BIRD NOTES ~ July 31, 2011

Chimney Swift

Bird Notes

 

Bald Eagles

Just got back from 3 weeks on the coast of Maine on our boat.  I had gotten hooked on watching the Eaglecam for the 3 eaglets from the Norfolk Botanical Garden whose mother was hit by a plane and killed. They were removed to a wonderful wild animal rehab place in Virginia and raised in a huge flight cage--just released yesterday. Hooray!  In Maine I watched two immature eagles--monitored carefully by an adult (or two)-- flying and soaring and calling over the bay where we anchored.  They chased each other and engaged in aerial dogfights, knocked each other off of tree tops, landed on the beach and took off again, sometimes clumsily.  Just like the Norfolk eaglets, squabbling and refining their flying and landing while we and those in two other boats hooted and cheered them on.  It was thrilling!

---Mary Ann McLeod, Wilmington, VT

 

 

A Mid-Summer poem for a Mid-Summer Bird

This poem by Robert Frost, was sent to us by Mary Miller of Vernon, VT.

 

The Oven Bird

There is a singer everyone has heard,

Loud, a mid-summer and a mid-wood bird,

Who makes the solid tree trunks sound again.

He says that leaves are old and that for flowers

Mid-summer is to spring as one to ten.

He says the early petal-fall is past,

When pear and cherry bloom went down in showers

On sunny days a moment overcast;

And comes that other fall we name the fall.

He says the highway dust is over all.

The bird would cease and be as other birds

But that he knows in singing not to sing.

The question that he frames in all but words

Is what to make of a diminished thing.

 

 

Bonnyvale Road Birds (the clearing beneath the transmission lines)

Indigo Bunting

Field Sparrow

Brown Thrasher

Scarlet Tanager

Raven

Veery

Catbird

Common Yellowthroat

 

 

 

Chimney Swifts

They are nesting in a chimney at 56 Linden Street and in another chimney at the Barne’s residence on Coolidge Memorial Hwy. (Rt.5 S)

Does anyone else have knowledge of nesting Swifts?  Please let me know.

 

 

 

Big White Bird at the Retreat (7/29)

Friday, while standing on the dock of the Outing Club on Spring Tree Road, I watched a Great Egret stalking fish along the shore of the grassy sandbar. Small shiners seemed to be plentiful as it speared one after the other and slurped them down.

 

 

 

Swallows on the Wires

Have you noticed that true to form, the swallows are starting to gather on the wires. Can it be that time of year already? I counted more than 30 Barn Swallows sitting on the overhead wires across from the barn on Abbott Road. There were also a few Tree Swallows with them.

 

 

 

West B Bluebird

I found a lone male Eastern Bluebird perched on a headstone at the Mather Road Cemetery Thursday morning. It dropped to the ground and returned to its spot with a moth in its beak.

 

 

 

The American Ornithologists’ Union

The AOU is at it again. The Common Moorhen has been renamed Common Galinule. It seems as though there may be a lot of changes in the future since they are bringing DNA into play in determining species and their families.

 

 

Potluck Picnic Supper

We had a good turnout for the Southeastern Vermont Audubon Society’s supper on Tuesday evening. It was hosted by president Hollie Bowen and hubby Paul at their home on Stark Road in Marlboro. Good food and good friends met for an early evening repast.

Note: After everyone had departed we found a flat clear glass dish lid that was left on the table by someone.  The owner may have taken our casserole dish lid by mistake, which is a round, dome shaped, clear glass Corning Ware casserole lid with a knob on top.    Anyone?

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Please share your birding news with us.

What have you got coming to your feeders?

Are there any birds nesting in your yard?

What have you seen while on a trip?

Drop us an e-mail chpmnkx@sover.net

 Al Merritt

W. Brattleboro, VT

Check out our website:   http://sevtaudubonbirdnotes.blogspot.com/

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