First of Season Hoodies, and Liebster Blog Award

For the past couple of days a pair of Hooded Mergansers, Hoodies in short, have settled on a inactive beaver pond not for from where I live. They are very skittish and usually head back to  the shore opposite  the dirt road if notice any movement, even a car creeping ever so slowly along that road. These are the first of the season for me.

A female Wood Duck was skulking through the weeds at the water's edge.

Thank you so much, Ken Schneider of Rosy Finch Ramblng, for nominating me for the Liebster Blog Award! The photographs, stories and reports on your blog are always an inspiration for me, as you seem to be living your life on a larger scale than the rest of us. 

What does Liebster Blog mean? The origin of this award is obscure, but it's probably German as the phrase "Liebster Blog" translates into "most favorite blog". The award is given to blogs that have less than 200 followers and deserve more recognition and encouragement.There are some guidelines that have to be followed while giving or receiving the Award.

The rules for receiving the award:

1. Thank the giver and link back to the blogger who gave it to you.
2. Reveal your top five picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.
3. Copy and paste the award on your blog.
4. Hope that the people you’ve sent the award to forward it to their five favorite bloggers and keep it going!

Good Birding! 

Thanks for your visit and let me know what you think. 

A SNOWY OWL in Brattleboro!

Talking about a possible Snowy Owl irruption in the Northeast, great news this morning on VTBird: Hector Galbraith had sighted a Snowy Owl on the cornfield behind the Marina Restaurant on the West River in Brattleboro, just about 3 miles from my house. I dropped everything, jumped into my car and joined several birders who were already there.The owl was perched about 50 yards from the kayak shed and parking lot.

Uncropped view, about 10 AM

The owl didn't stay there. 

Half hour later it flew to the opposite corner of the field and, when I returned at about 3PM, it was sitting in a tree on a slope bordering the wetland at the far edge. I took this photo from behind the stores on the Aubuchon Plaza above the field. 

Shortly after the owl took off and flew to perch on a log in the West River. Just as I got there it took off again and seemed to disappear into the woods above the Retreat on the other side of the river near  Rte 30. On a hunch  I decided to drive to the parking lot in back of Retreat to look down on the water from above and found it again perching on some brush in the water. 

it was about 4 PM. The light was fading.  Maybe it will still be in the general area in morning. I will do a check and leave a message on VTBird  one way or the other.


Good Birding!


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Tender Gestures

The meaning of this photo is unmistakable although we know nothing about the context except that the birds are members of the same flock. It's clear that the lives of these birds are not just of struggle and strife, revolve not just around competition for food, for mates, for nest sites and territory....  but also allow unselfish tenderness.

Among Black-legged Kittiwakes trustful companionship

A featheris being passed like a gift between these two adult gannets, presumably the parents of the chick. Since it's not something edible and not used for lining a nest, does it have a symbolic meaning? Or am I perhaps overreaching? ----  Maybe he is just saying to her, "get rid of this feather" but the next photo seems to put the lie to that. Such tenderness and solicitude... 

These were among a large number of photos I took during a trip in June '09 to Helgoland, a North Sea island off the coast of Germany. It was a rare opportunity to observe the communal lives of Northern Gannets, Common Murres and Black-legged Kittiwakes. 


I recommend these books: "The Private Lives of Birds" by Bridget Stutchbury
                                       "The Exultant Ark - A Pictorial Tour of Animal Pleasure" 
                                        by Jonathan Balcombe




I am thankful for having so many online birding friends. Thank you for stopping by. Please leave a comment.