For the Birds

Many people may consider August to be a boring time for birds in Vermont, but sometimes now is the time when you see common birds do uncommon things. Chip talks about a flock of over 100 Common Grackle that came by his house last week, an unusual group size in the woods despite being a common bird.

With the recent tropical storm that blew threw Vermont, that can mean that some birds can blow in that otherwise wouldn't normally live here. That's exactly what happened this week, where someone spotted a Storm-Petrel, most likely a Wilson's Storm-Petrel, on Lake Memphremagog. This coastal bird usually spotted off the coast of Maine at this time of year.

Anson and Chip talk about the recent report by Audubon Vermont on how the nesting season went for Peregrine Falcons. This crow sized falcon nests earlier in the year than a lot of other birds and likes sharp cliff faces.

Chip and Anson discuss one of Anson's favorite July birds, the Black-billed Cuckoo. They can be hard to spot because they like to hide in dense vegetation, but you can hear them due to their unique call.

Anson and Chip talk about a bird they've been hearing a lot lately: the Indigo Bunting. These birds have a quite loud and high-pitched song. "Indigo Buntings are small (roughly sparrow-sized), stocky birds with short tails and short, thick, conical bills. In flight, the birds appear plump with short, rounded tails" according to the Cornell Lab. While the males have a that vibrant dark blue color, the females are brown, making them a lot harder to spot.

The hot weather is when you'll almost always hear one bird, the Red-eyed Vireo. A bird you might not often see, you'll often hear it. From the Cornell Lab: "A tireless songster, the Red-eyed Vireo is one of the most common summer residents of Eastern forests. These neat, olive-green and white songbirds have a crisp head pattern of gray, black, and white. Their brief but incessant songs—sometimes more than 20,000 per day by a single male—contribute to the characteristic sound of an Eastern forest in summer. When fall arrives, they head for the Amazon basin, fueled by a summer of plucking caterpillars from leaves in the treetops."

Chip and Anson talk about a rare sighting of a Yellow-Headed Blackbird in Rutland City. They also talk about their favorite red, white, and blue birds for Independence Day.

Anson and Chip talk about a sighting of a Red-Headed Woodpecker in Essex. From the Cornell Lab: "Red-headed Woodpeckers are medium-sized woodpeckers with fairly large, rounded heads, short, stiff tails, and powerful, spike-like bills." They used to be more common in parts of Vermont but these days they live mostly in the Midwest and South.

Chip talks about a rare sighting of a Western Kingbird in East Montpelier. While we have Eastern Kingbird's around here, Western Kingbirds are far more rare in Vermont. According to The Cornell Lab, "Western Kingbirds are fairly large flycatchers with large heads and broad shoulders. They have heavy, straight bills, long wings, and a medium-length, square-tipped tail."

Chip talks about the first week of North Branch Nature Center's bird banding program and how they do that while maintaining social distancing.