Beautiful Flying Objects

Townsand's Warbler images pt 2

2010-11-16T03:55:00.000-08:00

Here are a few more images of the Townsand's warbler that didn't make the first post. Enjoy!

One of the things that always amazes me about chasing rare bird sightings is the locations, usually out there pretty good and in a place where - if someone ( a very good bird I'm sure ) wasn't looking, these rare treats would largely go unnoticed. So my thanks to the birders that find and share these finds with the birding community

Good Birding !

Peter Manship

Townsand's Warbler in Walpole NH.

2010-11-14T13:09:00.000-08:00

Here are some images I took of the Townsand's Warbler that was found last week on River road in Walpole NH. Enjoy!!!
Good Birding!

Peter Manship

Nesting Swallows, somewhere in Castleton Vt

2010-05-04T03:25:00.000-07:00

The day had started out rainy but was clearing as we left Rutland to do some birding and scouting for photography locations. Riding along Bill shouts "what the heck is that ? it's black and white and has a blue bill" well that stopped the car pretty quick. A Lesser Scaup in a marsh just off Old Rt 4, a fairly uncommon bird for the location and time of year. Next stop as a "did you see that stop " which was a robinisque Kestrel #$&%(! ?. But did turn up about 70 swallows flying around the barn yard. A closer look revealed Tree, Barn and the surprise of the day Cliff Swallows. We watched for about half hour as the swallows gathered nest building materials. The Cliff Swallows just pickup mud in their beaks and flew off with it. ( image bellow Cliff Swallow with beak full of mud) The Barn Swallows however carried hay to the muddy tire tracks in the barn yard most of which had water in them after the rain, where they would wet the hay . ( tree swallow wetting piece of hay for nest. I think they do this to make the hay/grass soft to work with) Then they would then added mud to the mixed load of nesting materials and fly off. This scene was repeated over and over again with some copulations throne in for good measure every now and then. Ahhhh spring!

List from today:

Lesser Scaup 1 m

Canada Goose 6 1 with very new goslings

Mallard 7 all males

Northern Harrier 1 gray ghost
Cowbird 5

Kingbird 3

House Sparrow many

A Goldfinch 4

Redwing Black Bird 6

Common Grackle dozens

TV's 9

Broadwing Hawk 1

Redtailed Hawk 2 one with pray

Kestrel 1

Cliff Swallow 10+

Barn Swallow 30+

Tree Swallow 20+

NO Warblers today, that was a surprise. Latter on in the day I took a right off Rt 22a down a dirt road I'd never been on. Found 5 Red Admirals mineraling as I slowly drove along. Also found in same general area Cabbage Whites, Clouded Sulphur, Red Admirals and a Canadian Swallowtail plus two West Virginia Whites. There was one that would not hold still long enough to ID. I thought it could have been a Juvenal's Duskywing. We'll see what I find when to go back tomorrow to spend more time looking around. There was also many dragonflies and damselflies moving in the warm afternoon air.

Thanks for visiting BFO's

Peter Manship

Great Egret in Brandon Vt

2010-04-11T03:36:00.000-07:00

My computer chimed meaning that a new email had arrived , I didn't check it till about noon and was surprised by what I found, "A call from a friend via a cell phone alerted me to a great egret here in Brandon. Located by the Dean Farm bridge on Union St. Sue Wetmore ". At the same time the phone rang, it was Bill Jalbert. I ask him if he knew where the Dean Farm was in Brandon? Why, because Sue Wetmore reported a Great egret in Brandon. You wanted to go looking for it? Half hour latter I was in Rutland meeting Bill and his son, Bill checked Google maps for the location and we were off. The cloud front was breaking up the sunshine and blue made it a perfect day for a Birding Adventure. As usual with birding adventures when we got there the bird was nowhere to be found. Asking a couple of fishing guy's if they had seen a large white bird that looks like a blue heron only produced more frustration, "ye it was over there about 20 minutes ago" pointing to the field behind them.Bill headed west of the bridge and I went east to double check the wet areas again. I got it was all I heard and then the sound of Bill running to get his camera, I join him running. Here are some image I took.

Image of Great Egret with pray

Bill and his son had to leave, I stayed and kept birding the area. here is a list for today:

Great Egret 1

Wood Duck 4

Ringbillied Gull 15

Great Blue Heron 1

Mallard 2

Tree Swallow 9

Cardinal 1

Crow 4

Kestrel 2 one flying by with pray

Yellow Bellied Sapsucker 2 courting

Killdeer 3

Canada Geese 6

White Breasted Nuthatch 1

Yellow shafted Flicker 1

Robin 2

and 7 Painted Turtles basking in the sun

About 5;30 I headed west on Rt 73 to see what I could see, the farm at the junction of Rt 73 and 30 is always productive and today was no different. Grackle taking flight

Kestrel 2

Killdeer 3

Sharp-shin 1

Hundreds of Starlings, Cowbirds, Grackles and Redwinged Black Birds maybe a thousand in all

this image is of 268++Cowbirds gritting on the side of the road, spooked by traffic

Morning Dove 7

and this Wood Chuck with a mouth full of fresh salad.

Good Birding

Pete

Great day of Birding in Vermont

2010-04-06T04:49:00.000-07:00

Took advantage of the beautiful weather yesterday and went for a long birding ride.
Best bird of the day was a late Rough-leg hawk hover hunting in the fields just south of the Richville road on 22a in Shoreham. Later in the day at Basin Harbor ( bay? don't know the correct name) had 34 TV's circling as if looking for their evening roost.

Turkey Vulture lit by warm afternoon sunlight. We didn't stick around to try and locate the roost, instead raced ahead to try and find a good location for the sunset. (see header) while there watching the TV's 3 Ravens chased a Redtail hawk out of their territory. Once the Redtail was safely out of their territory the Ravens broke off the chase. ( note the full crop on this red-tail, white lump at base of neck full of its last meal)

Anyone know what this plant is? It was growing in light shade , rich woodland soil and about 6"tall with pink and blue flowers coming from same stem.Here is the list of birds and mammals for the day:

Rough-leg Hawk 1 dark morph
Redtailed Hawk 5 one juv RT

Ospry 12 scattered all over the dead Creek area ,watched pr south of
Chimney point bridge nest building and copulating

Northern Harrier 1 male(Gray Ghost )
TV's 43
Kestrel 3
Raven 7
A. Crow 12
Cardinal 5
Great Blue Heron 5 1 pr seen flying north over lake Champlain
Bufflehead 15 from Ft Cassin rd
Bald Eagle 2 -1 adult and this juvenal (below) at Ft Cassin made it through the tree safely Tree Swallows
Mallards
Hooded Mergansers
Wood Ducks
Canada Geese several nesting
Kingfisher
Common Mergansers
Redwing Black birds saw a large flock (about 150) flying over a field on
Lapham Bay road,a beautiful sight when all the birds turned and flashed their red wing patches !
Wild Turkeys many , one group of 27
Whitebreasted Nuthatch 6 all on territory calling, very noisy
Hairy, Downy and Pileated woodpeckers

Robins
Grackles
Brown-headed Cowbirds
Tufted Titmouse 3
Tree Swallows many
Song Sparrows

House Sparrows
Chipping Sparrow 2
Chickadees
Blue Jays and Ring billed Gulls

Mammals:

Also had a Red Fox walk pasted us just as it was getting dark at Basin Harbor.
Found a field with 10 deer in it. Saw 46 plus Painted Turtles at Brilyea excess road to Dead
Creek WMA, Addision Vt. Way to many Gartar snakes for my comfort !!! Lots of Muskrats

and at Ft Cassin had a young muskrat come right up to me crying as if look for its parents . Good Birding
Peter Manship

Ft Cassin Bald Eagles, Vergennes Vt

2010-01-28T07:40:00.001-08:00

A friend and I visited Ft Cassin in Vergennes Vermont yesterday looking for eagles.

We found 14 eagles spread all around the area. The most interesting part was finding 5 juveniles and one adult on the ice south of the river outlet fighting over a fish. One juvenile managed to hold off the others with lots of wing flapping displays.

But after about ten minutes of defending its fish the larger adult (female probable) moved in and took the prize uncontested. It was also a good day for hawks, here is the only image I got of the light morph Rough-legged Hawk that I found in a field south of Richville rd and rt 22a Shoreham VT. I think that it is a adult male but would love some input from others about this beautiful Rough-legged Hawk. here is what we found yesterday from ft Cassin Vergennes down Rt 22a to Rt 4 Fair Haven Vermont.

Bald Eagles 14 6 adult 8 juv

Red-tailed Hawk 13

Rough-legged Hawk 4

Kestrel 3

Northern Harrier 1

Pileated Woodpecker 1

Eastern Bluebird 5

Good Birding to all!

Peter Manship

Winter Hawk and Eagle watch 1-16-10

2010-01-18T05:03:00.000-08:00

This post is a mix of the last two days birding in the Champlain Valley with the Rutland Audubon and yesterday with Bill Jalbert. Here is the image of the Eastern Red-tailed Hawk with the eastern Canada type feature - dark throat instead of a white patch or striped.

Note the dark throat which is typical of northern Canada RT's - see page 56 , plate RT02 of Hawks from Every Angle by Jerry Liguori for a brief description. BTW a very helpful book to have. Compare with Sibley's Redtail images.

Bill captured this beautiful Bluebird image at one of the many stops the group made. I got zip for Bluebird photos even though we were standing 2 feet apart. Bluebirds seem to be somewhat of a problem for me; can you say nemesis! At Ft Cassin the group located 6 Bald Eagles, 3 adults and 3 juveniles. Two were bathing in the frigid water on the shore, a scope's view away. Eventually one flew in our direction and landed nearby where we were able to get some nice images of it. Here are some images I took of the bathing juvenile eagles; this very wet one is sunning it self dry - drying out his or her feathers, I think that this juvenile eagle could be a 3rd year bird. Can anyone clear that question up. finally, taking flight! See header above also.This is where we got separated from the Audubon group. With a dead radio and not capable of communicating with the Audubon group anymore, we just birded our way south along the lake. One of the highlights was finding a Peregrine Falcon almost where we had found one last winter on Lake Street in Bridport. The image bellow is a Cooper's Hawk not a peregrine.Sunday would prove to be an amazing birding day. We covered south of Rt 125 Bridport. This is a beautiful Copper's Hawk image that Bill made.

We were upwind of this Ruffy and if flew right at us. What luck!

Probably the most amazing part of the day was the tally of 17 Red-tailed Hawks, 1 peregrine, 2 Cooper's Hawks, 2 Rough-legged Hawks and ending the day with a Barred Owl. Bill Jalbert's owl image .
For a list of what we saw Sunday

check here:Vermont E-bird NOTE This list is not totally correct. The peregrine count is 1 and the Cooper's Hawk count should be 2 and one Sharp shinned Hawk. Thanks Roy.

If you're wondering why so many are Bill Jalbert's images and not mine, my camera was acting up all day long and more importantly, Bill's images are great too! So what's the difference?
As for me I can't wait to go looking for more wintering hawks south of Rt 73 next time.

Good Birding to all,

Peter Manship

photos by Bill Jalbert where noted all others by Peter Manship

Sage Thrasher, Salisbury Beach Mass. 1-12-10

2010-01-13T05:00:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I ran down to Salisbury Beach SP in Mass to try and locate the Sage Thrasher that was reported on Mass-ebird the day before. I left Vermont at O-Dark-Thirty (4:45) so I would be down there early, hoping that when I pulled in some of the NH birders that I bird with would have already found the thrasher. There was 25 or so people walking around looking. It didn't look good. I asked the first person that I came to if they had seen the bird and they said that it was seen earlier but..... I parked the car and joined the search. I soon found one of the NH birders. I asked Jason if I could join him looking for the bird and the whereabouts of other NH birders. He said they are all looking for the Ivory Gull.

We looked everywhere and after about thirty minutes I noticed something moving under a bush . I looked through my binoculars. “I've got It!”Jason signaled the others and "texted" the other NH birders who were combing the seacoast for an Ivory Gull, which was never found. It was amazing! Ten minutes later it was like old home week; people started pouring in to see the Sage Thrasher.

Also at Salisbury were these Horned Larks that were sandbathing. What a sight.

This Horned Lark made a small bowl in the sand by flipping its wings. You can see sand flying in the next image.All in all I had a great time seeing everyone again and spending the rest of the afternoon birding the NH seacoast. Interestingly, they were all looking for high point value birds for the Superbowl of Birding VII. What I didn’t know was that the group represented two teams; everyone was acting cool asking each other questions about where they were going or where they had been birding and the answers were all bold face lies. They were all sandbagging, telling each other lies to misdirect the other team. It was fun to hear and watch the friendly banter.

Here is a list of birds seen by me today:

Sage Thrasher 1
Merlin 3
Kestrel 1
Snow Buntings 15
Horned Larks 12
Tree Sparrow 9
Savannah Sparrow 1
Glaucous Gull 1
Herring Gull many
Ringbilled Gull many
Greater black-backed Gull 7
European Starling 2
Common Eider 8
Lesser Scaup 5
Mallard 2

Good Birding

Peter

Story and images© 2010 Peter Manship Designs LLC

River of Black Birds, Portsmouth, N.H. 11-6-09

2009-11-07T11:46:00.000-08:00

5oo,ooo Blackbirds! That is my guess as to how many blackbirds there were and that is really a moot point because the experience of seeing that large a number of birds flying by is somewhat overwhelming. Everywhere you looked, it was blackbirds! This image was facing northwest-ish. It started out slowly, but that changed very quickly. There were three streams of birds - one north and south of our location and one overhead. That's not to say there weren't others; there were. They were scope range at best and more importantly, largely overlooked because of the distance to them. Plus there was an extraordinary number of blackbirds flying by at close range. The stream to the southeast was very large and dense, but you had to look through a scope to see it. Case in point. The image below shows birds passing in front of the moon . Not too far away, but in the lower left hand corner is a distant and larger group of blackbirds passing by that went unnoticed by me until I got home and was looking at the images on the computer. Image below is a 200% enlargement of the marked area from the image above.

This is an example of what it was like. It points out how hard it would be to try and get an accurate count of the total number of blackbirds flying in to the Great Bog roost area in Portsmouth NH.

Here is an image of the group watching the blackbirds flying overhead.

The dark pink area on the horizon in the center of the above image looked like this image below through my 400mm lens.
It was a life experience that is very difficult for me to put in words. Even the images don't convey the scope of the event. They do, however, offer fragments of a much larger picture. The image below is looking east and similar views were going on to the south and west when I recorded this image. The roost fly-in lasted about 45 minutes or so and the sound was impressive.What I would say, is that if this happens again next year, a trip down there to experience it first hand would be highly recommended. Who knows, maybe we could carpool next year!

I had a great time birding the coast of New Hampshire thanks to Steve and Jane Mirick, Len Medlock, Jason and all the others, and The River of Blackbirds is truly an unforgettable experience!

Thelma turned over 200,000! It happened at 4:20am about a mile west of Warner, NH.

Marv Elliott of the Rutland Audubon had the winning guess of Nov 4th. A special thanks to all 47 people that entered the Thelma Mileage Contest. Marv will be receiving a framed Red-tailed Hawk image from those taken at Mt Philo back in September. Again, thanks for taking the time to enter.

Peter Manship

images and story © 2009 Peter Manship All rights reserved

Birding the New Hampshire Seacoast 11-1-09

2009-11-04T15:14:00.000-08:00

The alarm went off at 3am! I really didn't want to get up, but I knew I had to get moving. I made it to Rye Harbor, NH by 6:30 and started trying to locate the Common Murre which had been reported on the NHbird list the day before. With an hour to spare I was hopeful of sighting the murre, but it was gone. I had to get going if I was going to meet up with Steve Mirick and the others by 8am. I was doing fine until I got to the Seabrook Harbor Bridge which was down to one lane for repairs and the light was red. I sat there waiting for the light to change; then a boat passed through the bridge and it was 7:55 when I finally got across. Too late, I thought, so I decided to wait at the Seabrook harbor parking lot. There was a Black-bellied Plover hunting for food. Here's and image of the plover:As 8:30 rolled around I noticed that there weren't any birders here. They must be starting somewhere else. No biggie, I'll bird the coast and eventually our paths will cross.

Here is an image of a White-rumped Sandpiper from Ragged Neck on the NH seacoast.On the north side of Rye Harbor State Park there were quite a few shorebirds working the wrack line (washed up seaweed, etc.). I settled in photographing the shorebirds when I flushed a sparrow that looked different. Couldn't relocate so I was returning to photograph the shorebirds when it popped up just in front of me. After photographing it I asked Denny Abbott if he knew what it was. Looking at the image "Ipswich" type Savannah Sparrow was his response. A life bird for me! Here are some image of the Ipswick sparrow: and some shorebirds - Dunlin preening:

A molting juvenile Sanderling: juvenile Black-Bellied Plover:There was a flock of about 70 Snow Buntings feeding in the parking area. I left Denny and headed north. I was hopping to find Steve and the Brookline Bird Club. Driving south again having not found them, I noticed a car approaching with a person waving out the window; it was Denny. "What's up?"

"I found the Common Murre right after you left, about 10:30 in the harbor," he said. I raced back to the harbor excited at the prospect of finding this rare bird. As I walked up to the edge of the seawall, there was a woman scanning the harbor. "Did you find the murre?" I asked.

"Nope, been looking for 10 minutes with no luck."

" I was just told that the murre is here." We doubled our effort. Not much luck, I decided to move down the road and we agreed to get the other if we found it. Well, she pulled in to where I was all excited. " I got it! " was all she said.

Back at Rye Harbor S.P. looking through my scope at this wonderful rare bird, when I hear, "You're too good to bird with me anymore!"

I turned and it was Steve Mirick and company. "Got the murre" was all I said. Steve promptly got the group and everyone was able to get great looks at the Common Murre, a life bird for most, me included. Here is an image I got from a mile away. Well almost.Here is a link to images of the Murre taken by Len Medlock. These are amazing images at point blank range from a boat that Len and Jason ( both of whom are great photographers) asked for to get a ride out to the bird. Enjoy!

How about this? Len Medlock doing the newest birding craze, "Tailgate birding." Here we see Len scanning off shore for rarities. As the day was coming to an end, I asked Steve if we could head over to see "The River of Blackbirds." Image below left to right - me with Steve Mirick and Len Medlock

Here is what Steve Mirick reported to NH Birds list about the river of blackbirds;

"200,000. For those who stuck around to the bitter end, we finished the day at the Great Bog blackbird roost and witnessed "The River" of blackbirds from the parking lot of the Target Store along Rt. 33 at the Greenland/Portsmouth town line. Today it started later than yesterday....at about 4:15 PM (EST) and continued non-stop until very late when it finished somewhat abruptly almost exactly at 5:00 PM. About 25 minutes after sunset! I really don't know how many birds there are in "The River", but today's flight was significantly longer than last night's and lasted about 40-45 minutes. Based on input from others, I decided to up last nights estimate of 100,000 to 200,000 birds tonight. There may have been more than that and Len seemed to think closer to 400,000 birds.....who knows? "

More info and images from the "River of Blackbirds" in a separate post. Plus Thelma turned 200,000 contest results in next post.

My list for the day,Total species seen 55, Life birds in caps:

Semipalmated Plover, Sanderling , White-rumped Sandpiper, Dunlin, Black-bellied Plover, Bonaparte's Gull,"IPSWICH" SAVANNAH SPARROW, COMMON MURRE, Common Eider, Surf Scoter, White-winged Scoter, Common Merganser, Long-tailed Duck, Red-breasted Merganser, Red-throated Loon, Common Loon,Horned Grebe, Red-necked Grebe, NORTHERN GANNET, GREAT CORMORANT, Double-crested Cormorant, Canada Goose, Mute Swan, Wood Duck, , American Black Duck, Mallard, Great Blue Heron, Red-tailed Hawk, Peregrine Falcon, Ring-billed Gull, Herring Gull, Great Black-backed Gull, COMMON TERN, Rock Pigeon, Mourning Dove, Downy Woodpecker, Northern Flicker, Blue Jay, American Crow, Horned Lark, Snow Bunting, Pipit, Black-capped Chickadee, Golden-crowned Kinglet, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, American Robin, European Starling, Cedar Waxwing, American Tree Sparrow, Song Sparrow, Dark-eyed Junco, Northern Cardinal, Red-winged Blackbird, Brown-headed Cowbird, House Finch, House Sparrow, Common Grackles and other blackbirds - 250,000 to 500,000

Will post more about this later this week.

Good Birding

Peter Manship

Yellow Warbler in November

2009-11-03T13:20:00.000-08:00

Here are two images of what I think is a female Yellow Warbler (see the PS below). I saw it at Brilyea Access road yesterday afternoon. I was about 300 feet in from RT 17 looking for ducks when I saw a yellow flash. I was only able to get these two images before the bird took off.

I welcome any input about the birds ID.

P.S. As it turns out this warbler is a male Yellow Warbler thanks to Walter Ellison for the ID help. click here to read Walter's email describing this bird on Vtbird.

Good Birding

Peter Manship

Snow Geese at Dead Creek or Thelma turns 200,000

2009-10-28T09:31:00.000-07:00

Monday - the sun came out! Amazingly, this October has been quite rainy and between work and rain (two words that can produce funny emotional responses), I took the day off and went birding. Dead Creek was my destination where I wanted to end the day with the Snow Geese flying in against the setting sun. Hopefully! Wandering the back roads between Route 7 and Lake Champlain is one of my favorite ways to spend a sunny day birding. At McQuen Slang I found Rusty Blackbirds in the Maple-leaf Viburnum along with many robins. The big surprise was the 45 plus juvenile Cedar Waxwings hawking bugs from the tree tops. Next stop was Whitney Creek to try and locate the Orange-crowned Warbler that was reported on VTbird. There were White-throated Sparrows , Savannah Sparrows and more Cedar Waxwings, but no Orange-crowned Warbler. Butterflies were out sunbathing, taking advantage of the warm sunshine. A half dozen Clouded Sulphurs were showing their wear and tear this late into the season. An Eastern Comma Butterfly (winter form) was also enjoying the sun before hibernating in the leaf liter for the winter. They are one of the first butterflies to fly in the spring, often seen late April and early May. Farrell Access road to Dead Creek was very slow; however, there was a lone female Hooded Merganser feeding at the pool in the bend in the road. When I finally arrived at Brilyea Access with winds out of the northwest, it was also quiet. Highlights there were two Pie-billed Grebes, Green Winged Teal, American Black Ducks, Mallards and a feeding Great Blue Heron. I had just enough time to take this image.
There was one of those large farm “honey bucket” spreaders bearing down on my position; it was time to move. At the goose viewing area there was Lady Bugs all over the place, and the Moon. What can I say! The Snow Geese might be down in numbers, but it is still a thrill to see them fly. Here is a link to a report in the Addision County Independent about the decline in the numbers of Snow Geese at the Dead Creek WMA facility. With the geese well back from the viewing area, I used my 400mm lens to close the distance some. A low flying Northern Harrier spooked the geese and I was able to make this image. I thought that there were about 2500 Snow Geese in the area for the afternoon. They only flew one more time towards the end of the day as the light was fading and most of the geese were in the southeast field anyhow; not a good place for sunset images. I looked back one more time just as I was leaving. Wow! I jumped out of Thelma, the jeep, (the official vehicle for all BFO adventures) and was able to record the header image. On the road as I approached the top of the hill on Route 17 and 22a, I saw the sunset reflected in the rear windows of the Addison town office building. A different way of showing it was a nice sunset.

On the way home Thelma, the Jeep, turned over to 199,000 thousand miles - which leads me to this. Guess the date that Thelma the Jeep goes over 200,000 and win a beautiful framed BFO's bird image for your effort. Person or persons closest to the date and time wins. All you have to do is email me with your Date and Time guess. Here’s a clue. I’m sure that this will happen in the next two to three weeks at the latest.

Use this address to enter : petermanshipdesigns AT gmail dot com

Good Luck!!!

Peter Manship

Nelson's Sharp-tailed Sparrow at Pomainville WMA, Pittsford, VT

2009-10-19T03:50:00.000-07:00

Pomainville WMA: 7:15 am and from Route 7. I could see a few birders already out there looking. Looking for the LeConte’s Sparrow and the Nelson’s Sharp-tailed Sparrow that were found on Saturday 10-17-09 by Ted Marin, Allan Strong and Craig Provost and who managed to get the word out quickly.

(birders checking the grassland area at Pomainville WMA for the sparrows)It was a brisk walk out to the general area of the reported sightings. Everything was covered with frost. A bite nippy but beautiful; the excitement of maybe finding two life birds was enough to keep me warm. I joined Greg Askew, Michael Lester and three other birders whom I don’t know (sorry, I should have asked your names). They were looking along the fence row and having no luck. I asked Greg if he had direction to the location. He said, "no, but I can get them"—and pulled out his cell phone and pulled up VTBird. Ah “Birding in the digital age” we heard down the road (mowed path) around the northeast corner of the enpoundment area (pond). Greg was waist deep in the tall grass. I was 20 feet to his left. Next I hear Greg say, NELSON”S SHARP-TAIL! I looked but couldn't find it. I moved in closer to Greg and ask, where? As he pointed out the bird's location, I could feel ice cold water leaking into my boots. I looked down to find that we were standing in over a foot of very cold water. Retreating quickly I pick up the bird just as it moved off. We quickly relocated it and Greg phones the others to inform them that we have found the Nelson’s Sharp-tailed Sparrow. Jim Mead joined group as the bird moved around the northeast end of the floodplain wetland affording everyone several chances for great looks.

Inspired by the Nelson’s find everyone spread out to see if we could find the LeConte’s Sparrow, but it was not to be today for us. There is so much good habitat for the LeConte's to hide in, that it would have taken all day for us to check it all. I think that the bird could and probably is still there, but now moved to a safer more private/peaceful area which could be just around the backside of the pond away from all the attention. Good luck if you go looking for the LeConte’s Sparrow or Nelson’s Sharp-tailed Sparrow at Pomainville WMA Pittsford VT!

Good Birding to all!

Peter

The Local Red-tailed Hawks of Mount Philo

2009-09-19T17:27:00.000-07:00

The flow of migrating hawks was slowing down after a day of record numbers. The local Red-tailed Hawks were returning to the skies around Mt Philo. An eagle was gliding by minding its own business heading south when one of the local Red-tails decided to escort it out of its territory. Things were getting back to normal. I noticed the juvenile Red-tails playfully chasing each other around after what must have seemed like a never ending parade of hawks flying in their home airspace. One of the reasons for going to Mt Philo was that I wanted to photograph the local Red-tailed Hawks so that I might be able to tell a juvenile from adult and, for that matter, to be able to differentiate male and female in the adults. Check out this female below; she must have just finished gorging herself. Look at the size of the crop ( just passed the dark brown head feathers -large white bulge). Must have been a big lunch!I was clicking off some images when I noticed the two juveniles turning and diving in a very steep dive down below the tree tops then zooming back up playing tag. I tried to follow them as they continued to to play and just kept firing off images as fast as the camera would go. I saw one roll up on its side to deflect the charge of the other and wondered if I could capture that. I continued to follow them hoping one of them would roll on its side again. All of a sudden one rolled up. Then the other went into a steep dive and it was over. They were out of sight. It was over before I knew it! I watched them fly around chasing each other but that was it. They didn't roll on their sides again. All the way home I wondered if I had gotten them on their sides. Well, when I first looked at the images on the computer, I just couldn't believe what I had on the screen in front of me! Both of the juvenile Red-tails were flying upside down! I was amazed!

This image was captured just before they were upside down. You can see the lead bird setting up for this.

These images ( numbers 4226 through 4229 ) have been cropped so you can better see what the Red-tailed Hawks were doing. The images show the sequence as it happened.

I never saw this while I was shooting the camera, in part because of the mirror. It flips up to record the image and temporally blocks what you can see in the view finder. The camera can record 6 1/2 frames a second and I only got four images- that's how fast it happened. The images didn't come out clear and sharp, but are good enough to show them upside down going into a dive. I hope to return this coming week to watch and photograph the local Red-tails flying around Mt Philo .

Please email me off list if you can shed some light on this flight behavior.

Thanks!

Peter Manship

An Amazing Day Hawk Watching on Mt Philo pt-1

2009-09-17T14:18:00.000-07:00

Prologue to Part 1, I had planned on going to Putney Mountain hawk watch with Don Clark and company, but because it was almost raining in Ludlow, I decided not to go. I needed a tire which I had ordered and was supposed to pick up on Thursday, but I thought maybe it's in so I called to see. It was. I went to Rutland under the threat of rain and got my tire replaced. As I was leaving the tire place, I looked north to see if any cars were coming and noticed that there was some blue sky and sunshine. Looking south down Rt 7 was dark and stormy looking so I went north just to see if anything was going on at Mount Philo, not expecting much with the wind out of the east. If there wasn't, I'd go birding at Dead Creek. That was the plan anyhow. Part 2 will deal with images of the Local Red-tailed Hawks

As I walked up to the lookout Jim Osbourn said, "You just missed a great bald Eagle show! Came in right over our heads." He was surrounded by kids from a Burlington school who were having a great time looking for hawks asking a million questions which Ted Murin, Jim Osborn , Mike Lester or I would try to answer. Just then the hawks were starting to come over in bigger numbers making things quite interesting. Little did we know what was yet to come. At first the kettles started forming in the northeast, then quickly spread in every direction. The count when something like,2-1-15-1-18-37-144 - and so it would go for the rest of the day. It didn't matter what direction you looked in. Some would just pop up from the tree line getting a bump up from Mt Philo, rising right over our heads, while others were picked up as pepper size dots way off in the distance.

This image has 39 broad-wings in it............ some of the kettles were closer and some pretty far out there - pepper sized specks.

There was a kettle out near the edge of Lake Champlain that was almost 300 strong. It looked like 300 dots flying all helter skelter and counting it would be fairly difficult. Thanks to Ted's perseverance, we figured 226 Broad-wings in it and 360 birds total. The Burlington kids left and were replaced by a group of environmental studies students from St Micheal's College. They arrived just as Ted finished counting a kettle of 140 Broad-wing Hawks. Everyone was fielding questions and showing them where to look. Plenty of eye-birds. One young man said he'd never seen an eagle and just then Jim yells out 'Bald Eagle!' Mike Lester had to leave to go to a class and boy he didn't want to go but he did. Scott Schwenk showed up just in time to take his place keeping things running smoothly. There were quite a few people that had come up to look for hawks migrating and still others that had no idea about the hawk migration just wanting to get out in the sun and fresh air. I think that everyone there got inspired by what was happening. They could sense that we were having a special day and joined in looking and calling out when they had found some birds. As it turned out this help was great because we couldn't watch everywhere and they caught a few hawks that were trying to sneak by low while we were looking elsewhere. Someone asked Ted how many he thought we'd seen so far - "over 2000" was all I heard. I did some quick addition that confirmed that its was way past 2000. That news only lasted a few second because more Broad-wings were passing by and even though the pace was very fast, Jim Osbourn very matter of fact said to one of the St Micheal's kids, "That's a Petrol Falcon. You can tell them from a Gas Hawk by how high they're flying. Gas Hawks fly low and Petrol Falcons fly..." Well you get the idea.

Image of a Gas Hawk Everyone was having fun and enjoying the hawk watch. As the day progressed it seemed as though no matter where you looked there were Broad-wings with an ever increasing number of Bald Eagles thrown in just for good measure. The kid from St Micheal's that wanted to see an eagle, not only got his first eagle but 20 more that made his day on Mt Philo one he'll never forget.

American Kestrel - I believe it's a juvenile but could be wrong. Anyone that knows better, please drop me an email so I can correct if need be.
I also heard one of the kids saying to her friend that she loved this class because it's so interesting and fun. Isn't this great! By 4:45 pm the sun was getting low, the hawks were running out of lift, the crowd of people gone except for a couple from Rutland whose names I don't remember (sorry). As the air cooled down so did the numbers of hawks. Time to add up the day's numbers.

Jim and Ted doing the numbers Ted was having trouble seeing straight after looking through binoculars all day so Jim "The Human Calculator" stepped in to help with the total. Even he was having trouble keeping all the numbers straight, but before long they announced that we had counted 2,758 Broad-wings and 97 other hawks for a total of 2855 hawks counted, migrating over Mt Philo this day.

Northern Harrier

Everyone was walking back to their car with the satisfaction of knowing that we had one amazing hawk count up here on Mount Philo, Ted Murin thought it was third highest but wasn't sure. It really didn't matter it was a big day that no one there will forget.

When I got home my son Montana asked what I'd been doing, I just showed him the page in my count book and he said holy cow is that all from today, you must have had an amazing day how many did you see? 2855.

As for me it was a personal high, one that I will never forget. A special thanks to Jim Osbourn, Ted Murin, Mike Lester, Scott Schwenk for there part in making this one very special Birding in Vermont day for me!

Good Birding to all!

Peter Manship

Story and Photos © 2009 Peter Manship All Rights Reserved

Putney Mountain Hawk Watch report 9-13-09

2009-09-13T14:10:00.000-07:00

Down in southern Vt the Putney Mountain Hawk Watch Group has worked hard to keep records of the hawks passing by and establish Putney Mountain as one of the better places to view the hawk migration. It is something very unique here in Vermont. Everyone is welcome to come and enjoy a day of hawk watching.

Cooper's Hawk top image. Some of the Putney Mt Hawk Watch Group below.The mountain top event is well known to the area people and at one point there were about 25 people watching/counting hawks, families with children, 3 or 4 people walking their dogs and still others that just came up to get out in the sunshine. The top of Putney Mt is also a popular place to hike. A couple from Saratoga N.Y. asked me what are we doing.

Broad-winged Hawk right"Hawk watching," I answered. With that someone yells out "two in the wispy white clouds" and I looked up pointing to the two hawks going by overhead for the couple to see. They stuck around for a while as the pace of hawk sightings increased. Everyone was very busy looking, counting, double checking and confirming ID's and keeping track of the day's sighting.

(pictured below Sharp-shinned upper and Cooper's lower) "I have a kettle of 18 over here," someone yells and instantly everyone focuses on that, counting hawks and confirming ID's. Kettles are quite a sight to be hold. They are a group of hawks all rising up on a warm air thermal. When they reach the end of the warm air(the top), they glide off heading south in search of the next thermal to get a lift from. Hawks also ride on wind currents when it favors their movement south.

A Broad-winged Hawk from the side

The excitement of watching hawks glide by is not for everyone, but those of you interested in finding out more can go to this link for a brief history of Putney Mt hawk watch and for info about the daily count totals and direction to Putney Mountain Putney VT. Click here then click on the site profile for directions.

Another Cooper's Hawk belowFor me this is all new and very exciting, getting a chance to see so many hawks heading south on their annual migration. And, yes, some are what they call eye birds. They are birds so close that you don't need binoculars to view them. Who doesn't love that?

Broad-wing viewOn this day the Putney Mountain Hawk Watch group counted a total of 689 hawks spread over 8 different species and entered this count into the permanent record for Putney Mt Hawk Watch for future scientific comparison.

I would like to thank Don Clark for showing me how to get to Putney Mountain and introducing me to hawk watching there. I'm already planning a return trip!

Enjoy!

Peter Manship

Mt Philo Hawk Watch Photos

2009-09-11T16:38:00.000-07:00

I was looking at the images from my visit to Mt Philo on my computer. When I saw this image, I was hooked. I knew I had to have more. I had never seen a hawk viewed from above. It was just beautiful to me. ( picture below)

This bird flew out of sight very quickly and I was left wondering what it was. My hawk ID abilities are all based on looking up or out at the bird as it flies overhead. Checking in Hawks from Every Angle by Jerry Liguori on page 57, there, in the lower left hand corner, was the answer - an image of a juvenile Red-tailed Hawk, my favorite raptor. Now, there is no way that I wasn't going back to Mt Philo to do some more hawk watching.

With my friend Harry, binoculars, all the camera gear and sandwiches from the 3 Squares Cafe in Vergennes VT, we set out for Mt Philo to do some hawk watching and hopefully capture some good images of the hawks while we were at it.

Well, two juveniles and one adult Red-tail put on quite a show. The adult (female) was flying very low overhead, looking around, hunting while the two juveniles played tag off in the distance. These images show the female Red-tailed Hawk as she circled around hunting just off the ridge viewing area. Enjoy!!!to see a list of the hawks we saw today click this link to VTbird

P.S. I received this from a non-birding friend :

Hi Peter-
Fantastic photos of Red-tailed Hawks! In looking at the link to all you saw that day, I have no clue as to what "TVs heading south" means. I'm sure television sets don't fly! *smile*
Lorraine

Well, I remember how I laughed the first time I read, 'TVs flying south" on VTbird. I was a beginner then and I eventually found out that it meant Turkey Vultures. But I thought that it was such a funny statement - "TVs flying south", that I made a mental note back then for future use. So as I filed the VTbird report, I added it just for a good laugh. Truth is, I don't think TVs are even counted .

Good Birding!

Peter

Infrared Images of the Scarborough Marsh

2009-09-05T05:23:00.000-07:00

The images that follow were made with a converted Nikon 5400 digital camera to black and white infrared. The conversion was done by Life Pixel and I would highly recommend them. The Scarborough Marsh Audubon Center was where we set out from. It is located on Pine Road, Scarborough , Maine. (207 883-5100). This is a central location in the marsh. From there you can either go out to the ocean or head up river to explore for hours of great paddling/birding/or just plan relaxing out in the sun. These infrared images just begin to give you an idea of what the marsh is like, but I like them because of their graphic look which I find very pleasing in an Ansel Adams kind of way. (When I'm working with the infrared Nikon 5400, I ask myself , "What would Ansel do?" ) . I look for strong compositional images which is a lot easier to say then to do, I have to admit. At the end of this day I set my Nikon 5400 on the hood of the jeep, got distracted and got in the jeep and drove away. I looked in the rear view mirror and watched the camera explode as it hit the road at 50mph! I was able to save the CF card and the images you see here were on it.

Hope you enjoy these images of the Scarborough Marsh.

Peter Manship

Kayaking the Springweather Reservoir

2009-09-03T16:26:00.000-07:00

September 2nd. Fall was in the air this morning but as the day progressed it turned into a classic mid 70's September day. We were greeted by 15 + Clouded Sulphur butterflies flying about the boat launch area . As it turned out deciding to kayak the Springweather Resevior in Weatherfield. VT turned out to be a great choice of how to spend this beautiful day. We kayaked up the Black River from the boat launch to just before where the Stoughton Pond run-off joins the Black River. It was hard work-period! We did, however, get to see a Green Heron feeding along the river's edge and every time we got close, it would fly ahead always staying in front of us. Then out of nowhere a juvenile Cooper's Hawk hit the Green Heron mid flight and the two of them ended up in the water. Lots of noise. The hawk let go and winged its way back to a dry perch as did the heron. Lost sight of the Coopers and the Green Heron was now in hiding so we drifted down river back to the main body of water. The lake behind the dam has many places to explore and look at the wildlife that calls Springweather Reservoir home. The view of Ascutney mountain from out on the water is a Vermont classic and Springweather has a half dozen different places to enjoy the great views while paddling around .

Here's a photo from my friend's camera of Ascutney Mt from up in the Black River area.

The birding is impressive whether you're kayaking or just walking one of the many trails that surround Springweather. Here's a list of birds seen there over the years and it's not up-to-date.

This day we saw a pair of Snowy Egret , two Greater Yellowlegs,

a Spotted Sandpiper and the Green Heron.

There are always Great Blue Herons, Bald Eagles and a whole host of other critters that live around water that you may see.

Springweather Reservoir can be tough to paddle if the water is low, but that's not a problem so far this year. If you're up for a day of adventure you just might find it at the Springweather Reservoir, Weatherfield Vt.

Enjoy!

Peter Manship

Barn Swallow feeding young

2009-07-22T04:17:00.000-07:00

I was looking for butterflies at the Calvin Coolidge homestead natural area on the east side of Route 100A where there are walking trails around this beautiful area. It’s also very 'birdie'. The weather was closing in, dark clouds, wind and not much moving . I decided to leave before the rain when I heard a loud bird noise. Looking around I found two Barn Swallow juveniles perched on a snag shaking and calling for more food. A parent showed up and fed the one squawking the most. This was done quickly and on the wing, taking only a few seconds. I was able to observe this on the wing feeding one more time before the rains started and I had to leave. These images show a very interesting behavior taking place in the air. These last four images are a four image burst which gives you some idea how fast this food transfer was. I was surprised by the speed.

All the images were cropped 100% or more because I was using my butterfly camera set-up with a short close-up lens.

Enjoy
Peter Manship

Henslow's Sparrow in Montague, MA: July 8th 2009

2009-07-11T02:39:00.000-07:00

A small group of Vermont birders went to Meadow Road, Montague, Mass on July 8th to look for the reported Henslow's Sparrow. Looking out over the 20 plus acre field one could see that it was going to be a classic case of the "Henslow in the hayfield " problem. But for Sue Wetmore, Phillip Ballou and Peter Manship it didn't take long, After a short time searching the field for the Henslow, the bird started to sing in the distance and it wasn't long before Sue and Phillip (pictured above) had the bird in their scopes. Twice the bird retreated back into the field, but would reappear again. As luck would have it, the last time we saw the Henslow's Sparrow was 15 to 20 feet away from us by the road for some great looks. This last image shows the small pointed tail and the beautiful coloring of the Henslow's Sparrow.

When the bird left for the back of the field we birded the area and came up 34 species of bird.On the way out at the intersection of Meadow rd and Greenfield rd we saw a deer with what looked like a brand new fawn which promptly run in to the tall grass and disappeared from sight.

All in all a very rewarding day of birding on Meadow Rd in Montague, MA.

Good Birding

Peter Manship

Images and story © 2009 Peter Manship LLC

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher in Arlington, VT

2009-05-10T13:36:00.000-07:00

After Barbara Powers' and Roy Pilcher's posts on VTbird, I thought that I would take a shot at trying to finding the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher. I left early this morning and got there about 6:45 am and Nancy A. Brown and Brendan Collins were already there looking for the bird. They said that they hadn't seen it so I headed south along Miller's Pond looking with no luck. As I returned and parked the car, Nancy was waving to me. My heart raced; they had found the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher! I was able to grab a few photos before the bird started to work its way south. Everyone moved down Old Depot Rd as the bird did. I must say that it was quite a sight seeing that long tail waving in the wind (no photos) and like Branden said, it was last seen heading north out of sight. Hopefully, the bird will be relocated so others may see it too!

Here are some photos from today : I would like to thank Barbara Powers who found the bird yesterday and got the word out quickly to VTbird so that Vermont birders could try for this very special visitor to Vermont.

This last image is just to show the salmon pink color under the wings.

Good Birding

Peter

Dead Creek Today 5-5-09

2009-05-05T14:13:00.000-07:00

I went birding at Dead Creek hopping to find the Upland Sandpiper that was listed on VTbird this morning. I found several first season/year birds today, but no Upland Sandpiper. No new warblers today but nice looks at the ones I did find - Yellow Warbler, Yellow-rumped Warbler and the surprise of the day, an American Pipit. Great views of a Savannah Sparrow. Saw two sandpipers fly out over the water that got away too quickly to ID. Later I spotted a Solitary Sandpiper working the water's edge. Then I heard what sounded like two birds fighting. When I located the birds, I couldn't believe my eyes! In a thicket was a bird holding onto a House Sparrow by the back of the head! The helpless bird just hung there phishing. This ended when a truck passed and the birds flushed. I did get these two images, but have no idea what the top bird was.

My birding trip ended as the rain started, so I headed home happy with two new birds for my VT year list which now stands at 142 without an Upland Sandpiper. Oh well, next time!

Pete

Green-Morph Pine Siskin Lake Pauline Vt

2009-04-30T04:55:00.000-07:00

I first noticed that one of the siskins had more yellow/green color on the back of it's head that went all the way down to it's tail back in late Dec when the siskins first showed up. Then in early January reports started to show up all over E-bird about green morph siskins. I wanted to photograph it but it was never around when I was in the house or it came when I was working, this when on all winter, I figured it was long gone. Then about 7:oc last night I saw the bird and was able to grab a few images, not as vivid color as on a gray winters day but you can see the yellow cast on the back. But as you can see the color is somewhat muted because the bird was preening and all fluffed up, it spooked before I could get any images of the bird showing the color better. Owell.....better than nothing.Sibley's refers to it as a Yellow Adult, it's also referred to as a Green-Morph Pine Siskin. Don and Lillian Stokes had this info about Green-Morph Pine Siskins :
http://stokesbirdingblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/green-morph-pine-siskin.html
In any case after looking at the images of the so-called Green-Morph siskin on the Internet I think the bird that has been coming here all winter fits into that group just fine as an example of a very average green-morph Pine Siskin.
These last two images come from Pat Folsom,(thanks Pat) who email me after last nights post to VT bird, wondering if my green siskin looks anything like the one she photographed back in March in her yard. These are great images Pat and show a very good example of how strong the color can be in some birds and really show how much the green morph can very from bird to bird.
I googled “green-morph pine siskin” and found more helpful information on the Zen Birdfeeder
, she had some good links to photos and other reports of the green morph siskin. If you are still curious check Boreal Birds I found this blog to be very informative and well written.

Anyhow one of the great things about birding is I'm always learning something new and I love that, each day birding has its own little surprise whether in your yard or out running the roads, it's birding at its best for me!

Peter

Thanks to Pat Folsom for the use of her images

Long-tailed Duck on Lake Pauline Ludlow Vt

2009-04-23T08:53:00.000-07:00

Today a Long-tailed Duck landed on Lake Pauline for about a minute or two visit. Lucky for me I was standing at the kitchen window when it did and my camera was on the table. Here are some of the photos. When the duck first landed, it kept looking up towards the sky which made me think that the duck was wondering just what had happened. (I was flying along nice and minding my own business, heading north and all of a sudden I'm down here on Lake Pauline Ludlow Vt.) Which after a quick check of its surroundings - was gone. After posting to VTbird I went looking for the Long-tailed Duck on the other lakes in the area. It was no where to be found. I received an email (thanks Betty) that reminded me about Murin and Pfeiffer's Birdwatching in Vermont which says that Long-tailed Ducks are most abundant on Lake Champlain, well out from shore during the fall migration but can also be seen on other Vermont lakes and ponds in small numbers. Anyhow, one very short but sweet moment of Vermont birding here on Lake Pauline in Ludlow.

Peter

All rights reserved ©2009 Peter Manship

Cooper’s hawk visit

2009-04-16T03:57:00.000-07:00

I Looked out the window today and there wasn’t any birds at the feeders, well I mean 2 Chickadee’s a Junco and 3 Pine Siskins is not normal for around here . Maybe they moved on but there would still be the regular yard birds, something’s going on. About an hour later the answer flew by the window as I was working on my Uncle’s taxes, there in the maple tree 12 feet from the kitchen window was a beautiful Cooper’s Hawk lookin to pick up something to eat no doubt. The big surprise was the Chickadees didn’t fly away they just stayed safe in the thicket beneath the Coopers hawk, which was keeping an eye on them. ( Image below Coopers hawk looking down at the bush with the chickadees safely inside it ) After about a minute the Coopers dropped down under the pines to see if there was a different way to get at the chickadee’s who were still playing it safe. As the coopers moved out from under the pine it swooped out over the water and the mallard must have thought that it was coming after it and dove under the water as the coopers flew past and moved off out of sight.

All the images were take through the kitchen window. I was very luck on these or to put it another way the universe sent me a little treat for being a good boy and staying home trying to clear up some of my Uncle's tax papers instead of going birding on a beautiful sunny spring day!

See you out there

Pete

Golden-crowned Sparrow Orwell Vt

2009-04-14T14:23:00.000-07:00

Well it's another one of those birding miracles that you just have to wonder how it got here and thank the birding powers to be that sharp eyed birders recognized that it was different, and got in touch with someone that could help them confirm the ID of this way ward traveler. And then get the word out to the VTbird list. I left about 8:30 this morning to go see the Golden-crowned Sparrow, hopping that it was still there. As I drove along Rt73 in Owell Vt loooking for the house that the bird was at I saw some birders looking through there binoculars intently and I thought, it still there. I quickly joined the group and was shown the bird through a scope , as I looked at the bird I thought WOW what a bird and what a good day. Partly because of the bird and partly because the group of birders that I joined were all friends that I enjoy birding with . I was able to get one descent one image when the bird landed in a tree right in front of me cutting the distance by 2/3's. However the other images are good enough to help reference color, size. shape etc.

The Golden-crowned Sparrow was a great bird to see here in Vermont and a Big Thanks to the home owners for allowing the Vermont Birding community on their property to enjoy this rare bird.

Peter

Great Gray Owl in Durham NH

2009-04-10T10:04:00.000-07:00

I went to Dame rd in Durham New Hampshire last Sunday the day after the Great gray Owl was found and like the thirty to forty other people looking for the owl no one was able to relocate it. The second try was magical, following the posts to New Hampshire Bird List on the Internet about sighting of the Great Gray Owl and looking at the up coming weather Thursday was the day to go. Thursday morning I dropped my son off at school at 7:30 and head for Durham NH hopefully to find the GGO. Driving down Dame road I came on a group of bird watchers and when I asked if they had seen the owl, the forlorn look told me what I wanted to know. Standing by my parked car trying to decide what to do, when a woman came out of the woods and said that the owl has been found. She lead the 15 or so birders and photographers to where the bird was. As I positioned myself to get a clear line of sight I marvelled at how these rare bird sightings happen in the first place after all we were 4 miles down a paved road another 2 miles down a dirt road and here's the kicker . A quarter mile or so out in a thick Hemlock, Oak and White pine Forrest that in places you could have walked by the owl and not seen it at all because it's coloring blended in with the surrounding . There on a small branch of a hemlock was the Great Gray Owl perch hunting and oblivious too all the on lookers, noise and camera chatter I was amazed by the whole experience. Twenty five minutes later the owl moved on to hunt somewhere else. I was happy to have seen it for so long and was sure I had gotten some nice images. Talking to one of the other birders there, he mentioned that the bird was right on time, that he had seen it move every 20 to 25 minutes or so and adding that he saw the owl get a snake a little earlier. Another person said that they were there all day yesterday and the owl had successful hunted 5 times that they knew of the day before and 3 times today including the snake. I would have loved to see the owl and the snake going at it, but they said the owl after killing it flew off to eat the snake in private . On a different note I read this interesting post on NHBird list about the owl ear disc's posted by Bruce Boyer , here's the post and link to more info;

[ I was struck by the fact that the facial disks on this Great Gray Owl appeared asymmetrical in all photos posted here. I then checked Google Images, and found that, amazingly enough, all the images seemed to show that the owl's right disk reaches higher on the head. Knowing that facial disks are supposed to enhance hearing in owls, and that owls have the right and left ears placed at slightly different heights to allow detection of the elevation of a target, I looked further. Lo and behold, the Great Gray Owl is known for having some of the greatest vertical asymmetry in ear location among owls, and the right ear is indeed higher.http://www.sdbonline.org/fly/lewheldquirk/figlegq2.htm N.B.: Ear asymmetry occurs in a third of all owl species. In the great gray owl, the asymmetry is opposite (i.e., right ear higher), and the shift is seen not just in the skin but also in the skull [1612]. Bruce Boyer] Bruce added this a day later [ Pictures of Barred Owls posted on the Internet show marked asymmetry of facial disks also:http://rodgerdodger.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/barred-owl.jpg http://www.nbbd.com/photos/birds1/BarredOwl.jpegSo next time you're viewing an owl, check out the height of its "eyebrows." You are seeing external evidence of a very remarkable anatomic adaptation. Bruce Boyer ]

This next group of images show the owl perch hunting........

These last two images are my favorites from deep within the woods of NH with the Great Gray Owl........ nice day !!!

I hope you enjoy the images and find the info from Bruce to be informative!

Pete

P.S. someone asked about equipment and settings: Canon 40d EF 400 f/5.6 . Most of the images of the owl are as they came out of the camera using ACR to convert to Tiff.

Header image settings were ISO 400 1/160 F/6.3 Evaluative metering +3/4 stop , head held and this is about average for all the image that day. I take a test shoot and quickly check my setting by looking at the histogram, make any adjustments I need and then just make images after that. Unless something changes, then I do another test, adjust and shoot. Hope that's helpful!

Peter Manship

Sandhill Cranes in Clarendon Vt

2009-04-08T10:53:00.000-07:00

I found the Sandhill Cranes early this morning about 8:30am exactly where the Vtbird report said they were in Clarendon Vt. Between the snow flurries and the distance from the road to the birds a scope was handy thing to have to get good views. I made a few images, but was way to far away to get anything good and sharp. However the photos do show the different colors which Sibley described as "rust-stained" and "fresh plumage" . Also the images show a difference in size, the gray bird being taller by about 6 inches. It's anyone’s guess as to weather these birds are Greater or Lesser Sandhill cranes. To me it looked like one Greater and two Lesser Sandhill cranes.these last three images are cropped 120% to show the color and size difference.

I would like to hear from anyone that can shed some light on whats going on and why.

Pete

Birding has its Rewards

2009-03-27T04:40:00.000-07:00

I was birding the other day and came across a Wood Duck. I watched as the Wood Duck mucked in the cattails at the far edge of the un-frozen swamp for sometime. I was hoping that it would move closer so I could get a good photo. Wood Ducks are one of my favorites and I think the most difficult to get a good image of because of the contrast between of all the light and dark colors. I'm always excited when I find a woody and ever hopeful that this may be the time I get a signature image. But it wasn't going to be today because the woody was just staying back in the reeds, feeding. Oh well, the next time.

As I was walking back to my car, I noticed something moving out of the corner of my eye. A quick look through my binoculars and I could see that it was a Muskrat and it was heading my way. Using my car as a blind I was able to watch and photograph the Muskrat as it foraged around on the open waters of the swamp looking for food, unaffected by my presence. Watching this little guy go about his business without a care in the world was one of those magic moments that is a side benefit of birdwatching .
Ahhhh, The rewards of birdwatching!

Peter

Equipment used: Canon 40 d with a EF 400 f5.6 lens hand held

All Rights reserved, © 2009 Peter Manship

Red-tailed Hawk at Great Meadows Charlestown NH

2009-03-25T05:39:00.000-07:00

Driving down Rt 5 south of Charlestown NH I stopped to look over the waterfowl at Great Meadows when this hawk shows up out in the field and was just hanging there Hover-Hunting.

With the sun in my eyes I thought Rough-legged Hawk hover-hunting. The hawk then flew over to a snag right next to the road. I got this image and realized that this hawk could be a Red-tailed Hawk which also hover-hunts sometimes. The difference is the height the red-tailed was at , about a third of the distance closer to the ground then a Rough-legged Hawk would hover-hunt at. From this new angle I could see the tail banding and the what I call spangled breast feathers of the Red-tail as apposed to the dark more solid belly and single dark tail band of the Rough-legged hawk. So if I hadn't tried to get a photo of this bird on the snag I would have ID-ed this bird as a Rough-legged hawk an been 100% wrong . Which is one of the many reasons that I love birding, your always learning something new about the birds your watching... This last image I got driving home on rt103 in Rockingham Vt, the hawk was gliding along in big circles which allowed me to get a good image.

Enjoy

Peter

Northern Harrier hunting

2009-03-18T05:22:00.000-07:00

Driving home from Dead Creek WMA yesterday on a dirt road in Bridport Vt (not sure of the name) when a Northern Harrier popped up flying alone side my car down the road, Hunting. My friend asked how fast are you going? 33-34 mph I said, grabbed my camera, stuck it out the window and fired. The bird turned changing direction, I fired two more images off and the hawk went right over the car out into the field and land on it's pray. Luck is a has it's rewards, what a magic moment to watch.
Later on, heading home on rt 103 in Mt Holly Vt I spotted this Barred Owl sitting on the powerline to bring an end to a great day of Birding. For a list of the whole day here is a Link to the list: http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/VTBD.html#1237382756
Enjoy!!!
Pete

All Rights reserved, © 2009 Peter Manship

Ring-necked Pheasant in East Shoreham Vt.

2009-03-06T09:33:00.000-08:00

After having had a beautiful day of birding I was headed home on the Richville rd when I saw the unmistakable bright red and gold of a Ring-necked Pheasant in a thicket just down the hill from the East Shoreham cemetery. (Richville road east) By the time I got my car turned around the bird had moved to the other side of the road. It took me a few minutes to re-locate it hiding in a larger group of bushes were it was not giving up very good looks. A noise truck passing spooked the bird and it took to the wing in classic pheasant on the run manner.

This bird was calling loudly as if trying to locate another bird (female maybe) and it's coloring was just fabulous, bright red head, golden browns to rufous against the snow covered background, just beautiful. What a great way to end a day of birding.

Peter

P.S. I was informed that not to fare from where I found the pheasant there is a private pheasant hunting business that on occasion a few luck birds escape from. It was a beautiful sight out in the natural environment......alive

Gyrfalcon to Peregrine Falcon in Bridport Vt.

2009-02-10T09:28:00.000-08:00

Blue skies and Sunshine was enough to call for a day of birding and photography. I called Bill Jalbert to see if he had any interest in trying to find some Eastern Bluebirds to photograph and what ever other goods we could turn up over by the lake. He asked how long it would take for me to get there. We headed north on the west side of route 22a, Shoreham to Bridport. Bill mentioned that two days earlier he and a friend thought that they saw a Gyrfalcon on Lake st near Middle rd in Bridport VT. So that became our target for the day, find the bird and confirm the ID . O'ya and get some photos. It was a great day to be outside, we photographed many beautiful barns but no Bluebirds or Gyrfalcon. Rough-legged Hawks,Red-tailed Hawks a large flocks of Robins and a very cooperative Northern Mockingbird was the best we could. (Mockingbird photo by Bill Jalbert) That didn't stop us, as we keep looking we found this beautiful old farm that just begged to be photographed. It was late in the afternoon and the wind was starting to drop the temperatures as we photographed the barns misc outbuilding and old rusty farm equipment. Bill went back to the car with cold hands, I kept photographing. I could hear Bill making ode noises from the car, I turned to walk back and see what was wrong. I can see him failing about in the car, pointing. I turn and there on a phone pole not more then 30 feet away was a Peregrine Falcon killing something, feathers were flying everywhere. Start back to the car to get the long lens, Bill's out of the car and running with both cameras, thank god! Here are some images from yesterday, enjoy!
I decided not to show the blood and guts, you get the idea. What amazed me about this encounter was that it was over in about 3 to 4 minutes.

This image below of the Peregrine Falcon cleaning up after dinner is by Bill JalbertThe Peregrine made short work of the bird (pigeon?) and was gone.

A little fluff and a good stretch just before the Peregrine took off.

You can see the wing part that was hanging from the pole as the bird flies off.

A great way to end a fun day of birding and photography !

Good Birding to all

Peter

White-wing Crossbills at Salisbury Beach Ma

2009-01-26T04:50:00.000-08:00

These images are from my trip to Gloucester Ma and Ivory Gull, on the way home I wanted to stop at Salisbury Beach SP to look for the Short-eared Owls and White-wing Crossbills that had been reported on Mass Birds. It would be a quick stop at best, as I entered the SP there were birders looking out into the marsh at a very dark Snowy Owl, this was a good sign I thought and although the snowy was to fare off to photograph I was hopeful for my other target birds. In the camping area was a gang of birders,photographers and 35 to 40 White-wing Crossbills putting on a great show for everyone there. The W-Wing's were moving from tree to tree and eventually landed in tree right in front of where everyone was standing, amazing views. Good birding to all!

Peter

Ivory Gull in Gloucester Ma 1-20-09

2009-01-22T13:30:00.000-08:00

Well with all the reports coming in about the Ivory Gull , I decided to go down to Eastern point Gloucester Mass and see if I could in fact find this bird. When I arrived on Eastern point drive I notice some bird scoping the area, I asked if they had seen the Ivory Gull, hasn't been seen for an hour. Not the answer that I wanted to hear after driving for 3 plus hours but it was a nice day so I got out my scope and started looking at what the coast had to offer. First thing I found was a Common Eider, then a Common Loon and some Buffleheads when someone yelled out they have it on the point. Everyone was packing to head out to the point when word also come along that there is no parking down there and that the police are tagging cars and towing , so off we went walking the MILE out to Eastern Point. As we reached the point the question on everyone's mind was-Is the Ivory Gull still here? it was. Someone pointed to the Ivory gull resting on the jetty, scope views were the order of the day when all of a sudden the gull took off circled the crowd and landed about 30 feet in front of everyone and began searching for food. What a beautiful little bird compared to the other gulls, a white color that aginest the snow gives new meaning to the color white and if that wasn't enough the color of the bill was amazingly beautiful. I cropped this image below 200% to show the color of the bill , but you can't see the purplish-blue transition to yellow then orange on the lower tip. If you go you'll see the wonderful colors of this bird, photos just don't do it justice. Here is a list of some of the bird I saw along the coast of Mass : Gadwall, Bufflehead, Black Duck, Common Eider, Common Loon, Glaucous Gull, Thayer's Gull, Iceland Gull, Kumlien's Gull, Snow Buntings, Peregrine Falcon, Northern Mockingbird, Coopers hawk, Red-tailed hawk, Rough-legged hawk, Snowy Owl, White-wing Crossbills along with some of the more common winter birds
I am going to post the W-W Crossbill images in a few days.

Good Birding to all!

Peter

Northern Hawk Owl Center Harbor NH 1-13-09

2009-01-13T16:44:00.000-08:00

Thought I would take a ride over to Center Harbor NH to look for the Northern Hawk Owl yesterday. I wanted to see the bird before the freezing cold weather and wind chills that are coming set in. Once there several birders had the owl in their scopes and the cool thing was I was able to look through all the different brands and types of scopes, comparing optics. The surprise for me was how good the image was in the $500 avg price level scope. You had to jump up to a $1000 or more to see the next level of difference and it was noticeable, but not a great deal better. I would say for the average birder wanting to get good looks at distant birds $500 scopes is what you want to be looking at.
As for the Northern Hawk Owl it was tuff light to get a good image in, cloudy and back lit resulting in what is called hi-key images. But I am happy with the images I was able to make.

The owl was very active hunting from different perches close to the road and out in the field.
I missed a great image of the hawk looking down (hunting) seeing something and diving off the branch, plunging head long to the ground right in front of me. The problem was there was a BUSH in the way . O well thats what makes it fun.

Northern Hawk Owl hunting from distant purch over looking a field.

This is my favorite image from the day's images , preening.Good birding to all!

Northern Hawk Owl Peru NY

2009-01-07T08:09:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was my first day off in a month , I was planning to go birding when a report of a possible Boreal Owl in Eden Vermont was posted to Vt ebird. I thought that I would go to Eden and try to find the Boreal Owl then head over to Peru NY and locate the Northern Hawk Owl, two new birds in one day would make for a fun day off. How ever mother nature had a different plan, it was snowing like crazy at 9 AM when I arrived in Eden. All the birds were hunkered down out of site, snowing like mad and the roads were a mess, after looking around for half an hour I headed on my way to Peru NY in hopes of finding the Northern Hawk Owl there.The Northern Hawk owl was right where it has been for the last two weeks, I just sat and watched it for awhile. It didn't seem bothered by the traffic (moderate) and as I watched from across the street (in my car) the owl barely took notice of me and kept hunting for food. I watched it flying from pole to pole, sometimes diving to the ground only to come up empty. Then the owl took off and landed in a birch tree just up the street, time to start photographing. I moved my car to the side street (Quaker Highlands) to get as good a possession as possible and to be out of the traffic on the main road. This was not the best possession with the bird facing way (butt shots) so I just sat and waited for my chance to come. Three Crows just up the road helped speed things up by causing the owl to repossession in the tree , these last two images and the header image all happened in about a minute before the crows caused the owl to move down the road to a new pole and safety.

Good Birding to all!

Peter

Snowy Owls in Whiting Vermont

2008-12-06T15:02:00.000-08:00

Montana and I headed up to Whiting at 6 o'clock this morning to try and find the Snowy Owls before work today. Third time looking was a charm. As soon as we turned on to the Shoreham/Whiting road we had a Snowy Owl on the ground at the edge of the road in the field on the south side. On coming traffic (trailer truck) caused it to fly off, we keep going to see if we could find the second owl. At Webster road I pulled off to watch a large flock of Snow Bunting in the field, they were heading east so we follow. I pulled of on the north side of the road into a field and was trying to photograph the Snow Bunting when Montana says,"Dad Look to your left" I did. It was the Snowy Owl flying right in front of us heading east, perfect I thought! I raised my camera and pressed the trigger, the motordrive fired up and FIVE frames later the camera died. What luck,the battery was dead, but what a sight that Snowy Owl was in the early morning sun light . The owl eventual turned and was last seen heading west along the road. I'm guessing to where Sue Wetmore located it later.
We found the first Snowy on the north side of the road just before the cemetery hill, hurting in the grass. I would have love to stay for a while but it was 7:45 and I had to go to work.

Good birding
Peter Manship

Snowy Owl in New Hampshire pt 2

2008-11-05T05:13:00.000-08:00

The BFO's header (above) image is a crop of and image that will give you and idea just how close I was to this beautiful bird. I was just following a Snow Bunting that was working the edge of the rocks for food when I saw something white and said to myself whats that, you can amagin how surprised I was to be about 12 feet away from a Snowy Owl. I clicked off a few images and turn to tell Len Medlock " Snowy Owl" he was behind and took off running to get his camera and tell the other members of our party. I started to back up everytime the owl looked way and started shooting photos again, someone yelled something, I look back and there was the whole group standing there. Steve Mirick said move away slowly or something like that. I lowered my body to get out of site of the owl when someone out for a walk on the rocks spooked the owl( not on porpose) it flew just a little ways and landed on a rock where everyone had great views of the owl for 30 minutes or so. As we were leaveing I saw Steve M helping a little boy with his camera to get a photo of the owl through Steves scope and i'm sure that boy and his mom will never forget that. Nice job Steve!

These are more of the other images that I took of the Snowy Owl last Sunday Nov 2nd while on the Brookline (Mass)Bird Club's trip to the NH sea coast. As it turns out there was another snowy owl found that day at Plum Inland and from the Vt e-bird report by Jane Stein about a snowy owl seen on a hawk watch two days before. Here's a link to that report; http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/VTBD.html#1225581969 . And I found this very interesting report from Ron Pittaway and Jean Iron in Canada dated: November 1, 2008 ontbirds AT hwcn.org Subject: [Ontbirds] Quebec Report - Snowy Owl, Pine Grosbeak, Bohemian Waxwing. Pascal Cote of the Observatoire d'oiseaux de Tadoussac reports the first good movements of Pine Grosbeaks and Bohemian Waxwings on Wednesday when 1200 grosbeaks and 640 waxwings passed the observatory. Common Redpolls are still moving, but less than 2000 per day. Snowy Owl: Lemming numbers are low across the Eastern Arctic. Quebec is experiencing a big flight of Snowy Owls (Quebec's bird) with more and more observations since 25 October.

See http://tinyurl.com/5p795q The observatory publishes "The Migration Chronicle" in French and English.. Click on English at top right of page www.explos-nature.qc.ca/oot Ron Pittaway and Jean Iron Toronto and Minden ON This was a very interesting read given the Snowy Owl sittings this week. We could be in for a good winter of Boral and Arctic birds in our own backyards.

Anyhow how about bird number 300, a Rufous Hummingbird and I had a great day with this great group of birders from all over NE. Look forward to the next time I'm down on the coast of NH.

Thanks for visiting BFO's

Peter Manship

Birding the coast of New Hampshire in November pt 1 of 3

2008-11-03T09:23:00.000-08:00

Blue sky, Sunshine and strong winds coming out of the northeast. The temps in the low to mid forties and the boy's and I headed out at 3;oc in the morning to go birding on the coast of New Hampshire with Steve and Jane Mirick. They were leading the Brookline Birding Club and anyone else that wanted to on a birding tour of the NH seacoast. We started out in Seabrook and worked our way north, the group had great looks at many bird thanks to effort of everyone. We got things rolling with a Fox Sparrow and then a White-crowned Sparrow. Moving up the road to Seabrook state park/beach (i don't know which) there was a large flock of Snow Buntings feeding in the park, probably 300 plus . Horned larks flew past, there was Red-throated Loons preening in the harbor channel and I already had three new life birds. And it was only 10 o'clock, It was going to be a great day, little did I know just how good it was going to be. Steve found a Lapland Longspur which was quite difficult to relocate as the flock of Snow Buntings keep spooking. We were looking in the sand dunes for a Ipswich/Savannah type
sparrow, looking around I found a Lapland Longspur feeding in the tall grass on the sand dunes.

We moved on to a place called Bicentennial park in Hampton, here we found some Yellow-rump, Nashville and Black Poll Warblers. And just beyond the park is where the Dickcessel was found by David Johnston of Bratteleboro Vermont. Here is a link to Len Medlock's beautiful image of it :
http://www.pbase.com/lmedlock/image/105403743

This last image is for Art Morris , a soft Blurr of a Ipswick/Savannah sparrow taking flight in the dunes. When it calm down around here I'm going to post a report about my weekend How-To Seminar in Portland, Maine: “The Art of Nature Photography; It Ain’t Just Birds” Weekend with great Arthur Morris, which was just amazing!
Till then make sure to VOTE and I'll start working on part 2 for next post.

Thanks for checking in to BFO's
Peter Manship

Snowy Owl on New Hampshire coast

2008-11-02T16:38:00.000-08:00

This post is just to get some of the Snowy Owl photos up for people to see. I will do a report on my birding trip to the coast of NH tomorrow. For now here's a couple of images .
This is life bird #300 a Rufous Hummingbird

Thanks to Steve and Jane for # 300 and to all the other people that made it a great fun day of birding on the coast of NH. Here's a link to Steve's report for the day:

http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NHBD.html#1225666023 enjoy!

Peter Manship

Four Sparrows in one day

2008-10-31T08:52:00.000-07:00

With a light dusting of snow the bird feeders out back were busy, as I worked on the computer and looked outside I noticed a sparrow that looked different. I grabbed the camera to get a photo before it was gone, then I saw a Fox Sparrow. While the Fox sparrow was scratching around under the bush I decided to try and relocate the mystery sparrow. Looking out a different window I thought that I had found it but something didn’t look right, this was a Chipping Sparrow. (Well as it turns out several people have written me saying that this little guy is a juvenile White-crowned Sparrow-very nice I.D. work on their behalf-Pete) Close but no cigar, there was some Song Sparrows and a large flock of Dark-eyed Junco’s and some White-throated Sparrows all looking for seeds in the brush that I have let grow back. The birds love them for the cover the brush offers and so I just through seed in there every morning for them. I went back to work on the computer and after about a half an hour I looked once again, no mystery bird. An hour later I looked and there it was right out in the open, I rushed to get the camera and some images of the mystery bird. So at this point I have had Fox, Song and Chipping sparrows at the feeders plus the mystery bird. That’s not to say these were the only birds at the feeders because all the usual cast of characters was on hand also. It was time to figure out what this little guy is. There was no spot on the breast so not a Tree sparrow even though this is the time they start to show up around here. As I looked at the photos there was no eye line eliminating the Chipping sparrow, what was left? With a white eye ring the Field Sparrow was starting to look pretty good to me. I then checked in Birdwatching in Vermont and found that this little guy was getting late in the season for Field sparrows but still possible. I was satified that the Field Sparrow ID was a good one. Four sparrows in a day,
what fun, you just never know what is going to show up when it snows.

Thanks for checking in!

Peter

Story and images copyright Peter Manship

Rusty Blackbirds at Dead Creek WMA,Addision Vermont

2008-10-25T11:50:00.000-07:00

Anytime that you go birding at Dead Creek WMA you never know what you might run across. On Friday 10-24-08 as we drove in on Brilyea access rd Carol says;" whats that in those bushes?" Rusty Blackbirds was the answer.

There was a man named Tom who's last name I can't remember that was looking for the Rusty Blackbirds too. I pointed him in the direction of the birds and he adds that they are a life bird for him, I said me to . He said let's see what Bryan Pfeiffer and Ted Murin have to say about Rusty Blackbirds and reached in his car, produces their book Birdwatching in Vermont . Looks like their right on time, see here . I look and can see a graph that indicates that the end of September to the beginning of November is the time to see Rusty Blackbirds in Vermont. Dead Creek matched up very well with the type of habitat that Pfeiffer and Murin described as a typical place to be looking in to find Rusty Blackbirds. I keep forgetting what a great resource Birdwatching in Vermont is, Thanks Tom for the reminder! After about half an hour we decided to move on and go looking for the American Coots, not only did we find 2 of them but there was also 19 Green-winged Teals. Mostly males. The geese were scattered all over the area today but we did have some nice fly overs. Northern Harriers were out in numbers hunting the fields everywhere.

Watching them work up and down a field in search of food, plunging into the grass claws extended and coming up empty more often then not was one of those birding experience that you can have at Dead Creek. This Sparrow was keeping a close eye on us as we looked for Snow geese. With clouds moving in we headed for home having had a great day birdwatching at Dead Creek WMA Addision Vt and 2 new birds for the Birding Big year list.
A. Coot #255

Rusty Blackbird #256

Thanks for stopping in!

Peter

Snow Geese at Dead Creek the Dark Morph(Blue Goose) pt 1

2008-10-21T13:01:00.000-07:00

After a great start to the day at home birding and the weather forecast calling for rain on Tuesday I decided to make a run to Dead Creek in Addision Vt see the Snow geese. There was plenty of hawk activity to watch along the way, 7 Red-tailed hawks 3 Northern Harriers and 2 Rough-legged hawks all hunting in fields along Rt 22a and Rt 17. At the Farrell access to the Dead Creek a fellow birder told me about all the Pipits around the first bend in the road. Pipits were all over and became bird # 255 in state and # 293 over all on my Birding Big Year list. However it was the Snow geese that would provide the most fun this day because there were many Dark morph Snow geese, more than I have ever seen at Dead Creek. Here are some of the photos from yesterday of the (Blue Goose) Dark morph .

What was interesting to me was even though the Dark morph geese were mixed in with the white Snow geese they stayed together for the most part. Meaning that if you located a Dark morph adult there was usually a couple of Dark juvenile not far behind. Sometimes you would see both parents, other times you could only find one, but juveniles always stayed close to the parents even flying you pick them out in a crowd. If you go keep an eye out for the Dark morph (Blue Goose) Snow geese and bring your Sibley's guide for some ID-ing fun. There was and estimate of 5000 plus Snow geese there on Monday 20th of October and more Dark morph geese then I have seen at Dead Creek Addision Vermont in the past few years.

Thanks for visiting BFO's
Peter Manship

story and images copyright Peter manship

I will post part two soon, Snow Geese photos of what you might find on a typical day at Dead Creek WMA viewing the Snow geese.

Snow Geese at Dead Creek WMA Addision Vt pt2

2008-10-21T11:43:00.001-07:00

Snow Geese seen here flying against a backdrop of beautiful late October sky over Addision Vermont.Lucky for us the Snow Geese like to use the Champlain Valley and Dead Creek WMA in particular on their way south every year. Just as the leaves start to change colors in September the geese slowly start to build up in numbers till there are thousands, they leave mid to late November and we get to watch them during this time period. The Snow geese stop here to fatten up before continuing south on their migration, there have been reports of Snow geese feeding in great numbers up and down both side of lake Champlain and returning to Dead Creek. It is these flights in and out of Dead Creek all day long that make Snow Goose viewing at Dead Creek WMA in Addision Vermont such and attraction. Seeing long skeins of Snow geese high overhead in V formation flying in and out of Dead Creek is a wonder to behold, people come from all over to witness this annual event. These photos I hope give you an idea of what you might see if you go to Dead Creek to look at the Snow geese. Watching the geese come in for a landing is full of surprises as the geese descend they preform this funny wiggle which helps them in their approach to landing. All of a sudden with wings back they're ready to land and come in a flurry quick wing flaps and their on the ground. And all you can say is how did they do that with their wings.

The Blast Off as Arther Morris call it happens when all the Snow geese take off at once, it can also be caused by something spooking the group which is what happened in this image. If your lucky and this happens, you will never forget the site or sounds of it. This is one of my favorite image of the Snow geese at Dead Creek.

Hope your day and the same as mine did.

Thanks for visiting BFO's

Pete

Leucistic,Melanistic or Partical Albino Junco

2008-10-21T06:43:00.000-07:00

I first saw this bird on Saturday 19th of October and couldn't find it again after looking for a couple of hours. So this morning while talking on the phone, I look out the kitchen window and there it is, on the ground under the feeder. Call you back was all I said as I hung up and grabed the camera. 9 quick photos later and the bird was gone but this time I got some images.

Can anyone explain what is going on with this bird, I would love to know and I'm sure others would also. (UPDATE 10-25-08 Peter ) It's official , I heard from several people and the Dark eyed Junco is a partial albino. Who is here still (10-25-08) with about 18 other Dark eyed Junco's winter is on the way!

Good Birding!

Peter Manship

Looking for Shorebirds along the New Hampshire seacoast

2008-09-15T09:10:00.000-07:00

Well the alarm went off at 3am and off we went, in 3 hours Montana and I would be birding the coast of New Hampshire with Terry Bronson of the N.H. Audubon Seacoast chapter. We arrived early and got in a little early morning birding before the 8am start. I was able to find a Greater Yellow legged Sandpiper and a Buff-breasted Sandpiper behind the Yankee Fisherman’s coop in SeaBrook harbor. The Buff-breasted Sandpiper is bird number 244 on my Birding Big Year list, more on that later.
We joined nine very hearty birders at 8am in the RAIN and started out birding by checking the mudflats in Seabrook harbor. Sanderlings, Semi-palmated Plovers, American Black- bellied Plovers and White-rumped Sandpipers were just a few of the birds we found there.

Baird's sandpiper

That was the beginning to a very wet day with many new shorebirds and ended with a few new friends. I had a great time birding the sea coast, but learning the names and places to go birding on the NH coastline will opened up new reasons to head over to theN.H. seacoast to go birding. Plus getting to meet Terry Bronson, Len Medlock and Steve Mirick and finally put a face with the names that I have been reading about on the New Hampshire e-bird list was a nice opportunity for me. And the birding was great too!

Partial list and photos:

BUFF-BREASTED SANDPIPER 1

BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER 20 male still showing some breading plumage

this next image is a juvenile Black-bellied Plover

Semipalmated Plover many

Greater Yellowlegs--many

Spotted Sandpiper--1

Ruddy Turnstone 6 photo bellow molting male Ruddy Turnstone

Sanderling many

Dunlin 2

Semipalmated Sandpiper many

BAIRD'S SANDPIPER 1

See another photo of Baird's-sandpiper by LenMedlock at: http://www.pbase.com/lmedlock/bairds-sandpiper

WHITE-RUMPED SANDPIPER 7

LEASTED SANDPIPER 1

Short-billed Dowitcher several

Bonaparte's Gull--7

Laughing Gull 2 1 adult & 1 juvenile

Ring-billed Gull many

Herring Gull many

Great Black-backed Gull many

LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL 1

note Lesser Black-backed gull has yellow legs while the Great black-backed has pink legs

FORSTER'S TERN 7

Common Tern 1

Belted Kingfisher

American Crow 9

Barn Swallow 2

European Starling hundreds on phone wires

Cedar Waxwing 1

Bobolink 1 nice female Bobolink views were enjoyed by the whole group

NELSON'S SHARP-TAILED SPARROW 1 seen by everyone but me

here's some links to Steve Mirick's photos of the Nelson's Sharp-tailed Sparrow :

http://home.comcast.net/~smirick/photos/nelsonssharptailedsparrowinland4.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/~smirick/photos/nelsonssharptailedsparrowinland1.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/~smirick/photos/nelsonssharptailedsparrowinland2.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/~smirick/photos/nelsonssharptailedsparrowinland3.jpg

Savannah Sparrow 3 doesn't this Savannah Sparrow look mad, must have been all the rain?

Song Sparrow 5

Common Eider many

Double-crested Cormorants many

Great Blue Heron 1

Great Egret 5

Snowy Egret 3

HORNED GREBE 1

The 8 birds in caps helped put my Birding Big Year total at 251 to date. I must say that I never thought I would make it to 200, what a surprise this year is turning out to be. Anyhow, If anyone reading this is thinking about joining these folks at the New Hampshire Audubon Seacoast chapter (click link to find out more about them and their Birding Trips) for one of their Birding trips by all means do. You'll have a great time, maybe find some new birds and make a new friend or two. I know I did!

Have a safe journey

Peter Manship

Story and photos copyright Peter Manship except where noted,

those are copyright of the noted photographer

Birding Rt22a, Looking for Raptores

2008-09-09T15:05:00.000-07:00

Here are some images from birding Rt 22a up to Dead Creek. The weather started out sunny and warm, I was hopping the approaching cold front would have some hawks migrating. But the weather changed very quickly, the wind picked up and birds were hard to come by never mind find some hawks. The day had a few surprises, most notable were 2 Wilson's Snipes
and 3 Pied-billed Grebes located at East Creek WMA in Orwell. image is of a juvenile

A nice look at a Savannah Sparrow helped make the day

and a good image of a Kestrel checking me out as rolled by taking photos.You roll by on Rt 22a the traffic is intense and there ain't many places to safely pull off, I got lucky this time!

Thanks for Visiting

Peter

For a full trip report heres a link to Vt birds: http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/VTBD.html#1220977683

Story and Photos @ Peter Manship 2008

Beautiful Flying Objects

2008-09-07T11:01:00.000-07:00

Today I decided that I was going to start blogging again. So here goes, the name came from Bryan Pfeiffer telling a story about B,F,O's and when asked what B F O stood for? Bryan replied "Beautiful Flying Objects" Birds, Butterflies and Dragonflies. That was good enough for me,

I told him then that I might use B.F.O.'s sometime, he didn't care. I will from time to time be posting stories and photos about BFO's . I am also creating a second Blog called "Somewhere in Vermont " . Which will be about wondering around Vermont photographing the Vermont that I love so much and is disappearing at a very fast rate now. The buildings and the oldtimer's , the people that made Vermont so special are coming to the end of an era and I'm trying record some of that before it's gone . Anyhow both of these blogs will give my a creative outlet . Hope you will check in from time to time and enjoy the photos and stories.

Peter Manship