avi_'s Journal

Date - 5/10/21
Start time - 2:30
End time - 4:00
Location - Old North End--walked around a bunch, down North Street, over to Battery Park, up to Elmwood Cemetery, then pittered over to the waterfront.
Weather (temperature, wind speed/direction, precipitation) - Partly cloudy, but it was mostly sunny, low 60s, not that windy--north eastern, around 9 mph max.
Habitat(s) - Mainly deciduous tree-lined streets--some small scrubby bushes near the larger trees. There were some overgrown front yard gardens Lots of grass in Battery Park (and a bunny) but the edge of the park does border some trees and a lot of scrub on the hill.

Date: 5/24
Time: 7:45 am - 12:00 pm (site was ~50 mins away)
Location: West Rutland Marsh
Habitat: Cattail marsh along the Castleton river. Dense vegetation, with lots of scrub alongside the boardwalk. The marsh itself is a strip, between two roads and spilling over a bit, fenced in on either side by mainly deciduous forest--along the main access road, there's a stand of aspen. The other side is forested, with some farmland up to the edge of the hill. It's in a valley of sorts, which unfortunately makes the sound-scape vulnerable to loud booms that echo throughout. The marsh itself has some open pools of water, but visibility is impacted by the 8+ft tall common reed/phragmite that borders the marsh and is keen on creeping further in.

Date: 5/25
Time: 7:30 - 11:00
Location: West Rutland, Pleasant St Powerline, Marble St
Weather: Overcast, started out mid-fifties, at midday we were hitting mid sixties and rising, the sun came out just at the end. It started kicking up real wind around 9, hitting around 10-15 mph going mainly WSW by the time I left the ridge.

Habitat / narrative:

The powerlines go up on a ridge and it overlooks the marsh I was at yesterday to the west, so to start off with there were a lot of repeat species I saw from yesterday that I didn't really bother with trying to get media for--I promise, I really did properly identify the Canada Goose.

I meandered up the hill and the first habitat I came to was pure scrub--not a lot of flat open space / pure grassland, mainly small bushes fighting each other for sunlight and glory. There was mainly small deciduous trees (maximum would be ~ 12 feet, not including the adult trees that border the road), and the bushes ranged from knee to nose height (I'm 5'2"). There were a ton of crickets mixed in, and with the pure scrub it was all by ear. It was pretty overwhelming at first, and I took a lot of audio recordings with confused notes. I think I mainly sleuthed it out re-listening and cross-checking the vocals with Audubon's bird guide online and the notes I took on the grassland bird vocalizations from the video.

The next habitat was gradual--I had to abandon the powerlines as the brush got thicker and the ticks got stronger, but I walked along the road and the scrub started to give way to more open grass, edged in by shrub and trees--maybe haylots or empty land, because the tree lines divided up the grassy slope fairly evenly. The shrub was more sparse in the center, some smaller shrubs clocking in at around 6 or so feet tall, with the larger ones usually not reaching more than 9 or 10 feet up. There was a surprising amount of common reed, mostly on the edge by the road--maybe car tires are spreading the seeds from the marsh below.

The grasslands were pretty productive--I saw a lot of Song Sparrows that I thought were Savannah Sparrows at first, and I heard an incredible amount of American Goldfinches and Common Yellowthroats. I probably heard a few others, but thankfully I didn't hear any konk-a-ree Red-winged Blackbirds. We spent enough time around each other yesterday.

The road continued, and the grasslands lead to a decent sized farm (their rooster wasn't loud enough to record over the wind).

Then the grassland rapidly just turned to young forest and houses--I was overtaken by robins and black-capped chickadees. The forest wasn't dense yet, just skinny gangly sumac.

I backtracked, explored the forest down below between the powerline and the marsh--mostly deciduous, lots of aspen, but there were some adult hardwoods as well. There was also an old marble quarry filled with water, so a cool find.

Then I saw these 3 weird ducks on my way to the second location--ID'ed as waterfowl, let me know? I tried looking it up, but I had no luck.

12:00 - 1:00
Weather: Sunny, low 70s. Minimal wind, field closed off by trees on all sides.
Location: Stockbridge, VT -- local shrubby fields.

Habitat:

I left Rutland, saw a turkey vulture circling roadkill on the way, and got to the field at 12. I didn't use my camera, and so my media from that is more recordings of vocalizations-- I had trouble with some of them, but I noted it on the observation itself so that may make more sense than explaining it here.

Date: 5/26/21
Time: 6:40 - 12:30
Location: Stockbridge, VT-near Mt. Lympus, around 1700 ft up
Weather: Started off pretty warm, high 60s, and kept on getting warmer until it reached high 70s by the time I returned. Under the canopy, it was cooler and probably held in the low 70s. There wasn't major wind, as most of the time I was on the leeward side of a ridge or protected down below it to the east, but towards the end of the day the wind started coming through WSW, around 5-8mph. Thankfully the strong rain didn't hit until later this afternoon.
Habitat / Narrative:
Basics: There's a small ridge to the west of the house above a small field that continues onward pretty steadily along the road below (north, but it also continues at the same elevation or higher to the southwest). Behind the house to the south, there's a large scrubby field that drops down to a stand of coniferous trees, with some white pines and some plantation pines. To the south of the field, there's a small pond that feeds out into the woods, and so the land down below the pond, further to the south and west behind it is more of a forested wetland--think seep. There's a small bog even further to the west of that. The property and most surrounding land used to be farm fields, so there's still the stone walls in the second and third growth forest, with primarily hardwoods, with a few soft hardwoods like quaking aspen. Due to the elevation, we're at a bit of a transition place with deciduous and coniferous trees, so in most of the land there's a hefty blend, somewhat separated with stands of deciduous or coniferous. Unfortunately, the road to the east of the house has a problem with invasive knotweeds, so it's in the understory of some of the forest down there.

I started off in the forested wetland down below, and found a bunch of interesting animal sign--lots of porcupine leavings from pine cones, deer and moose tracks, and some bear sign as well. I saw and heard a Chestnut Warbler in the quaking aspens in a bottom corner of the field, and got used to the Ovenbird very quickly. Because of how close the stands of deciduous and coniferous are, I didn't ever notice that I found some birds in one location over the other, regardless of their preference. I heard the majority of the warblers down here, but I'd think that was more due to time of day than anything else. I was also going primarily off of sound, as the trees are easily pushing 50 feet and the leaves have all filled out beautifully.
I saw the mother moose who's been hanging around, and promptly cleared out to make sure I didn't get between her and her calf--I value my life.

From there, I went up to the pond and checked out Salamander Creek (family name, definitely not a real place), where the Red-spotted Newts tend to congregate. It's a very small creek, feeding out from the pond down through the wetland. I also came across a vernal pool and it had all but dried out--I'll be sure to check it after our big rain today.

Then I heard the moose again and decided to cut my losses, moving up to the northern forested area up on the ridge. I heard the Barred Owl, but the hoots were too soft under the Ovenbirds and Red-eyed Vireo, so I couldn't get any audio. I did find what I think is either an owl pellet or from a coyote--it had already been broken up on the side of the road, but it was a collection of gray fur and small bits and bobs. No bones, though, which is why I'm considering coyote on second thought. We also have coyotes in the area, as well as bears, which I see more up on the ridge than anywhere else. The bears tend to love the top--the plantation pines up there have all but collapsed, leaving a few rickety , too-tall ones among an absolute dense mess of striplings, brush, ferns, wild blackberries, and decaying logs. There was a lot of young pines growing in the understory nearby, so the going got a little tougher and I didn't visually see any more birds. The surrounding woods were easy to navigate though, with a pretty open understory--sparse low groundcover plants, but the main struggle here was the spiderwebs. Big shoutout to the spider-stick technique. There were a ton of woodpeckers, none of whom I could see--they were pretty far up in the trees, mainly on the coniferous ones. There were I included some audio I got of the drumming, but I'm not sure as to the ID. I also think I heard a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker--the drumming almost seemed hesitant? And it trailed off at the end. It was faint, so I didn't get a specific soundbite, but it may come through in the background of some other recordings.
From the ridge, I made my way further north, where I was haunted by Red-eyed Vireos. I have some unidentified sounds from that leg of the journey, so I'll pass those along. I was confused on one of them mainly because the first portion of the song sounded like a Blackburnian Warbler, but then it got a little funky. I also heard what I think was a hawk? I relistened to all the common VT ones and couldn't figure out who was yelling though.
From the western part of the ridge, I dropped down onto the road and backtracked toward the house, then headed south into those woods. Big, open, clear understory, with some absolutely massive trees and large downed trees. I found a fun little rambo trap that could be a flooded bear den--a decent sized deep dip in the ground, which is pretty standard for that area, mostly covered with leaflitter at the bottom but there was an exposed section that was dark, still water looking like it continued out--I didn't fall in and find out, but maybe next time.
Then I was super excited to hear a Rose-breasted Grosbeak, but I didn't hear any Scarlet Tanagers--by this time, its around 12, and I finished out the day continuing in that forest headed north. I didn't hear a lot of song at this point, and as I walked back it was just me and the Red-eyed Vireos.

I did encounter a little garter snake (probably eastern?) along the way. We got nice close n personal, so the photos pretty detailed.

Overall, 10000/10. Birding in an area I'm super familiar with was so comfortable, even with dodging the forest mammals, and I could focus in on listening and wandering without worrying about getting lost. Or rather, I loved getting lost and not worrying about it.

Date: 5/27/21
Time: 6:50 am - 1:00 pm
Location: Kent Pond, Killington--including surround snippet of AT and some wetland
Weather: Started out partly sunny when I arrived, minimal wind. Then around 9/10am, the wind kicked up to around 15 mph with gusts of 22 mph. The temp was around 65 deg F when I arrived, dropping when the clouds rolled in and the wind kicked up, down to 62. It was warmer sheltered under the trees.

Habitat / Narrative:
I started out on the pond itself and kayaked the perimeter, recording audio and getting a few pics. The surrounding area is a bit of a mixed bag--there's some micro-sections of cattail marsh along the edges, but that's mainly close to the access point where the pond looks extremely shallow because of the debris.
From there I hit a long stretch of some conifers with deciduous trees further in, and I met a beaver on the windward side. This is around 9am, and the wind picked up for a stretch there, so I hauled across and tried to stay tight to the shore. I avoided the long stretch of road that people fish off of, and lingered in the corners where there were some reeds. Then I started going along to the access point, and that's where I met the common grackle. Unfortunately the wind was too high to record anything--not that anyone was trying to sing. There were some larger conifers on this side, and a few softwoods, but further in it gets more deciduous and mature.
I detoured and spent a few minutes trying to see the Common Loon from afar (there's a tiny island close to the access point that's buoyed off to protect the nest site), but I only caught a blurry, blurry glimpse. The wind was really moving at that point, and the waves made it pretty difficult to hold the binoculars and keep the paddle in the boat. A Bank Swallow swooped overhead, but it was far too quick to get any media for.
Once I'd gotten out of the water, I transitioned to followed the AT along the shore heading east and then further in to a forest. The forest was first mostly a dense layer of understory to get through before it cleared out to more mature conifers with a pretty wet ground, transitioning to deciduous with a few conifer stands before long. That's when a Pileated Woodpecker swooped down and landed on a close tree--I knew they were big in theory, but it was super cool to see it in person and so close up. That was around 10, and for the next hour the trail was actually pretty busy--loads of hikers, probably enjoying the summer day that won't fry them. I heard a Baltimore Oriole, but the wind cooked that audio. In addition with the wind, it was difficult to get any media so I made the decision to backtrack and follow a dirt road and see what I could see. I saw the Eastern Kingbird in a tree in someone's yard, and I think one of the audio clips is from along that road (I had to scrap a few because of cars going by). Then I found what I thought would be some nice shrubland, but it turned out to be a very dense marsh. Tall shrubbery reached around 10 feet up, with some smaller brush at the water level--there was lots of standing water.

Continuing on, this is when mistakes were made. I found a 'trail' that seemed to cut through a separate boggy marsh on the other side--lots of those scraggly wetland conifers, brush and shrubs above my head but with a denser understory and no visible standing water. The trail was marked out with a MacGyver boardwalk of pallets, and looked like it would lead into a nice mature stand of hardwoods. Unfortunately, the pallets ran out quickly and I managed to get to the edge and solid ground, heard some wetland birds I'm fairly certain was a Flycatcher--Alder or Willow, because of that rapid throaty wolf-whistle. And then something I'm not confident on but I think was a Marsh Wren. I also may have heard a Belted Kingfisher, but I'm not sure if it was wishful thinking/the wind, and it might be in that friends/birds observation instead.

Then my phone died, and I made my way through the hardwoods--I saw some kind of brown-backed Thrush, but it flew too high too quick so I wasn't able to ID it with my binos and the sun. The breast was mostly light with some dark spots, and a light/white belly. I was thinking Hermit Thrush, but I honestly didn't get a good enough look to see how far down the spotting went or if it was just some dappling from the shadows on the leaves. That was between noon and 1.

Date: 5/28/21
Time: 6:10 - 12:00 (brief break around 11)
Location: Stockbridge, VT
Weather: Started out a cool 37 degrees, and by noontime it had warmed up to a remarkable 45. It was overcast the entire day, with a pretty thick cloud cover in the morning. The birds and I were chilly, but it was cool to see everyone all fluffed up to stay warm. The wind was mild, and since I was down below a ridge on the leeward side, it was mostly okay--since we're close to the top of our little hill, the wind does come along the road a bit. It was going anywhere from 5-8 mph N. Mostly picked up towards the end of the morning.

Habitat/Narrative:
Remember that wetland I had to leave early because of a moose? Yup, I thought I would be good further out (spoiler - the moose did not stay in that wetland). I went exploring in a field a little further east to that along the road--someone had purchased the land and paid to clear it a good few years ago but then realized how rural it is here and abandoned ship, so it makes a great mini-scrubland. There were some aspens, birch, small deciduous trees springing up around shoulder height, and the rest of the brush was scrubby and maybe hip to waist height. There's some brambles, ferns, grasses, and mosses, among some scattered branches and some sections of wood that was chopped and left--not logs, but thick branches and the like. The edges were wooded, with some really tall conifers and deciduous trees -- the mature trees in this area probably push 80-100 feet, and birds love to perch right up there
Here's where I heard the bulk of birds today, and I even got to see a couple. A Yellow-bellied Sapsucker flew down in a tree right close to me, which was super cool because I hadn't ever seen one before, only heard it. I had to look it up because I was skimming through my field notes trying to find a woodpecker with a red throat with no success. I also saw that big flock of Red Crossbills there, which now that I know it was them makes a lot more sense--there's that bill, sure, but from the distance it's easier to see that rustier tone, like a dusty orangey red rather than the pinky red from the Pine Grosbeak (I'll find one someday).

I hung out in this field for a few hours, maybe until 10, and then cut my losses--one of the town guys was laying down gravel along the road, so the big truck was not conducive to a peaceful ornitherapy journey or to good clear audio. The wind started picking up a little too, so I moved across the road heading north, and meandered through some mature coniferous-dominated woods, but there were still some brave deciduous hardwoods going strong in the mix. The understory was a little crowded at the edges like always. Once I got a little further in, there was a bunch of trillium so that was cool.
Then I turned west to get to the wooded swamp, so I wouldn't hit one of my neighbor's property (they live out there part time). I thought I heard a Belted Kingfisher (no recording=frowny face), but there isn't any standing water for fish--it's more of a swampy, mucky, lots of wet leaf cover and mosses dominating with ferns springing up. There is a river and some creeks with fish within a km, so it's possible but honestly pretty unlikely because I don't know of any nesting sites in the area that wouldn't get pretty damp down in this section.
There weren't a ton of birds there in the swamp at that time, probably because sound carries pretty well over here and the truck was still chugging along doing his gravel spreading (I did get a few recordings--I think I managed to snip it so the truck sounds aren't in there).
That's when I found moose track in the muck and some porcupine sign. I skedaddled. It was an adult moose track, and there were smaller tracks nearby. I couldn't tell how fresh it was because of how cold and damp it was in there ( the track prob wouldn't dry out regardless of time), so I chose life and pittered home to grab a raincoat and more water. By that time, it was around 11.

I went back out to follow that same road past where I had gone before and it turned south for a stretch. I turned off and went into an old logging field. It was mostly low grass and groundcover, but the borders were all scrubby before it hit the trees, so the treeline seems gradual. At the edges the terrain was less even, more brambly with some more old branches from its logging days, and there was an ATV trail that went off in the woods, sort of following the road back where I had just walked. I spent the rest of the hour there, at the scrubby border and a little into the ATV trail.
I heard some really interesting complex song, and I'm not sure who it was! I'll email it along to you and post it to iNat, but it just kept going--that bird was not a quitter.
I might be though, because at 12 I turned tail to get home and feel my fingers again. Tomato soup in a mug = perfect end to a calm morning of ornitherapy.