Category Archives: Nesting

A Verdin Nest

Recently, I mentioned our new-found interest in nesting birds. Yesterday, we were watching Verdins bounce from limb to limb singing away when I saw one scoot into a cactus and disappear. Another nest?
Here’s the bunch of twigs we saw.

I could see some movement in the bundle of twigs and sure enough, out popped a Verdin.

Sally watched as the Verdin flew off to nearby sage bushes breaking off twigs, and warning me as the bird returned as I kept the camera on the nest.

I can’t brag about the photos but here are a couple of construction in progress.

We watched for ten minutes or so, entranced by the steady work of this little olive-capped bird. Slow birding can bring some lovely experences – it made our day.

Caution, I Brake For Goslings

Yesterday, I had to take our living room couch up to Hyde Park – about an hour north – and drop it off for the upholsterer. So bright and early, Penny and I started up Route 12 toward Morrisville. It was a beautiful Vermont morning with the temperature in the 60’s, light traffic, and lots of bird song as we cruised along with the truck windows down. I had not birded Lamoille County, my target county last year, at all so it was nice to get back into parts of the state I explored in detail last year.

I gave myself plenty of time to get there which was just as well because while only one school bus stopped me, this parade of Canada Geese took their sweet time letting me get past.

These CAGO's were adjacent Lake Lamoille. The goslings sat on the roadway, waddled a bit, walked some more. They seemed pretty accustomed to vehicle traffic.

These CAGO’s were adjacent Lake Lamoille. The goslings sat on the roadway, waddled a bit, walked some more. They seemed pretty accustomed to vehicle traffic. The last one seems to be saying, “I’m tired!”  (Taken through truck windshield)

There is a wonderful country road leading to the turn for our upholsters. Part way along, I came across this line of old bicycles, each with a planter in a handlebar basket or on the frame, and stopped on the highway for a couple of iPhone photos. “Only in Vermont”, I thought.  It was certainly unique and rather lovely.

BikeplantersW

I dropped the couch off without problems and we did some more birding – sometimes just stopping at turnouts and listening. Bobolinks, Eastern Meadowlarks, even some Wild Turkeys graced one field. I got about 25 species for the county including a couple of Osprey on a platform nest and many warblers and vireos.

Heading home, I stopped to take this photo of a round barn just south of Morrisville which was restored by the Welch family. Over the years, we had watched it age and were excited to notice and hear about renovation work, which was mostly done by the family over a long period of time.

The barn was painted yellow 45 years ago but the Welch's matched the original red stain that was there when it was built in 1916. It is a wonderful structure saved through a lot of hard work and is now available for weddings and other functions.

The barn was painted yellow 45 years ago but the Welch’s matched the original red stain that was there when it was built in 1916. It is a wonderful structure saved through a lot of hard work and is now available for weddings and other functions.

 

Sorry, Mama Robin

I cut the firewood we use to supplement heating our house. Each year, I drop 15 or 20 trees, mostly soft maple and cherry, let them dry on the ground during the summer and fall, and then the following year, cut them up, haul them in, split them by hand, stack them, re-stack them when the pile falls over …. etc. It’s a Vermont thing. Unless I get hurt, cheaper than a health club.

This time of year, I never drop leafed-out trees fearing that I will destroy songbird nests, so it was surprising today, while cutting brush, to disturb a mother bird.  I was clearing out brambles and small trees, mainly with the brush hog on my tractor but also with the chain saw. There was a clump near the base of the electric company’s guy wire for their pole on our property corner, and I cut one small spruce seedling and then noticed that the larger spruce tree was growing right through the fitting that anchored the wire. I peered in to check it out and here’s what I saw:

You can see the yellow shield for the support wire as it passes under the nest.

You can see the yellow shield for the support wire as it passes under the nest.

I shut things down, ran up to get my camera, and grabbed the above photo and a closeup with the telephoto. It was a gorgeous nest with one pretty egg.

A quick zoom in and time to leave.

A quick zoom in and time to leave.

I backed away and stood partially hidden as I heard the parent chipping away in the nearby apple tree. Pretty soon, she approached, arrived in a flourish of orange and red, and settled. I snapped a few long-distance shots.

She blends in well - if I had not found the nest, I'd never spot her.

She blends in well – if I had not found the nest, I’d never spot her.

The tree is just off our driveway so it’s easy to check. Three hours later, when I walked down to get mail, I could see her tail silhouetted in the shadows. Don’t think that I disturbed her too much, but it was close. I was seconds away from dropping that tree.

Pushing The Camera’s Envelope

I have pretty much switched to my Canon SX50 HS digital zoom, leaving my more expensive camera back at the trailer. Generally, this is a good strategy but every so often, I end up pushing the digital zoom too much.

In some settings, the zoom will go all the way in to 200x or the equivalent of 4800mm. At this distance, the photo quality gets grainy, especially in poor light – but it captures a record of what you saw.

We had a great visit to Lost Maples State Natural Area where I got three life birds (more on that next time.) I heard about a nesting Great Horned Owl late one day so we drove out to the picnic area and soon located her in a cave-like impression in the cliff across the valley. The light was fading and she was in the shade but the photo, grainy as it is, looks almost like a painting. She was there the next day but sleeping.

Not far away, in another cliff in a neighboring valley, there is a Red-tail Hawk nest. The local bird hosts have built a pipe-tube pointer to allow you to pinpoint the far-away site. The first two times I checked it there was no activity. The next morning, I saw a RTHA flying over the campsite and later, when I took Penny for a walk up the trail, she was on the nest. Again, another long-range shot at the limits of the camera.

Even though it snowed in Vermont the first day of Spring, these nesters give one hope that warmer days are ahead. Happy Spring!