George Clark, Peg Ackerson, and Blake Allison led a Mascoma Audubon bird walk at the Union Village Dam/Mystery Trail area in Thetford, Vermont, Friday. This is a beautiful area with diverse habitat. I mostly listened to the birds and took relatively few photos.
In the area near the pond a House Wren sang almost continuously.
I saw a Pine Warbler gathering nest material from milkweed pods but wasn’t able to get a photo. I did get this one of it with more nest material.
As we were walking back to our cars, an Eastern Towhee was spotted down by the river.
On Saturday, David Merker and Gail McPeek led a bird walk sponsored by the Hanover Conservancy on the Trescott Water Company Land in Hanover. They were ably assisted by Len Reitsma, so there was no lack of expertise in identifying the bird songs. Again I took few photos mostly just enjoying the area, hearing the birds sing, and the company.
I did get a photo of an Eastern Phoebe with something in it beak that I cannot identify.
This was a small but serious group of birders. Here they are scanning the Parker Reservoir…
…as a pair of Buffleheads crossed the water.
Inspired by Len I paid a quick trip to Bear Pond Saturday afternoon. I hoped to photograph a Northern Waterthrush, but no luck. However, I did find a cooperative Black-and-White Warbler. It was pretending it was a flycatcher over the Mascoma River near the entrance to the area.
I left Bear Pond and found … a Black Bear. It was about 1/10 of a mile above Downtown Metropolitan Etna.
