Marsh Wren

The feisty little Marsh Wren is more often heard than seen. Its gurgling, rattling song can be heard throughout the day and night in its marsh habitat with abundant grasses and/or reeds.

The Marsh Wren is a little bigger and more patterned than the more familiar House Wren. It has a distinctive whitish eyeline that accents its dark cap. On its upper back are black and white streaks. The wings and tail are a dark chestnut brown.

As with most wren species, the male builds many unlined dummy nests woven of wet cattails or grasses lashed to standing vegetation 1-3 feet above the ground or water . The female will finish the nest with fine material. The nest is an oblong structure with a short side tunnel entrance. The brooding cavity is small compared to the entire structure.

Look for a larger wetland habitat with lots of reeds and grasses for cover, and you are very likely to hear the Marsh Wren. Other common marsh birds are Red-winged Blackbirds, Common Grackles and Swamp Sparrows.

Grosbeaks - Evening & Rose-breasted

Look at a Grosbeak and you will see it is aptly named - their beaks are huge! The bold black and white male Rose-breasted Grosbeak sports a distinctive red 'V' on its breast. Its song is robust and loud sounding, somewhat like a robin. It is a true migrant in VT showing up around the first week in May from its wintering ground in Central and northern South America. The female is entirely different, looking like a large brown, speckled breasted sparrow with a bold white line over the eye - but the tell tale huge beak.

Evening Grosbeaks are year round residents in VT. This large yellow bird has black wings with large white spots visible in flight. The female is a duller version of its partner. The massive pale bill puts it squarely in the grosbeak family. Large groups of Evening Grosbeaks were often seen at winter feeders, but in recent years there have been few reports. When they are around, they announce themselves with their conversational, raspy chirps. Look for both these grosbeaks in VT at feeders in the spring. Count yourself lucky if you see the Evening Grosbeak in any season.

Crow or Raven?

Most everyone can identify a crow, but how do you distinguish a crow from a raven? And which bird is the one more likely to be seen in VT?

While a raven is larger than a crow at 25" with a 4' wing span vs 18" with a 3' wing span, this size difference is sometimes unreliable unless the two birds are seen together. Both birds are black. The best field mark is the tail. The raven's tail is wedge shaped; the crow's tail is more rounded.

Voice and habits are another clue. Crows produce a repetitive cawing sound, are very tolerant of people and often travel in large groups scavenging in agriculture areas, roadsides and populated areas. The raven is a more solitary hunter calling with single raspy croaks. They can live as long as 30 years vs 8 years average for a crow. Crows are much more widespread across the entire United States; raven's are northern and western birds, rarely seen in the central and south states. Thus, the American Crow is ubiquitous in VT while the Common Raven is not so common. They are, however, among the smartest of all birds, capable of solving complex problems.

Ivory Gull

Photo courtesy of Merv Elliot

One can only speculate why this adult bird has strayed this far south. Since the 1980s the population of the Ivory Gull has plunged to an estimated 800 individuals. Climate change and manmade contaminants are suspects in this decline. Perhaps the bird's appearance in Vermont is another sign that this species is in trouble. Nonetheless, the Lake Champlain visitor is well fed by attendant ice fishermen and has been giving area bird watchers a lift into the excitement of the spring migration to come.

A location map and more pictures of the visiting Ivory Gull can be found here.

Great Backyard Bird Count - Feb 12-15

It's that time again! The Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC) is scheduled for Friday, February 12 though Monday, February 15, 2010. Last year more than 93,600 checklists were submitted online, creating the continent's largest instantaneous snapshot of bird populations ever recorded. The event also helps pinpoint how much bird populations are always in flux. For example, the 2009, GBBC data highlighted a huge southern invasion of Pine Siskins across much of the East. Participants counted 279,469 Pine Siskins on 18,528 checklists, as compared with the previous high of 38,977 birds on 4,069 checklists in 2005. Failure of seed crops to the north had caused the birds to move south to search for food.

Anyone can take part in the Great Backyard Bird Count from novice feeder watchers to experts surveying a specific 'hot spot' for birds. Participants count birds for as little as 15 minutes or more on one or more days of the event. For complete information, identification tips, educational materials, maps, historical data and to report sightings online, go to www.birdcount.org . Also refer to the Bird Notes 2009 archives for February. And the second most abundant bird counted in 2009 was the Mourning Dove.

Statistics from 2009:
Total Checklists Submitted: 94,165
Total Species Observed: 620
Total Individual Birds Counted: 11,558,638

For those interested in historical Top Ten Lists for the Christmas Bird Counts go to http://gbbc.birdsource.org.

Bobolink No. 0961-10071

During the course of her studies on the Bobolink throughout the western hemisphere, Dr. Rosalind Renfrew of the Vermont Center for Ecostudies has captured and recruited 433 of these charismatic songbirds as research subjects. On the right leg of each she places a tiny aluminum bracelet bearing a unique number, a bit like an avian Social Security number. Bobolink No. 0961-10071 got his bracelet while Renfrew was working in a rice field in San Juan, Bolivia, on January 30, 2006. Then he was gone.

"The odds that any of these Bobolinks would be found anywhere, dead or alive, were essentially zero," says Renfrew. "They could be flying in a range that extends thousands of square miles."

But just this past spring, three and a half years after she had banded him, Bobolink No. 0961-10071 turned up—in Vermont! The bird was rediscovered at least 4,300 miles from where he was banded in Bolivia and had flown at least 35,000 miles in migration between South America and North America since he was banded. But the most shocking fact about this story is that Bobolink No. 0961-10071 was found in Chelsea, Vermont, only 12 miles from Renfrew's home.

"I'm still shaking my head in disbelief," says Renfrew. "To catch a songbird on its wintering grounds in South America and have it turn up essentially at my door thousands of miles away, well, it's practically impossible."

Renfrew is now equipping some Bobolinks with geolocators - tiny "bird backpack" devices that actually track a wandering Bobolink's whereabouts throughout the year. To read the full story about this Bobolink visit the Vermont Center for Ecostudies.