Diario de lizamorse

Today I spent most of the day on the board walk/bike path between Delta Park and the footbridge crossing the Winooski.

I spent the majority of the time exploring the floodplain habitat in the Winooski river delta between the Winooski River and the shores of Lake Champlain. Notable water/wetland bird species included Wood Ducks, Great Egret, Great Blue Heron, and Common Mergansers. Challenges were identifying certain warbler vocalizations and distinguishing between Baltimore Oriole and Rose-breasted Grosbeak vocalizations.

You can find my complete checklists for the morning here:
https://ebird.org/vt/checklist/S69260146
https://ebird.org/vt/checklist/S69264831

I also stopped off at the old I-89 extension on my way home. I've discovered it is a good warbler location with young forest/shrubland habitat. This was my checklist from that location:

https://ebird.org/vt/checklist/S69271302

I spent the morning from a little before 7 am to a little after 10:30 am at Geprags Park. On the drive there from South Burlington, I saw a Red-Tailed Hawk perched in a snag overlooking a complex of fields. I pulled over to try to get a picture and when I got out it flew away, but then I heard male Bobolinks. I tracked them down and saw males chasing a female.

Then I made my way to Geprags Park where I birded for awhile but then needed to return home to get work done. I started off in the shrubland habitat area, followed a trail up into the woods, and then came back down through shrubland and ended in the fields where I got a female bluebird and some sort of butterfly -- a swallowtail of some kind, I believe. A friend joined me for about an hour and highlights included seeing Blue-winged Warblers collecting nesting material, and IDing the songs of two Yellow-throated Vireos -- a life bird for me. We had trouble deciding Yellow-throated from Scarlet Tanager song but after much consulting my recordings (using headphones of course!), we felt confident it was Yellow-throated Vireo and not Scarlet Tanager. Later that was reinforced by hearing and SEEING Scarlet Tanager males singing which was amazing as well.

I documented most of my trip on eBird and then spent the remainder of the time in the field focusing on getting recordings and video.

My eBird checklist for the day can be found here:
https://ebird.org/vt/checklist/S69308895

I spent the morning at the Hinesburg Town Forest. The minute I stepped out of the car there was a lot going on. The Hinesburg Town Forest is part of a large forest block with some active patch cuts, as well as a 10 or 20 year old blow down of an old pine plantation that has resulted in about 40 acres of prime shrubland habitat. I had some amazing finds, like a Canada Warbler which I got to see AND here. I also had a Blackburnian that was bathing in a stream so I got to observe it's markings very close up. One ID challenge was a singing American Redstart that looked like a female, but was singing. Allan later cleared up that this was a juvenile male. Still was having trouble distinguishing Blue-headed from Red-eyed Vireos which is something I need to work on. In addition to the observations submitted here, I kept a checklist for a good chunk of the morning, which can be found at:
https://ebird.org/vt/checklist/S69360915

Started off at Delta Park and then finished my morning at Shelburne Bay fishing access and a short walk along the Ti-Haul trail by the LaPlatte TNC property. I intentionally spent more time out on the shoreline at Delta Park, as well as visiting Shelburne Bay to get more experience with water birds I hadn't seen on day 1. I was rewarded with good views of Herring, Ring-billed, and Greater Black-backed Gulls to get good comparisons between the three. I also got to hear a Marsh Wren in exactly the habitat you would expect -- marshy habitat in a patch of reeds. ID challenges included a possible Chipping Sparrow or Pine Warbler, which Allan helped clear up as a Pine Warbler. Those birds really are so tied to habitat -- the singing bird in question was in a large pine stand! Also got to hear a lot of catbirds along the Ti-Haul trail -- good scrubby habitat there -- but am still having trouble distinguishing them. Plus there was another weird mewing sound I heard that didn't seem like a catbird, but I wasn't sure what it was. Unfortunately, every time I tried to get a recording it would stop for a long period of time.

While not every species uploaded to iNat is in eBird as well, my eBird checklists at Delta Park were:
https://ebird.org/vt/checklist/S69405597
https://ebird.org/vt/checklist/S69407701

My checklist at Shelburne Bay area was:
https://ebird.org/vt/checklist/S69412814

I wasn't feeling great Friday morning so I got a little bit of a later start, but that didn't seem to hurt my species count for the day! Upon arrival at Woodside, I spent a decent amount of time in a wet area with some large old trees that yielded Tennessee Warblers (saw and heard), a Magnolia Warbler which I also saw and heard (though there has been some disagreement on iNaturalist about that ID based on the recording...) and a Swamp Sparrow which I was able to see singing as well.

Got a lot of practice with Baltimore Oriole vs. Rose-breasted Grosbeak song. Also got to see some nest building and an Oriole fly into a nest! The day ended amazingly with an Indigo Bunting by the parking lot!

Herp highlights included Gray Tree Frog and a Snapping Turtle.

ID challenge was the squeeky American Redstart song that almost sounds like a Blackburnian or a Black-and-White Warbler.

Checklists from the day were:
https://ebird.org/vt/checklist/S69449074
https://ebird.org/vt/checklist/S69457375