Wednesday, June 22, 2016: Vermont

 After driving through two hours of hard rain we hiked the Robert Frost Trail in north central Vermont in the Green Mountain National Forest.  This handsome Savannah Sparrow was very photogenic.

  

The yellow loves are always a helpful field mark.

And when crossing a bridge over the river, Mama Common Merganser and her babies shot upstream like bullets from a gun.

Still in Vermont, we then drove to the Dead Creek Wildlife Management Area where we were treated to a male Northern Harrier, a Merlin, an American Kestrel, a Red-tailed Hawk, and to a bird we rarely see, Bobolinks.

Bobolink

 The Bobolink sings its bubbling bob-0-link song in flight.  While the males are a striking black, yellow and white, the female is drab and sparrow-like in coloration.

They are one of the few songbirds that undergo two complete molts each year, completely changing all its feathers on both the breeding grounds in summer as well as on its wintering grounds in the extensive grasslands of southern South America.  As you might imagine, these birds have one of the longest migration routes of Vermont songbirds.

Male American Goldfinch

Iowa's state bird


Handsome whether he's coming

or going!

BirdMobile in Dead Creek WMA

Hard to believe but Lindsay is actually on the "Trail" at Dead Creek