Skywatch Friday: Spring in Vermont

Seymour Lake, Morgan, Vermont
Noon
Thursday, April 27, 2023

I think I have made it through winter. There have been many misadventures and much bad weather. My car lost its brakes twice, I had to be pulled out of a ditch that I went into when pulling off the road during a whiteout. The new furnace is wonderful but the times we live in require $1,000 fuel deliveries. I don't know how I got through it all. But I am optimistic: there probably won't be anymore snow. I am even going to try scheduling my summer tires very soon (the first of May is traditionally when we all switch off our winter tires). 

There have been very few signs of spring at my house. There are unidentified small birds flitting about. Lucy says she has heard owls hooting in the woods. I have heard what I call the summer song of the chickadees and seen crows moving back to the woods from the village, where they like to overwinter. My apple orchard still has not bloomed, but it's probably still too early. The pussywillows, below, finally appeared April 18. Jody has photographed a queen bumble searching for a nesting place. I have started going back to church in person, and Jody and I even went to a restaurant for breakfast like the pre-COVID days. We ate outside. But we were out.

Pussywillow in full bloom on April 18.

Today at Seymour Lake in Morgan, I saw the season's first loons! A pair of them. From the top photo of the lake you can see how dark it was at noon when I saw them. So my photos are simply awful but they do document that I saw the birds. They are devilishly hard birds to photograph because they dive so deep and swim so far underwater. 

I'm tired of reading, bread making, movies and TV. I need life! This is the first day that I have had anything worthwhile to post since February vacation (back when I wasn't tired of making bread). I hope all of you are enjoying a spring full of life, bird song, and insect buzzes.

Skywatch Friday

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A Drive on Wheeler Mountain Road

Trail sign near Wheeler Pond
Click on any photo to view it full size in new window.

 In June, I took John down Wheeler Mountain Road from Barton to Westmore. There is a lot to see there and there are a lot of trails that begin there. The week following this drive, John began a three week job in Connecticut followed by a week job in New Hampshire, so this was our quiet alone time before he left. He's back now and we are ready to explore the trails that you see on this sign.

The Green Mountain Club access road is blocked.

But nobody is allowed on the road.

A tattered Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly  (Papilio glaucus)

A beaver lodge across Wheeler Pond

An unidentified dragonfly

A solitary loon was on the pond

A green sunfish (Lepomis cyanellus) was guarding her nest near shore.

Moose Mountain reflected in Wheeler Pond

Wheeler Pond with Moose Mountain

White admiral butterfly  (Limenitis arthemis arthemis)

A hidden,  secretive bog

A water strider in a drying brook (order Hemiptera)

And at the other end of the road: Wheeler Mountain

      Our Wheeler Mountain Road Trip

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Shaking Dry

shaking dry, originally uploaded by paul+photos=moody.

This is, I think, the third photo of paul+photos=moody that I have blogged. Paul is also a Vermonter. I found his loon photos immediately after I posted my own. There seem to be a lot of loon photos on Flickr suddenly. But click here to see Paul's. His shots of baby loons are wonderful.

I urge you to go look because they are clear, close up, and amazing.

Technorati tags: loon Gavia+immer paul+moody=photos

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Loons (Gavia immer)

Click on all the photos to view them large in a new window.

On our second loon expedition on Saturday morning, we found a family of five: three adults and two babies. They live on Long Pond in Westmore, Vermont. This is the first time I have ever seen a loon. I have heard many of their distinctive calls. Loons live three miles from me on May Pond but the access is poor. Long Pond is perhaps six to ten miles from me with access to two sides of the pond for viewing.

When the babies are very small, the parents will carry them on their backs. That is why the loon population is so fragile. Motor boats are an especial danger to them and the state will prohibit access to loon nesting sites. The island these loons nested on can no longer be reached because they live there.

Loons can barely walk on land because of the placement of their legs on their bodies. It helps them swim very well, but not to walk. They are extremely vulnerable on land.

These photos were taken with full digital zoom. They are not as good as I had hoped. But they are my first! I'll get better. You can see all twenty-two of my loon photos in my Flickr: Loons set.

As if it couldn't get any better, we also saw two peregrine falcons (Falco peregrinus) hunt and attack a bird fly with a young falcon in the sky on the north end of the pond. The sequence of the attack wasThey were flying so quickly that my camera had no time to focus. We saw two endangered and protected species in one day. Can it get any better?

Technorati tags: loons Gavia+immer peregrine+falcons Falco+peregrinus Long+Pond Westmore Vermont

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