Birdnotes: January 2013

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

{BIRD NOTES} ~ January 16, 2013

Bird Notes

Stark Road Barred Owl

About 45 min. ago had a barred owl fly into the backyard. Everything dispersed, but the birds quickly returned. Not the red squirrels though! 2 of our grandsons slept over so they both had a great view of the owl as it lingered for about a half hour awaiting the return of squirrels. The joys of backyard birding!

---Hollie Bowen, Marlboro, VT

Barred Owl in Waltham

This was the first sighting this year in Waltham MA, Gardencrest Apt area, of a Barred Owl, otherwise the usual feeder birds, chickadees, titmice & an occasional nuthatch.

---Doreen Pugh, Waltham, MA

Putney Common Redpolls

Your redpoll flock was here in Putney today, about a dozen stayed quite a while feeding! .

---Marilyn Tillinghast, Putney, VT

Snow Geese Along Putney Road

Sorry to have missed the count this year. I did see a Magpie in Utah that day! I also wanted to report I saw 3 Snow Geese flying low over the Fulflex field on Putney road Sunday morning. I was driving in the car and didn't stop to see if there were more, but I'm sure of the three.

---Burt Tepfer, Putney, VT

West B. Turkeys

Four Wild Turkeys continue their visits to our yard each day, arriving at daybreak then disappearing from time to time only to return just before dusk for a snack of cracked corn before returning to their roost in the hemlocks on our back hillside.

---Al, West Brattleboro, VT

FIELD TRIP: Cape Ann /Plum Island January 5, 2013

The following is a list of some of the birds seen on the field trip led by Chris & Nissa Petrak:

White-winged Scoter

Black Scoter

Surf Scoter

Common Eider

KING EIDER

Bufflehead

Lesser Scaup

Common Goldeneye

Mallard

Black Duck

Gadwall

Harlequin Duck

Ruddy Duck

Red-breasted Merganser

Canada Goose

Common Loon

Black Guillemot

Horned Grebe

Herring Gull

Ring-billed Gull

Gr Black-backed Gull

Bonaparte's Gull

Peregrine Falcon

Bald Eagle

Northern Gannett

Great Cormorant

Double-crested Comorant

Mute Swan

Purple Sandpipers

Sanderling

Snow Bunting

Common Redpoll

Red-breasted Nuthatch

White-winged Crossbill

Amer Tree Sparrow

Song Sparrow

Purple Finch

Mockingbird

. . . and various other common winter birds

---Lani Wright, Brattleboro, VT

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Al Merritt

W. Brattleboro, VT

chpmnkx@sover.net

www.sevtaudubon.org

{BIRD NOTES} ~January 5, 2013

Bird Notes

Common Pochard on Lake Champlain

A species very, very rare in the United States is drawing a crowd on the north end of the new Champlain Bridge. Also seen by observers were Harlequin Duck and Tufted Duck. They were still being seen there today (1/2/13). As near as I can find, this is only the second confirmed Common Pochard sighting in the U.S.

Plum Island/Cape Ann

Had a wonderful weekend at Cape Ann with a dozen other Mearns Club members under the expert leadership of Al and Barb Merritt. Among the prizes we collected were Red crossbills, Pine grosbeak, Redpolls, Rough-legged hawk, Black guillemot, Harlequin Ducks, scoters, eiders, and on and on (67 species). I have posted a written report with photos on my blog at natdigital.blogspot.com and encourage you to take a look. Thanks again to the Merritts who confided to us that they have now led over 30 of these outings to Cape Anne for the Mearns Club. If you could not make it this year, I encourage to make the effort to get up there next year. It is a trip not to be missed!

---Dave Baker, Orange County, NY

Pipit in Vernon

JoAnne Russo and I had an American Pipit on Blodgett road in Vernon.

I have posted a digiscoped image on the VT eBird flickr page:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/88981103@N07/8310875709/in/pool-vtebird

---Taj Schottland, Avian Biologist

Common Redpolls at Chipmunk Crossing

There was a flurry of activity at our feeders this morning (1/4). The usuals were fighting for position on the three feeders when a number of Common Redpolls dropped from the sky and nudged out the others from their breakfast table. Not having the regulars to contend with they squabbled among themselves for position. We counted 14 before they had got their fill and finally flew off.

---Barbara Merritt, West Brattleboro, VT