Home Sweet Home

Due to class cancellation today I made a quick trip home to Hartland Vermont. It was here that I had the luxury of sitting outside on the forest edge, right where it opens up to our field. Pervious observations have shown that to be a high bird population due to the multiple lilac bushes and the tall maple trees. Today sitting out here around 12 it got a bit warmer and the activity levels spiked a bit. There were many birds the most abundant being the chickadees and the american goldfinches. There was a flock of 8 or so chickadees all in the lilac bush. The chickadees were fluttering about, nothing really exciting was going on with them they seemed rather content in their environment. The one thing that interested me was how easily these chickadees shared the lilac bush with the goldfinches. There were probably 10 goldfinches also occupying the same lilac bush. Some of the goldfinches were extremely vibrant in color whereas others were more of a dull mustard yellow.
Occupying another bush were a cluster of house finches. It was in this bush that there was a little bit more confrontation happening. There were many squalls between house finches during which one would also succumb and move to alternative location in the bush. On the nearby power line there was a row of European Starlings simply creating a loud environment with there unique mimicry calls. Over head I heard the familiar rapping of a woodpecker on a tree. I walked a bit to position myself in a better location at which point I could easily identify the woodpecker as a downy due to its smaller stature and red patch on the back of its head.
I heard the familiar call of a nuthatch; however, I still have a hard time identify the difference between red-breasted and white-breasted calls. About 10 minutes after hearing the nuthatches I saw one land on the ground near the base of a tree. It was during this time that I could identify it as a white-breasted nuthatch. The last bird that I saw during my visit outside was the dark-eyed junco. One of my favorite birds due to their appearance. They always look as though they have no neck. There were about 4 dark-eyed juncos hoping on the ground in the field alongside the woods.
All in all it was a good day to see some of Vermont's typical winter residents still out and about with the warming weather.

Posted on April 8, 2016 08:25 PM by mdpalmer