Catching Up

Quite a number of fun natural history highlights have come and gone since my last blog post. Each of the following events of the past month could certainly have been it's own long blog post, but a quick review will have to do. Anyhow, here's a synopsis:

October 2 & 3 - FungiBlitz!
Over 150 people, 16 workshops & forays, and over 117 species of fungi and lichens made our first FungiBlitz a great success! Planned and executed with great help and leadership from others in NBNC, the North Branch Mushroom Club, and volunteers. I only got to go to one workshop, but it was great! Kay taught me tons about lichens!



October 4 - Woolybears!
A sure sign that fall is here. A couple present at NBNC



October 17 - Western Conifer Seed Bug!
Yet another sign of the coming winter... this guy was near a building in South Burlington... I guess it hadn't found its way in yet!



October 21-23 - NEEEA Conference!
After 18 months of planning with a great group of people, we pulled off a great annual New England Environmental Education Alliance conference in Lake Morey, VT. 250+ people, over 40 workshops & field trips, 3 keynotes (Bill McKibben, Peter Forbes, & Dana Hudson). Plus, some great birds including Black and Surf Scoter, Common Loon, Merlin, and others.



November 6 - Champlain Valley Birding
You can never go wrong birding in the Champlain Valley. Started out with the Audubon Group and had over 20 Coot, Pied-billed Grebe and others. The quality birding continued after with Bonaparte's Gulls, Pine Siskin, and a Mockingbird!



November 13 - Long-tailed Duck at Berlin Pond!
I had never seen one of these away from the coast, even though they're not an unusual fall migrant. Got great looks as it approached within 30 feet!

Weekend of Ducks

My goal this weekend was to see ducks, and I certainly saw some ducks! I started Saturday morning at a Green Mountain Audubon Society walk at the Intervale, seeing lots of familiar faces and some good birds including a male Rusty Blackbird and a very cooperative Golden-crowned Kinglet. No ducks here, but a great start to the day.



After everyone had dispersed from the Intervale, Alison Wagner and I headed towards Milton. My top spot for the day was Sandbar WMA, a duck magnet. Plentiful amounts of Mallard, American Black Duck, Ring-necked Duck, Common Merganser, and Green-winged Teal were scattered throughout the marshy areas alongside the busy road. We also managed to pick out Hooded Merganser, Common Goldeneye, Gadwall, some Wood Ducks and a Northern Shoveler from amongst the masses. Where else can you find 10 species of duck on a 1/4 mile stretch of road than here?



From there, we stopped at many spots along the lake, eventually making our way towards Dead Creek. Lots more first-of-year sightings, including a Fox Sparrow and Bufflehead in Ferrisburg, a Kestrel in Milton, Snow Geese and Great Blue Heron at Dead Creek. We ended the day at McCuen Slang, where a feeding frenzy amongst 100's of Common Mergansers and countless onlooking gulls commenced offshore. We ended the day with 43 bird species and 1 reptile (our 1st Gartersnake of the year!) Not a bad way to spend the first day of spring!



On Sunday, I came back to Sandbar WMA again to see if any other ducks had escaped my detection. Sure enough, in an isolated beaver pond at the edge of reach, a pair of American Wigeon (male pictured below) sat with the whole big pond to themselves. A dozen duck species for the weekend, so I'd say mission accomplished!