Birdnotes

Sightings listed for the Southeastern Vermont Audubon Society

Saturday, September 29, 2007

[BIRD NOTES] September 29, 2007

 

Bird Notes

 

A CLAY-COLORED SPARROW, a COMMON MOORHEN, and a CAPE MAY WARBLER were seen at the setbacks at the setbacks on the Connecticut River in Hinsdale on September 24th. Nearly 7,000 RED-WINGED BLACKBIRDS were seen leaving a roost in the reed-beds on September 25th.

---RBA New Hampshire

 

Report from Waltham, MA

In a snag at Bentley college pond, for two days, a MERLIN, either immature or female. On the Charles river behind Shaws supermarket a GREAT BLUE HERON.  While looking for the merlin days later, a RED-TAILED HAWK flew into a tree just above me, it flicked its wings and seemed to meld into the tree.  A squirrel ran up the other side, peered around at me and was probably going to scold, saw the hawk inches away, and made a kind of squirrely “eek”.  The hawk looked back over its shoulder, and just glared at the rodent, that standoff lasted 30 minutes, maybe longer, I had to leave.

---Doreen Pugh, Waltham, MA

 

 

West B. Birds

I enjoyed watching two stunning BLACK-THROATED BLUE WARBLERS in Marlboro yesterday morning, Saturday, the 22nd of Sept.

---Anne Wheelock

 

 

Birds observed at the Crossing

The activity at and around our feeding stations has been phenomenal the past few days. We averaged 5 species of warblers each morning and extraordinary numbers of Goldfinch and Chickadees. This is a partial list:

 

Great Blue Heron (2 flyovers)

Osprey (flyover)

Ruby-throated Hummingbird (9/25 late date)

Red-breasted Nuthatch

White-breasted Nuthatch

Titmouse

Catbird

Blue-headed Vireo

Red-eyed Vireo

Nashville

Northern Parula

Chestnut-sided W.

Black-throated Green W.

Blackpoll W.

House Wren

Song Sparrow

Purple Finch

House Finch

 

 

More Than Birds are Migrating

Monarch Butterflies are on the move everywhere you look. We have noticed that numbers increase along roadsides that run north and south. Birding friends from New York State tell us that they spent the day tagging Monarchs and ran out of the 150 tags that they had on hand. 50 more were quickly delivered to finish out their day. For more information on this project visit www.MonarchWatch.org

 

 

Birding at the Sod Farms

Today we stopped at the sod farms in Northfield, MA hoping to see some shorebird migrants. Instead we were treated to Yellow-rumped Warblers (6), Palm Warbler, Raven, Mockingbird, Bobolinks (8), and a very cooperative juvenile PEREGRINE FALCON that sat in the sod grass, stretched it wings, fanned its tail and turned around for side, front and back views. With the scope at 20X it nearly filled the glass. Magnificent!

     On the way home we stopped at the farm pond on Pecks Road in Vernon and counted 15 Green-winged Teal.

 


A friend is someone who reaches for your hand and touches your heart.

 

Please keep us abreast of what birds you are seeing, whether at home or on a trip in or out of the Windham County area.

 

Al Merritt

W. Brattleboro, VT

chpmnkx@sover.net

 

 

BIRD NOTE archives:

http://sevtaudubonbirdnotes.blogspot.com/

 

Southeastern Vermont Audubon Society website:

http://www.sevtaudubon.org/

 

 


 

 

Monday, September 24, 2007

[BIRD NOTES] September 23, 2007---First day of Fall

 

Bird Notes

 

If you were wondering why you haven’t been receiving Bird Notes, we just returned from a two week stay in the Catskills of New York State. Away from computers and television sets. It was just us and the birds and the katydids and an occasional truck or auto to interrupt the tranquility.

     We were able to get out with friends to do some serious birding on 3 different days. Some of the species worth the mention were: Great Egret, Mute Swan, Green-winged Teal, Black Vulture, Northern Harrier, Merlin, Kestrel, Pied-billed Grebe, Common Moorhen, Greater & Lesser Yellowlegs, Baird’s Sandpiper, Semi-palmated Plover, Black-bellied Plover, Least & Semi-palmated Sandpiper, and Yellow-bellied Flycatcher.

 

 

Herricks Cove Birds

Don Clark, Hector Galbraith and I birded Herricks Cove and the Upper Meadows this morning. We had 47 species with highlights listed below.

 

Wilsons Snipe -- 1

American Bittern -- 1

Pied-billed Grebe -- 3

Green-winged Teal -- 50

BLUE-WINGED TEAL -- 40 

There was a large flock of about 90 teal, 40 of which proved to be Blue-wings! (All teal were either females or still in nonbreeding plumage).

Merlin -- 1

Coopers Hawk --2

Sharp-shinned hawk --4

Broad-winged Hawk --1

Northern Harrier --3

Palm Warbler --1

Lincolns Sparrow --1

Purple Finch --8+

 

Good birding,

---Taj Schottland, Putney, VT

 

 

Birds at Chipmunk Crossing (Sept.17-23)

Ruby-throated Hummingbird*

Raven

Chickadee

Titmouse

White and Red Breasted Nuthatches

Robin

Catbird

PHILADELPHIA VIREO

Red-eyed Vireo

Nashville Warbler

N. Parula W.

Chestnut-sided W.

Black-throated Green W.

Blackburnian W.

Blackpoll W.

Cardinal

Rose-breasted Grosbeak

Song Sparrow

White-throated Sparrow

Purple Finch

American Goldfinch

________

*Late date-9/23/2007. Previous late date 9/17/2004.

 

The Hawks are Flying!

Visit the Watchers on Putney Mountain.

Here are the numbers of hawks so far for the month of September:

Osprey 95

Bald Eagle 21

Northern Harrier 24

Sharp-shinned 411

Coopers Hawk 28

Red Shouldered Hawk 2

Broad-winged Hawk 3,257

American Kestrel 123

Merlin 5

Peregrine Falcon 6

Unident Raptors 4

TOTAL: 3,976

 


A friend is someone who reaches for your hand and touches your heart.

 

 

Please keep us abreast of what birds you are seeing, whether at home or on a trip in or out of the Windham County area.

 

Al Merritt

W. Brattleboro, VT

chpmnkx@sover.net

 

 

BIRD NOTE archives:

http://sevtaudubonbirdnotes.blogspot.com/

 

Southeastern Vermont Audubon Society website:

http://www.sevtaudubon.org/

 

 


 

 

Sunday, September 02, 2007

[BIRD NOTES] September 2, 2007

 

Bird Notes

 

 

Check out David Hoag's map of Dead Creek from Ted Murin & Bryan Pfeiffer's indispensable book "Birdwatching in Vermont." It is a map of Dead Creek and the Brilyea area near Addison, Vermont, where numerous reports of shorebirds and herons are dominating the Rare Bird Alerts. If you are considering a trip there it is approximately a 3 hour drive from Brattleboro.

 

 

The Latest Bird Rarities Nationwide

 

A recently-photographed JABIRU in Mississippi:  http://birdaz.com/blog/ category/mega-great-birds/  (fyi: neotropical native Jabiru is Earth's largest stork species.)

 

A GREEN VIOLET-EAR in Oklahoma, photos at:  http:// www.suttoncenter.org/okbirdspix.html (Scroll down to the hummingbird photo.  For dial-up, takes longer.)

 

Potential first N. American or western hemisphere record for BROWN Hawk-Owl at St. Paul island, Alaska Aug. 27:  http:// www.birdingonthe.net/hotmail/WEST.240033845.html

 

Closer to NY there are reports of a Swainson's Warbler from Ontario/Canada, & a number of unexpected southern species from Pennsylvania (Anhinga, White Ibis, etc.): 

http:// www.birdingonthe.net/hotmail/EAST.241201435.html

 

Nice birds all!

---Tom Fiore,N.Y. City

 

 

Backyard Birds

The backyard feeders have been busy. But first, what have not been here - no blackbirds since early August. Red-wings, grackles, cowbirds, and starlings have moved from their breeding dispersal, gathering in flocks elsewhere.

In the backyard as of Saturday, September 1 - Evening Grosbeaks were feeding young - so were Song Sparrows. Pine Siskins have come down from their mountain breeding areas and have been regulars. A single White-throated Sparrow was also present, and Chipping Sparrows are still around, although I think I am now getting migrants rather than the resident breeders. Some neighbors have the Red-breasted Nuthatch as a regular year-round feeder bird. At my feeders, they show up during August and September, then periodically through the winter. Three were around all day yesterday. Rose-breasted Grosbeaks are less common, but a young male is beginning to show his true colors. There have been so many young hummingbirds on the bee-balm, that the resident male has given up trying to defend his territory. I counted six at one time yesterday. Spotty without his breeding spots is still working the river. Plus there have been all of the usual suspects: hairy, downy, chickadee, titmouse, white-breasted nuthatch, cardinal, purple finches, sizeable groups of jays, doves, a couple of pigeons, and the occasional Sharp-shinned Hawk (at least two, but as often as the jays carry on, probably more that I haven’t seen).

I’ve posted some pictures at www.tailsofbirding.net

---Chris Petrak, South Newfane, VT

Birding at Somerset Reservoir

Last Thursday, while checking out a tiny island in the middle of Somerset Reservoir, hundreds of Tree Swallows (maybe 500?)appeared suddenly. Many trying to perch on the half dozen trees there, many others just flying around.  Every 10 or 15 minutes almost all would up and fly away, then return again.  This went on for well over an hour.   Lots of little bits of feathers were floating in

the air. The island is maybe 50 feet by 75 feet tops and over a quarter mile from shore.

     The next day in the Reformer I read Chris's article telling of such swallow swarms along the coast.

     I ran into Whitney (Nichols) this morning on Main St, and he thought it was a rare treat to see this so far from the coast and encouraged me to share it with you all. 

     Not sure how many Common Loons there were, at least two calling. We also saw loons in a few different places around the reservoir but they could have been the same one or two moving about, or could have been 3 or 4 different ones.  One was flying around a bay near the dam, calling (yodel) while flying.

     As for the (Bald)Eagle, pretty sure it was the immature eagle. We saw one there about a month ago, along with a mature one and two loons with two young.

---Jeff Nugent, Brattleboro, VT

 

 

 

Birds of Chipmunk Crossing (8/26-31)

 


Mourning Dove

Ruby-throated Hummingbird

Downy Woodpecker

Hairy Woodpecker

Blue Jay

Crow

Chickadee

Titmouse

White-breasted Nuthatch

Red-breasted Nuthatch

Robin

Catbird

Red-eyed Vireo

Chestnut-sided Warbler

Black-throated Green W.

Black-throated Blue W.

Blackburnian W.

Black-and-White W.

Common Yellowthroat

Canada W.

Nashville W.

Yellow-rumped W.

Redstart

Scarlet Tanager

Cardinal

Rose-breasted Grosbeak

House Wren

Chipping Sparrow

Song Sparrow

Purple Finch

House Finch

Goldfinch

 

 

 

P  R  O  G  R  A  M

 

Tuesday, September 18—“What’s that Hawk Up There?”

Members of the Putney Mountain Hawk Watch will be attending to answer questions and explain how they can identify a hawk when it is a mere spec in the sky. They will be giving tips to all of us on how we can do it too. Join us in the Community Room of the Brooks Library at 7:00 p.m.  It is FREE and open to the public.

 

 


A friend is someone who reaches for your hand and touches your heart.

 

Please keep us abreast of what birds you are seeing, whether at home or on a trip in or out of the Windham County area.

 

Al Merritt

W. Brattleboro, VT

chpmnkx@sover.net

 

 

BIRD NOTE archives:

http://sevtaudubonbirdnotes.blogspot.com/

 

Southeastern Vermont Audubon Society website:

http://www.sevtaudubon.org/