VCE Birdathon 2017: Every Bird Counts
On May 25, 2017, the VCE’s birding team, the Green Mountain Goatsuckers, will migrate to the southern Maine coast for our 24-hour birdathon blitz. Your support helps create a better future for biodiversity.
April 2017 iNaturalist Vermont Photo-Observation of the Month
Congratulations to Zac Cota for winning the April 2017 iNaturalist Vermont photo-observation of the month contest. His images of a North American River Otter frollocking and feeding on fish was the most popular photo-observation.
A Field Guide to May 2017
The month of May is a show-off. Woodland wildflowers jump out of the ground and demand attention. Trees flower and leaves burst from long-dormant buds. Birds arrive on southern night winds and liven the dawn with a chorus of song. May shouts of life and rejuvenation.
Help Us Discover Whip-poor-wills
Looking for something fun to do this spring and summer? Why not try night birding! Do you have an hour or so to spare for Eastern Whip-poor-wills in May or June? For years, some of our courageous volunteers have surveyed Whip-poor-will routes across Vermont on moonlit nights, but we need a few more adventuresome volunteers.
Help Us Look for Loons
You can help us help loons this year. And one way is to help us assess the breeding status of loons on some lakes and ponds this spring that are not often visited by volunteers. Learn more…
Grassland Birds Bring Home the Data
One year ago, some grassland birds became aerial backpackers. Their tiny backpacks acquired and logged GPS locations that have tracked their movements during the past year. Now, the birds have returned to their breeding grounds where it all started and the location data from the entire year were beamed up to Argos satellites and delivered to our laptops at VCE.
Bird-watching Opportunities Abound on Vermont’s Wildlife Management Areas
With spring finally here, bird watchers are dusting off their binoculars and heading out looking for birds as they migrate into Vermont from points south. And some of the Vermont’s best bird-watching opportunities are on the state’s 90 wildlife management areas, or WMAs.
Saving a Rare Songbird – Hemispheric Conservation Action Plan for Bicknell’s Thrush Updated
The revised Conservation Action Plan for Bicknell’s Thrush provides the updated consensus of the International Bicknell’s Thrush Conservation Group (IBTCG), an alliance of scientists, conservationists, and governments, about the primary threats facing Bicknell’s Thrush and the actions that may help mitigate those threats across the hemisphere.
Monitoring Spring Phenology on Mount Mansfield
With deep snowpack on Mt. Mansfield remaining, yesterday we installed equipment that will monitor bird activity and the arrival of spring in the fir forest on the Mt. Mansfield ridgeline. Learn more about our phenology study…
Outdoor Radio: The American Woodcock
The arrival of the American Woodcock is one of the exciting signs of spring in Vermont. Biologist Kent McFarland joined “The Mad Birders” on their annual Woodcock Walk in Moretown. Listen to the show.
VCE Launches Damselfly and Dragonfly Atlas
The Vermont Center for Ecostudies (VCE) today launched an online atlas of damselflies and dragonflies, allowing anyone to report, track, study, discover or simply enjoy the charismatic insects.
VCE’s Cuba Expedition a Resounding Success
VCE’s inaugural field trip to Cuba may not have yielded many Bicknell’s Thrush (2, to be exact), but it laid a strong foundation for our future work on this captivating island. We forged a promising partnership with our sister institute BIOECO, made many great friends, learned the ropes of conducting field there, and, yes, managed to see half of Cuba’s 26 endemics.
