Great day of Birding in Vermont

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

written and photographed by Pete Manship © 2010 all right reserved

Rusty Blackbirds at Dead Creek WMA,Addision Vermont

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

story and photos copyright 2008 Peter Manship

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

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

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

Story and images copyright Peter Manship 2008