds also look very crisp, as if their head markings have been drawn on with fine Sharpies.
American Tree Sparrows have beautiful whistled songs but they save them for their breeding grounds. We don't get to enjoy the sweet noises here in Vermont.
Chipping Sparrows, on the other hand, "sing" a lot in our area - but their only song is a mechanical string of quick chips. Listen here.
We'll end with a great way to go birding on this rainy day during this season of sheltering at home: Diana has put together several videos about birds.
Ted Levin has been sharing his “pandemic diary” with the VTBird listserv, writing lyrical descriptive posts about his daily walks around his own home. Yesterday’s post ended with “How fortunate to be alive in the spring, to be able to walk through a paradise, just beyond the front door, and to anticipate the pent-up cast of birds that patiently wait to our south for the weather to turn, for a warm front, a gentle breeze out of the Carolinas pushing, pushing, pushing . . . up a mob of orioles, tanagers, warblers, vireos. Very soon, I'll be overwhelmed by color and song and personality tethered to a pulse of triumphant ascendancy.”
That's the theme for today's blog post: the "pent-up cast of birds" that will be returning to Vermont over the next few days and weeks. Today we'll look forward!
Killdeer have already returned to Chittenden County.
Killdeer are famous for their broken-wing act. When a predator gets too close to their nest, they move away, dragging one wing on the ground and making small pitiful noises. The predator thinks "aha! injured! SO easy!" - and follows as the crafty adult Killdeer leads it farther and farther away from the vulnerable eggs or chicks.
Gray Catbirds are showing up in Massachusetts and will be in Vermont soon!
Catbirds belong to the genus Dumetella ("little thicket"), and that's where they love to hide out. They're skulkers, rarely flying across wide open spaces, and sticking to hedgerows, shrubs and tangles of vines.
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| photo by Larry Thompson |
Let's look ahead to some other beauties that will soon be here.
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| Rose-breasted Grosbeak |
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| Baltimore Oriole |
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| Scarlet Tanager photo by Peter Swaine |
Put out hummingbird feeders during last week in April! The tiny birds will be ravenous when they get here, and there won't be many flowers blooming to provide them with nectar.
A feeder with a lot of red on it will catch the birds' eyes as they fly by - but DON'T use colored food, even if it's labeled as safe for hummingbirds. And don't use honey (it can actually kill the tiny birds) and don't use sugar substitutes. Just mix four cups of water with one cup of plain old granulated sugar, boil for two minutes, cool and refrigerate until using. That's as close as we can get to natural food.
Finally - Let's get ready to welcome back the dandelions, early food for many native pollinators.
SIXTEENTH POST
Today's post is about gratitude.
On our walks on dirt roads within a few miles from home, we’ve seen handmade signs on lawns, hanging from trees, in windows, and stuck onto rural mailboxes - all thanking medical personnel, mail carriers, farmers or grocers.
Will the gratitude last? After this pandemic ends, will we all remember how much we relied on nurses, EMTs, mail carriers, grocers and farmers to keep doing their jobs in the face of fear, uncertainty and even physical danger? (And will more Americans come to believe that these workers deserve not only our gratitude but also affordable health insurance, job security, and a living wage?)
So many of us are oblivious to how incredibly lucky we are. Most of us here in Vermont have access to medicines, medical knowledge, and medical technology that help us live through illnesses that would have killed us only a generation ago. (Maeve's mother was one of thirteen children. Only seven lived to adulthood; the others died in childhood of tuberculosis, rheumatic fever, and the worldwide flu of 1918.)
from Ian: My grandparents were parents of six-year old children during the Spanish Flu, and the tales of those horrendous years, compounded by WWI, were told throughout my early life. My parents married in the Great Depression and had to forego paychecks for nearly two years, only then to be confronted with WWII.
All of us, from wee children to the most elderly, will have lives punctuated by this virus in ways yet to be endured.
Optimism, peace, and care-giving are the saviors in times such as these. As those of us who have lived most of our lives on a rural dirt road know .... even Mud Season ends.
Now - to birds.
We finally have a White-throated Sparrow! We've watched for one all winter.
These handsome sparrows come in two color variations, one with zebra-striped black-and-white heads and the other with brown and tan stripes.
They all have the diagnostic white throat and the yellow "lores" (the area on either side of the bill).
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| photo by Rich Larsen |
Other birders are reporting that House Wrens are back. These birds are well-named because they like being around humans and human habitation.
House Wrens often nest in bluebird or chickadee nest boxes. The energetic males will stuff two, three or even more cavities with sticks and then invite the female to choose which one to use for her nest.
The box below was crammed to the brim with sticks!
FIFTEENTH POST
We're weeks into virus-necessitated "sheltering at home". We've had weeks of washing our hands umpteen times a day, of wiping down groceries, of staying at least six feet away from anyone who doesn't live in our homes with us. We've gotten used to wearing masks into stores and post offices. We don't even blink an eye anymore when we hear that our doctor is meeting most patients in the parking lot, to limit the number of people who go into the office.
And we're birding close to home!
What We Need Is Here
By Wendell Berry
Geese appear high over us,
pass, and the sky closes. Abandon,
as in love or sleep, holds
them to their way, clear
in the ancient faith: what we need
is here. And we pray, not
for new earth or heaven, but to be
quiet in heart, and in eye,
clear. What we need is here.
Sapsuckers are related to woodpeckers but instead of excavating large holes to dig out ants and grubs, they drill small circular "wells" and then drink the sap that flows in. They also eat the insects that get trapped in the sap.
Avery reported an Eastern Towhee at his home, "hiding in the hedge mostly but very vocal in the mornings".
Eastern Towhees often hide in hedges, or on the forest floor.
But every now and then, one comes out and lets us see the marvelous ebony black, glowing white, and rich chestnut.
FOURTEENTH POST
The VTBird listserv has been busy these last few days! So many people have been discovering birding close to home and sharing their experiences.
Jeanne wrote about sitting on her porch and watching Dark-eyed Juncos checking out a possible nest site. "Life affirming.”
Juncos are definitely worth watching. They come in a wide range of subtle hues, from deep charcoal black to slaty gray to browns. Last winter one of our backyard visitors was mottled!
PS added days later: Ian Worley wrote that this bird looks like a hybrid of a Dark-eyed Junco and a White-throated Sparrow. Maeve will post the photo on the Cornell Ornithology Lab's ebird.
Ted wrote that his home ground “looks wilder and more interesting each morning … Today, at eye-level, right in front of me hermit thrush, FOY [first of the year]. Silent as a stone and subtly beautiful; it's no wonder it's the VT State Bird”.
Richard wrote that he spent three months trying to find a Merlin, which “seem to be one of those birds, like Crossbills, that move around a lot. Sitting on my bench the other day, I noticed that all of the Goldfinches, Robins and Waxwings shut up for a few minutes. I waited, and sure enough, a Merlin flew in front of my view of the city, not thirty feet away. All of my peregrinations to find it seemed silly, when the entire time I could have just been sitting next to my house and waiting”.
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| Merlin photo from the web |
And, in an interesting twist on birding locally, Barbara remembered one year when she was sick and had to stay indoors. She kept a list of feeder birds, but she also listed every bird she saw or heard on the TV shows and movies she watched. “I got quite a list by the time I was done including some wonderful exotics. What a wonderful passion birding is!!”
Life affirming. Wonderful passion. Without judgement or worry.
Watching birds is all that, and this spring's pandemic is a good impetus to watch birds close to home. Bernie and Maeve have been choosing Sit Spots in the yard and walking dirt roads in Jericho. You can share some of our walks by clicking here and enjoying Bernie's Jericho community blog.
from Ted: "the joy of rediscovering my home ground": Last night, in a flood of silver light, I opened my bedroom windows to a super moon, bigger and brighter than I'm accustomed though. Having listened to the radio like everyone else I was primed for the event (I am somewhat suggestible). By three in the morning, however, when the moon, impaled on pines, flooded the woods with long, silver shadows, I woke to the urgency of turkeys performing unseen amid the canes. I've heard mockingbirds and yellowthroats aroused by the light of the moon, and whippoorwills, of course, but until last night never turkeys. From somewhere down valley, an owl accompanied the turkeys, its voice, ferried on a breeze, was scarcely a whisper.
Charlie's response: The turkeys may have been responding to the owl ... turkey hunters use owl calls just before sunrise to locate turkeys. The turkeys will respond from their roosts before the morning fly-down.
Song sparrows have begun to sing here. Phoebe pairs are reclaiming their nesting areas from previous years. Barred owl calling at night. Otherwise, just the usual neighborhood gang for now.
Here are images of some of the birds mentioned by - celebrated by - Ted and Charlie.
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| Wild Turkey |
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| Barred Owl |
And Song Sparrows! These "LBJs" [little brown jobs] are well-named, with a wide variety of sweet buzzy songs.
Their songs are quite different in different parts of their range, with regional dialects almost as distinctive as those of a Bostonian and a Texan. A female Song Sparrow often chooses a mate based on the variety and richness of his song, so males work at developing a diverse repertoire.
Song Sparrows are comfortable around human dwellings and will often nest in ornamental shrubs or flower gardens. Look for their sturdy cup nests in viburnums, honeysuckle or lilac bushes.
Here are two great ways to experience the joy of rediscovering your home ground:
Check out this site. A woman in Washington state started something called 5MR (5 Mile Radius), to encourage people to dive deeper into nature around their home.
And look into North Branch Nature Center's Sit Spot Initiative, a resource that guides people in developing a reflective nature practice.
Thanks to our neighbor Gaye Symington for letting us know about these resources!
TWELFTH POST
Our moods go up and down like the hills on a rollercoaster: each day's news cycle frightens and depresses; each call or e-mail from a friend, each sunny day, each bit of natural beauty, lifts our spirits.
When we started the on-going "Birding from Six Feet", we wrote that migratory birds - oblivious to human pandemics and human fears - are returning to the north country right on schedule.
Today's entry celebrates two migrants we saw for the first time yesterday, on a spirit-lifting walk up and down the length of nearby Schillhammer Road.
On Sunday, Bernie had seen the first mosquito outside and Maeve had said, "Great! That means phoebes will be here tomorrow." And they were! We saw at least three Eastern Phoebes on our walk, and their assertive (even insistent) "FEEEE bees" were always in the background.
Along with Tree Swallows, Eastern Phoebes are the earliest insectivorous birds to return each spring. The phoebe also has the distinction of being one of the first species ever banded! John James Audubon tied silver thread around the legs of a few phoebes, hoping to see the same birds return the following year.
Phoebes have nested under our barn for several summers. Here's one of the parents and one of the young from a few years back.
Our walk was also full of the clacking noise of Wood Frogs, from at least four places, thrilling and sometimes almost deafening.
And then, when we got home, we were greeted by the sight of a gorgeous Fox Sparrow doing its characteristic food-gathering dance: hop forward, hop backward, two-footed scratch.
These big, handsome sparrows are seen in our area in April and then again in October, as they pass through Vermont heading to and from nesting grounds in northern Canada.
Stay safe, everyone. Keep finding ways to celebrate spring.
Today's post is about a beautiful little falcon, the American Kestrel. Kestrels have returned to Vermont!
Here's a lyrical and descriptive posting on VTBird listserv from Burlington birder Priscilla:
For the past several years I have been privileged to observe (and hear!) kestrels flying and calling in our neighborhood. (I live on the western side of the "hill section" in Burlington, an area with many old and large pine trees and spruces.)
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| photo by Peter Swaine |
I believe these birds nest uphill from me (the block bounded by Spruce St., S. Willard St., S. Union St. and Cliff St.) and I've seen them at the Burlington Country Club. You cannot ignore them with their persistent and loud "kee kee kee" call and spectacular flights.
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| photo by Joanne Ranney |
One year I observed a pair mating on the wing! Another year I witnessed their behaviour after what I believe was the predation of their nest by crows. They HATE the crows, there is no doubt about that!
I rarely observe them with binoculars because they come and go (and fly) so quickly. They appeared maybe two weeks ago. Such a pleasure!
Thank you, Priscilla, for sharing your story with the listserv and the birding community!
TENTH POST
We hope everyone is doing well as we continue to shelter in place, to avoid public places and stay safe in our own homes and gardens, our own yards and cars.
Almost 400 years ago, William Shakespeare wrote about the delights that may come from being "exempt from public haunt":
And this our life, exempt from public haunt,
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones, and good in everything.
Get out, everyone! Or if you can't, at least throw open a window (maybe on Saturday, when it's supposed to be sunny and in the fifties). Breathe the air of spring. Look into a tree and see the new and swelling buds, the almost-leaves. Read the book that's being written in the little rivulets everywhere. Listen to the sermons told by rocks and pebbles. And keep listening to and watching the birds! They're returning to Vermont and filling the air with noise and excitement.
From Ted: Amid the usual suspects, the peents and the whirs and the whistles were the fife corps: the piccolo of the winter wren, first of the year (two actually), and the percussive pounding of a distant pileated.
From Karen: A great egret flew into the swamp below the house, as we were watching a few snowflakes this morning.
We will continue to seek distraction, delight and hope in nature.
NINTH POST
We started this series with: We are all anxious right now. We are all scared. We're all confused. We're worried for loved ones; we're worried for ourselves.
We're still scared, worried and anxious - but we're also beginning to come to terms with this new reality. Washing boxes and bags and bottles and cans of groceries before bringing them into the house. Scrubbing our hands many times every day. Checking in on friends, relatives and neighbors via e-mail or phone. Ending every conversation with "stay safe!" or "stay well!"
Cynthia Crawford, of "Creature Kinships and Natural Affinities" (Animal and Nature Photographs, Paintings, Portraits and Prints) has been making jigsaw puzzles from some of her bird photos - and she's offering online versions! Here's another. They're really fun!
From Walter - Low 20s along Memphremagog this morning and among the robust calls of goldfinch, song sparrows, and redwings were two snipe calling from their wetland hangouts.
Wilson's Snipe (called Common Snipe in older field guides) are relatives of woodcocks, with the same rich brown plumage and long flexible bill. All over Vermont, wherever there are wetlands, we should be hearing the "winnowing" that is the snipe's courtship music. This coy bird was right next to the parking lot at Sand Bar State Park.
More later - It's too beautiful outdoors to be sitting at the computer!
EIGHTH POST
Pine Warbler
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| photo by Tyler Pockette |
Spring confusion! Pine Warblers and Chipping Sparrows are making it back north to Vermont, joining their “songs” to those of Dark-eyed Juncos (which have been around all winter).
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| Dark-eyed Junco |
These three birds can sound very similar, and many birders have to relearn them every single spring. To make it even worse, soon Vermont will have Palm Warblers and Swamp Sparrows, two more species with songs that sound like chips and trills.
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| Palm Warbler |
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| Swamp Sparrow |
Fortunately for us all, Allan Strong of UVM has shared a video that might help!
We've also just discovered a site that's got a lot of interesting and informative articles. Go to worldbirds to learn how to attract gorgeous cardinals to your yard, as well as much more!
SEVENTH POST
In the second post, we celebrated the return of American Woodcocks. These birds are the theme of this entire posting!Woodcocks have had many folk names, including "Timberdoodle". Birders and nonbirders alike love the chubby timberdoodles, with their short little legs and their big intent eyes way up near the top of their heads. The VTBird listserv has been full of woodcock sightings recently, with many many lyrical and evocative descriptions.
This bird is doing the timberdoodle shuffle: a step, bounce up and down, another step, some more bouncing.
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| photo by Peter Swaine |
Ali wrote about birding with neighborhood kids, sharing a wonderful experience while maintaining a safe distance from each other. Here's part of her post:
Together we counted at least three birds. The kids were thrilled to see the woodcocks rocket into the sky, flitter and twitter above and around us, and then plummet back to Earth. Several times the birds landed along side their driveway which borders a barren cornfield. Between the performances, they soaked up everything I could tell them about woodcocks: precocial chicks, males' wings, function of those big eyes perched near the top of their heads...but just like all interactions with fellow birders, all conversations CEASED when superseded by bird activity demanding our attention: "There's another one! I see it! Right there on the ground!" exclaimed Liam.
Michael wrote about a timberdoodle's performance to an "audience of two - my wife, Jen, and me". He ended his post with this:
In a time of uncertainty I revel in the comfortable assurance that this free evening performance will go on. Tonight, and many to follow, Jen and I will be seated in the gloaming with binoculars at the ready, a glass of wine in hand, and a bowl of popcorn to share, gazing toward a stage defined by two apple trees along a hedgerow, waiting for the curtain to rise.
From Walter: The elements were at work this evening. A crystal clear evening with temperatures in the high 30s with the moon and Venus crisp and clear. Geese calling in the background as the woodcock reign over sunset. Lots of peents on the ground, flutters on the rising flight and loud twitters on the descending flight. And it reboots. Reassurance in nature’s rhythms in a time of such great uncertainty.
[You can read all the woodcock posts - and so many more - by signing up for VTBird. It's a great way to know what birds others are seeing in the state, and it's free!]
One more bird from this week - a curious Eastern Bluebird eying Bernie as he was eying her.
In this time of stress and imposed isolation, we all need to reach out, to communicate with others. This posting will be an on-going project. Please send us stories, or thoughts, or snippets about what you're seeing from your windows - what birds, what flowers poking up through the still-cold ground.
SIXTH POST
Oblivious to human pandemics and human fears, migratory birds are returning to the north country right on schedule and year-round birds are ramping up their spring songs and putting on their courtship plumage.
If you're driving to the Champlain Islands and are almost to Sand Bar State Park, start looking to your left. You'll see many osprey nests atop power poles and, in back of them, a collection of messy heron nests in trees.
From Bob: Yesterday morning I was watching a large group of goldfinches and enjoying seeing how much their colors are changing. They suddenly disbursed as a shadow flew through the flock. Much to my surprise a Merlin took up residence in a taller tree. My feeders were very quiet for at least an hour afterwards.
At this time of year, as Bob noted, American Goldfinches have a wide array of colors. Some of them look downright motley!
The males are changing from their muted winter colors to their glorious bright summer plumage.
From Charlie: Great day in the woods. Snow melting. Sap running. We'll be boiling in the morning. And, I think, the first titmouse I've encountered here. I heard the familiar call high in the trees, gave a little pish, and the bird came right down ...
It's sunny! Even with the whole state shut down, we can all get outside in our yards, on our porches, or on our sidewalks (maintaining the magic 6' or more, of course).
Migratory birds continue to arrive back in Vermont. There are even a few Fox Sparrows! These big chunky sparrows breed in northern and western Canada and throughout the Rocky Mountain states. Their plumage is highly variable, from a sooty gray subspecies out west to the handsome mostly rufous birds we see as they pass through the state in the spring and fall.
Birds that have been around all winter are making themselves known. Eastern Bluebirds are checking out nesting boxes. American Robins are moving around in groups of twenty or more, looking for left-over grapes or ornamental crab apples to munch. And Wild Turkeys are beginning to think of love.
from Ted: 4 males in the front yard, tails fanned and wings drooping, strutting around 7 females, just south of the compost pile. Coy females, headed in the direction of the raspberry patch, peck and scratch, trailing the males behind them.
Cornell Lab's Project Feederwatch has extended this year's watch season by a few weeks, as a way of encouraging people to look out their windows and enjoy birds from the safety of their own homes. If you're not an official feeder watcher yet, click on the link and join up!
To cheer your inside time, here are some links to live video cams:
San Diego Zoo Live Cameras
Monterey Bay Aquarium
Panda Cam
Houston Zoo
Georgia Aquarium
Also, click here for a variety of games, videos, classes, and live camera feed from feeders that will let you enjoy birds from the safety of your homes.
If you'd prefer to close your eyes and listen to a beautiful voice reading beautiful words, listen here to Patrick Stewart (a.k.a. Jean Luc Picard) reading daily Shakespeare poems and speeches.
(These links and others are from our wonderful neighbor's daily messages of hope. You can read all of her posts here.)
New snow outside - but by Thursday the temperatures will be in the fifties. It's spring in Vermont!
Let's start celebrating spring with beautiful Eastern Bluebirds. Many bluebirds have been around all winter but now they're pairing up and checking out possible nesting sites.
BLUEBIRDS FOR BLUE DAYS
We are so fortunate to have our beautiful bluebirds to brighten our days. But that wasn’t always so. It wasn’t that long ago, that we had little chance to see a bluebird anywhere in our area. But now, thanks to the efforts of some very smart people and some dedicated followup on their part.
Back in the Victorian era, some people thought it’d be a grand idea to bring the birds mentioned by Shakespeare, such as European Robins, their Blackbird, Bullfinches, and the like – including the familiar Starling, to grace the stage during performances of his plays in Central Park in New York City. Well, that didn’t work out so well. After having been shipped as cargo from Europe, once liberated, those birds, – just bolted. They showed no interest in hanging around even for the first act.
While most of their fellow travelers just lived-out a lonely life alone in a strange land, the Starlings made themselves right at home. They saw little difference between the streets and countryside of New York and that of Manchester, Liverpool or London. The Starling did well. They lived the American dream and passed it on to their offspring.
Such noble gestures, such as importing exotic birds, often carry some unintended consequences.
In the case of the Starling, it was that the Starling turned out to be a powerful competitor with our Eastern Bluebirds for nest sites. They both liked old woodpecker holes and hollows in broken tree limbs. It turns out that the Starling tends to nest earlier in the season, is more aggressive, and takes all the sites suitable that bluebirds like. No nests, no babies, no bluebirds. And that led to a rapid decline in bluebird numbers until the time when many country folk grew up without ever seeing this little feathered droplets of sky.
Somebody – and I wish I knew who – figured out that if you make an artificial woodpecker hole, i.e., a nest box, with the opening hole just a tad smaller than what the Starling likes, the bluebirds are perfectly comfortable and will readily move in. The word got out and lots of crafty people built bluebird nest boxes with the hole exactly 1-1/2 inches diameter. Bluebird nest boxes sprung up all over the countryside. More nests, more babies, more bluebirds.
As it happens, the Bluebird isn’t the only bird that likes woodpecker holes with 1-1/2 inch diameter openings.
The Tree Swallow likes them also.
So we end up with another issue – both species like the same nest site and they are both serious about using one if it is available.
Other smart people found out that if you put one of each nest box side by side, both species will claim one and leave the other alone – for its new next door neighbor. A bluebird/swallow commune.
May the Bluebird of Happiness brighten your day.
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| European Starling |
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| Tree Swallow |
In one of his essays, Pete Dunne (N.J. birder extraordinaire) urges people to get outdoors and put themselves "in the path of miracles that sometimes happen – a grouse that flushes, a weasel that runs across your path, a raccoon draped across a limb, or a goshawk dashing through the trees". We haven't seen a grouse, raccoon or goshawk recently, but we did have a prolonged encounter with a curious mink on the South Hero end of the Colchester Causeway.
from Maeve: Every spring, I look at the crocuses blooming all over the yard and the daffodil shoots poking bravely up through last year’s mulch, and smell the new earth smell, and listen to Red-winged Blackbirds and finches – and I say to myself, over and over: she answers us only with spring. Whatever fears and violence and stupidity infect and affect us humans, nature answers us only with spring.
Yesterday I discovered that I've remembered the quote wrong! The correct quote is from an e e cummings poem titled “o sweet spontaneous earth” that ends with “thou answerest them only with spring”. But I think I’ll go on thanking nature for answering us only with spring!
Another spring sign, from Frank R: a pair of Sandhill Cranes back in the field on the west side of Swamp Rd by the intersection of St Pierre Rd. in Fairfield
Some Vermonters don't realize that cranes began showing up in Vermont several years ago and have nested in Fairfield Swamp and Winona Lake (aka Bristol Pond).
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| photo from a few years ago, by Roy Zartarian |
another crane sighting from Sally F: After hearing about sandhill cranes in Fairfield, we went to Bristol pond and right away found a pair in the marsh south of the landing, as well as an eagle and MANY ducks and geese. At the Champlain bridge we found 5 cormorants and two eagles,and then more than a thousand male common mergansers streamed over our heads for several minutes. Fantastic!! Surreal. Also of note were two kestrels and a great blue heron.
from Veer F: This is something I've never seen before. There is an old married CAGO [Canada Goose] couple that bring up a family on the River Rd cornfields along Passumpsic River, have done for years, they go screeching overhead, quite low, on their way I don't know where twice a day like clockwork, returning later in the day. This morning at sunup they were passing over, honking, when a pair of small black birds I couldn't see very well since I faced the sun, flew up together out of a riverside site, perhaps tree perhaps waterside, and made straight for the geese who swerved their path in the sky away from the small birds, who immediately flew back down. I had no doubt this was a threat made and respected. The silhouetted birds were larger than chickadee/titmouse, perhaps Redwings or starlings, no vocals from them. Couldn't help but be impressed!
from Walter M: Chickadees were attracted to the dozen or so icicles oozing from a sugar maple tree in my yard. The icicles have a hint of maple flavor and of sugar but enough hints to attract the birds this cold day in the high 30’s.
National Audubon Club has been posting photos to amuse and delight us. Here’s one of the latest.
Want to take an armchair tour of one of our glorious national parks? Click here.
SECOND POST
Some sunshine, some chuckles and a poem today!
A burst of sunshine from Chris S.:
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| winter aconites |
Several people have seen Snow Geese in the last few days.
from Bryan P: 90 Snow Geese in migration here in Montpelier. Now there's something welcome that's airborne.
Look for Snow Geese in the air and in roadside cornfields.
Check out any flock for the occasional "Blue Goose", a variation that used to be considered a separate species. The dark gray bird with the white head is a "blue goose".
from Sabina E:
from Mary Ann S: I think I saw a big flock of cedar waxwings in the neighborhood recently. It was dusk so I couldn't see the coloring, but the shape was right. I don't see them often, so it is always a delight. And I am remembering to even appreciate the grackles, starlings, mourning doves and crows. And all the chattering!
From Jayne: went for a wonderful woodcock walk last evening here in Richmond. Met Kit and we kept our 6' distance. Heard and saw lots of woodcocks!
If you're out driving around in the evenings, listen for the twittering, kissing noises of a courting American Woodcock! Or hear these spring sounds here. The birds first make nasal "peents" and then launch themselves high into the air and flutter down while doing their flight song.
from Sue W.
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| Last year this Florida scrub jay thought it made my hat fancier. |
And, also from Sue: This is a poem I find soothing in this very scary time.
The Peace of Wild Things
by Wendell Berry
When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
FIRST POST
Male Red-winged Blackbirds belt out their conk-a-REEEE songs from atop trees and cattails.
Grackles strut through backyards, their yellow eyes fierce and knowing.
Huge skeins of Canada Geese practice "social distancing", staying six feet away from each other on floating islands of ice and as they pass overhead in their noisy skeins, announcing to us all that they're towing spring behind them as they fly.
Turkey Vultures have just returned from the south, floating on the winds with only an occasional nonchalant movement of the wings to adjust their flight. We were lucky to find one of these big birds at rest atop a power pole not far from our house.
All over the world, nature has been soothing and rewarding humans.
A neighbor sent us a lovely poem that was written on March 13 by a priest-friar in Ireland. It starts like this:
Lockdown - Brother Richard Hendrick
Yes there is fear.
Yes there is isolation.
Yes there is panic buying.
Yes there is sickness.
Yes there is even death.
But,
They say that in Wuhan after so many years of noise
You can hear the birds again.
Yes there is isolation.
Yes there is panic buying.
Yes there is sickness.
Yes there is even death.
But,
They say that in Wuhan after so many years of noise
You can hear the birds again.
You can read the rest of the poem at
VTBird, a listserv managed at UVM, provides birders a forum to learn what others are seeing and enjoying. As the COVID-19 pandemic has exploded around us, many of the posts on the listserv are getting longer and more lyrical. We'd like to share some thoughts and posts from fellow birders.
Here's our first, from Michael Haas - a tale of birds and cats - but not what you might expect!
Jen, my wife, and I took a drive yesterday along a favorite route heading east from Coventry then turning south on River Road along a particularly scenic stretch of the Barton River. This route affords many opportunities to stop and walk along the river to view waterfowl and myriad other species. Our first treat was a northern shrike working the corn fields just east of Coventry. His/her mask had not fully come in but wing and tail markings were distinctive. S/he moved in a circle to various perches on a wire and the tippy tops of spruce and fir. S/he dropped once to the ground then went to an apple tree to take in its quarry, which was done quickly. While the shrike scanned the landscape from atop a fir, three chickadees, who had to have seen the shrike, flew into the same tree, seemingly without a care. The shrike made one half-hearted dive at the chickadees then went on its way to another perch.
We too moved on. Jen voiced her desire to see a moose and I replied that after three years living in Vermont I had yet to see a bobcat. Not fifteen minutes later, not far north of Orleans, Jen spotted an odd lump high in a tall red maple along the river. She has an eagle eye - the object was, my eBird map tells me, 100 meters distant and Jen was driving. It was, upon close scrutiny with 10x binocs, a bobcat. A second bobcat, we soon noticed, was perched about ten feet below. We watched them and they watched us for about a half hour. At one point a pileated flew into the same tree and let loose a raucous blast. Kind of a cherry on the sundae.
Also saw a pair each of common and hooded mergansers, and ring-necked ducks. Crows in gangs on the cornfields and chickadees active everywhere singing their spring song.
from Barclay's daily walk: 9-10 Canada Geese, a pair of Mallards, and a Green-winged Teal to the North of Old Marsh Road and Robins, Red wings, Cardinals, and Chickadees singing away. Beginning to feel a lot like spring, helping us keep our sanity in this world gone upside down.
from Evergreen: I'm grateful that the timing of this quarantine is right at the beginning of the most wonderful time of year for birding.
from Maeve and Bernie: We are too!!
The over 500 National Wildlife Refuges in the U.S. are waiving all fees for now, to support walkers, birders and nature lovers.
Well done! Thank you
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