Snow Buntings on Putney Mountain

The fog was slow to lift on Putney Mountain this morning, presenting  little chance of seeing any migrating hawks. Some Ravens announced their presence by voice but never appeared above the tree tops.  It was really quiet when suddenly, close to me, a white bird flushed out of the low thicket  that covers much of the top. I didn't get a chance to look at it. However about ten minutes later another bird flushed, again almost purely white, flying across the top to some rock outcroppings, uttering alarm calls. This time I had my camera ready when it  landed on the rock. Because of the distance the picture came out a bit fuzzy.

It was Chris Petrark's day to do the hawk migration watch. When he arrived he was able to get a good shot of the Snow Bunting. For the next half hour or so the Snow Bunting was back and forth across the top. It may have been two, but we never saw both of them together. They are agile runners, quick to disappear behind a piece of vegetation,  a  rock or in a dip in the ground.

All last winter I had been looking for Snow Buntings by following various local reports but never had any luck. And here they turn up at the most unlikely place! In my view birding is about 90% persistence and patience in the face of nothing much  happening, and 10% luck if you stick around long enough. Getting a good photo adds another factor, having the right equipment of course, but also having the camera ready, having  the right settings for the amount and type of light, and then of course luck that the lens will pick up the object without too much hunting. Sometimes you have the camera in just the right position but the bird still gets away ... and then you wait...

A Pair of Pied-billed Grebes

I figured out how to take the stress off my left arm. I still had a monopod which I had actually never used - had bought it before I got my current lens with optical stabilizer. I also had a small fanny pack lying around. Well, I put the two together, attached the monopod to the ring mount on the lens, adjusted the length and set the end into the in the pocket of the fanny belt. And presto, great support system. Now I only need my left hand to balance the rig, and it's easy to maneuver.

Over the past couple of days I had been looking for scoters, but no luck on any of the lakes, ponds or streams within easy driving distance. In fact I didn't see anything much worth reporting until the Pied-billed Grebes this morning:

I saw two pairs, but the first one vanished before I could get my camera on them. I snuck up on the second pair, who just as soon as they spied me paddle away rapidly, vanishing in the vegetation on the opposite shore. In non-breeding plumage they don't show the dark ring around the bill that apparently gave them the name.

I'll keep my eyes out for scoters though and hope to get some local tweets that point me in the right direction.

A Pair of Pied-billed Grebes

I figured out how to take the stress off my left arm. I still had a monopod which I had actually never used - had bought it before I got my current lens with optical stabilizer. I also had a small fanny pack lying around. Well, I put the two together, attached the monopod to the ring mount on the lens, adjusted the length and set the end into the in the pocket of the fanny belt. And presto, great support system. Now I only need my left hand to balance the rig, and it's easy to maneuver.

Over the past couple of days I had been looking for scoters, but no luck on any of the lakes, ponds or streams within easy driving distance. In fact I didn't see anything much worth reporting until the Pied-billed Grebes this morning:

I saw two pairs, but the first one vanished before I could get my camera on them. I snuck up on the second pair, who just as soon as they spied me paddle away rapidly, vanishing in the vegetation on the opposite shore. In non-breeding plumage they don't show the dark ring around the bill that apparently gave them the name.

I'll keep my eyes out for scoters though and hope to get some local tweets that point me in the right direction.

Catastrophic Decline of Bats

Last Tuesday Scott Darling, wildlife biologist with VT Fish and Wildlife, gave a lecture to our local Southeastern Vermont Audubon Society on the catastrophic collapse of bat populations in New England and NY due to White Nose Syndrome, which appears to be a highly infectious fungal disease.

Bats affected by the disease are unable to put enough weight on to carry them through 7 months of hibernation and end up dying of starvation. Bats have been leaving the cave, or hibernaculum, in the middle of winter in search of food and perish in their quest. Bat population in most caves have dropped by 90% or more, for example numbering in the tens of thousands in the Mt Aeolus cave in 2007 and now down to single digits. This will have a significant impact on our environment since bats are one of the major agents in controlling insect populations, particularly mosquitoes. Here is a map illustrating the spread of the disease:

There is no as yet known remedy against this disease and further spread across the entire country seems inevitable. Since bats are slow to reproduce, bearing only one pub a year, re-building the bat population, if a cure is found, will take many decades.

When I first moved into a log house in VT in the 80's I had bats in the attic. Once when sitting under a lamp reading I saw a shadow fly across the ceiling and discovered that a bat had found its way down. I saw on the wall near the ceiling in my bedroom. Before I could come up with plan however the bat had found its way back into the attic through some gap between the wall and the ceiling. That was the only time it ever happened.

I used to enjoy watching bats fly flutter about against a moonlit summer sky. Last summer I saw only two bats and none this summer. I did however see one of those doomed bats flying in broad daylight this past February near the CT River on the NH side. On April 16 of this year I saw a Little Brown Bat flying back and forth over a small pond catching insects for good 20 minutes, long enough for me to get some photos.

Here are a couple of very useful links:

The Nature Conservancy Bat Diaries and more on White Nose Syndrome

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher at Orange Airport, MA

After several reports on MASSBird of a juvenile Scissor-tailed Flycatcher on the airport grounds I headed out that way this morning and joined numerous birders with binoculars, scopes and cameras who quickly pointed out the bird to me. So here are my photos:

I tried hard to catch the bird in flight, not much luck except this photo which at least shows the scissored tail

You can barely make out the scissored tail in this photo:

It's a splendid looking bird. I'd love to see an adult one and I envy Oklahomans for whom this is the state bird.

Snow Geese at Dead Creek

I had never seen the annual spectacle of snow geese stopping over on their southward migration at the Dead Creek Wildlife Management Area in Addison County, VT. So never mind wrist, elbow and shoulder tendinitis:  the weather was right, and, dosed up on the maximum amount of ibuprofen, I drove the 2 1/2 hours to get there. When I arrived about 10:30 I was in for a great  disappointment: the geese were on a meadow about 2 football fields away, barely visible  from the viewing area with my 10 x binoculars. There were just a couple of people around and they mentioned that the geese used to come right up to the fence of the viewing area but had stayed away from it for the past 2 years.

I spent a couple of hours exploring the Brilyea Access wildlife management area, saw a some Black Ducks, Wood Ducks, Mallards, several White-throated Sparrows and Yellow-rumped Warblers. On my way back I drove around to the other side of the field and found the view from there marginally better. As I was walking back to my car though, suddenly a great commotion, thousands of geese were suddenly rising up in the air, first heading toward me, but then circling around for several minutes and finally settling back on the same meadow. Fortunately I had my camera ready to go:

Snow Geese resting on the meadow

then suddenly rising up

circling about with a great deal of honking

and finally settling back down

It was a happy day!

Good-bye to all that for now

Over the past week I have developed a peculiar, fairly excrutiating pain in my left arm, a great puzzle at first since I don't recall any injury. Well, I figured it out now: it's from supporting my heavy camera with telephoto lens with my left arm while focusing with my right hand, and doing so for hours many days in a row. The only remedy for now is rest, and, as the symptoms resolve, start on a strengthening program. This may take a month or more.

So for now I am signing off on photographing birds, will still be checking the blogs though and leave comments.

P.S. This will give me some time to relax and read without feeling guilty.

Battle of the Hoodies

Yesterday among peaceful flocks of Canada Geese on the West River a sudden commotion broke out: two male Hooded Mergansers had gotten in to a water-thrashing spat while the females looked on unperturbed.

He is trying to get away, but is overtaken..

 is getting a good thrashing

and is pushed under water, but eventually reemerges unscathed.

The battle seems to end in a draw.

The aggressor strikes a triumphant posture

but  the other one seems to have come out ahead as far as the females are concerned.

And so,  peace reigns again.

Swainson's Thrush, White-crowned Sparrows and House Sparrows

Looking for sparrows in the community garden by the soccerfield on the SIT campus I was surprised to find this Swainson's Thrush on a low bush fattening up on wild purple berries, while passing through on its migration further south:

Most of the activity was behind the garden in the bushes and thickets bordering a little stream. The sparrows would dip in and out of the foliage, often announcing their presence only by the vigorous shaking of a branch.  I did however manage to get a couple of photos of immature white-crowned sparrows:

These dark purplish blue berries with white frosting appear to be very popular with the birds. I have no idea what they are called, have tried to search for the name on Google Images without success . So if anybody reading this knows it please put your answer in the comments box.

Of course a day of birding can't pass without running across a Yellow-rumbed Warbler, here enjoying the morning sun:

Lastly I could not resist including this photo of some House Sparrows taking it easy in an window of an old horse barn:

Columbus Day Weekend --- Changing colors and migrating Lesser Yellowlegs

The leaves are reaching their peak color. The Columbus Day weekend  is peak leaf peeping time. You can't get anywhere fast today. It says something good about our nation when this spectacle attracts so many people..

Vermont is known for the brilliant red fall color of the Sugar Maple, but I prefer an earlier phase, when there is a mingling of green, yellow and red, a reminder of the bitter-sweet inexorable passage of time

Here are some of my other favorites trees:

The Quaking Aspen looks like it's shivering, with its leaves like so many gold coins. These trees propagate by sending up new shoots from an extensive root system, forming ever growing groves. There is one grove in Utah estimated to be 80,000 years old, possibly the oldest living organism on Earth. (see David Sibley, The Sibley Guide to Trees)

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This American Larch or Tamarack Larch, which is the Algonquian Native American name for it, is growing in the wetland next to our house. It's a deciduous tree that turns yellow and looses its needles every year. The delicate needles stand in lovely contrast to the evergreen trees behind it.

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The sweet nuts of the Shagbark Hickory are edible but hard to get out of the shell. They are very popular with squirrels. The bark  is great for smoking or grilling meat.

The iconic Black Locust is hard to mistake for any other tree, tall,  towering,  gangly, central black trunk with deep furrows and few crooked brittle branches off to the sides topped by an often leafless crown. The wood is extremely hard and resistant to rot, and therefore useful for fence posts, which are frequently found still standing, bordering old abandoned orchards and fields.

The fog was just lifting this morning when I scouted out the cornfield behind the Marina by the West  River.

I also saw a flock of about 20 shorebirds cruising over the cornfield. They turned  out to be migrating Lesser Yellowlegs. One, probably a juvenile, settled on a flooded part of the field near me and was busy picking away in the water:

Hope this beautiful  weather will last!

10/12/09  Correction: The flock of shorebirds turned up again today and they were mostly Killdeer. I am not sure whether the Lesser Yellowlegs was part of a mixed flock or whether it was an isolated individual stirred up by the commotion of the Killdeer and then settled back down near me.