An early morning trip across Vermont brought me to the West Rutland Marsh and the power lines that rise above Pleasant Street. I saw a number of species of birds, but I wasn’t counting. My goal was to capture photos of warblers that nest along the power lines. Early on I got some quick shots of a Prairie Warbler and a Brewster’s Warbler, the latter a hybrid of a Blue-winged and Golden-winged Warbler. A bit later I observed and photographed a Brewster’s and Blue-winged chasing each other around in a single tree for a wonderfully long time. Eventually a pair of Prairie Warblers flew in and spoiled the party. So I photographed them.

This blog contains 5 short slide shows. The first three shows, in order, are Brewster’s, Blue-winged, and Prairie Warbler photos from the morning along the power lines.

While photographing the warbler show I was aware of a pair of Eastern Towhees feeding nearby. So I had to spend some time with these beautiful birds also. Here is a short collection of images of the pair.

I finished the morning with what I thought would be a quick stop at the marsh. Parking along Water Street I heard a Virginia Rail very close by. I set up my tripod with two legs on the road and one in the grass at the edge of the marsh and was surprised to see a Virgina Rail heading toward me. It fed, coming closer and closer and nearly bumped my tripod leg. It seemed completely oblivious to me. I had to keep backing up in order to get photos. We spend quite a long time together. Here are some photos.