Suffice it to say there’ve been a few distractions since my last post. Dog injury, Covid, and lousy weather have hindered my birding but focusing on positive things these days, I’m getting out and working on my bird list for 2025.

With temperatures well below zero at night, nearly everything has frozen up but this week, I found an open spot on the Winooski River downtown. Two Common Merganser were feeding in the icy water — here’s the male.

Just across the stream was a Mallard resting.

One of my target birds was Wild Turkey and I thought, “If I were a turkey (hold your comments), where would I be on a cold windy day like this?” I thought of farms and checked one close by and “sorpresa!”, twenty birds were out foraging. Here are a couple of shots from outside and inside the car.

Our backyard feeders have been very active in this frigid weather, with mixed flocks of chickadees, finches, tree sparrows, and juncos. A couple of Mourning Doves join the action every day.

While I miss the birding I once did down South, it’s a fun challenge to get out in frigid weather and see, and try to photograph, the birds of an old-fashioned Vermont winter.