Windsor Cup Winner
Congratulations to Ed Hack for winning the 2013 Windsor Cup for the second year in a row. This is awarded to the birder with the highest number of bird species…
Loon Meets Owl in Eric Hanson’s House
On December 17, I awoke to -25 F here in Craftsbury, VT. The day before a juvenile Common Loon had crash-landed in a field at dusk in Cabot, VT. Lynn…
Kinglets in the Cold
Before you start reading this, grab a nickel out of your piggy bank and hold it in the palm of your hand. Golden-crowned kinglets are the smallest birds to winter…
Grasshopper Sparrow Listed in Eastern Canada
Owing to population declines that have been taking place over the past four decades in eastern Canada, the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) assessed the eastern…
Muskrat Feeding Wins November Photo-Observation Contest
Stick season posed a challenge for photo of the month, but as always iNaturalist Vermont photographers came through. It was a close vote, but a crisp photograph of a Muskrat…
Snowy Owl Invasion: 2011 versus 2013
The last big Snowy Owl invasion was in 2011 (top map), but it was much more widespread than the one underway now (bottom map). Note how it is mostly focused…
December eNews
The December edition of VCE’s eNews features snowy owls arriving, peregrine falcons dying, and vernal pools being conserved. If you’re not already an email subscriber, you can join with a…
VCE Expands Vernal Pool Conservation Work
VCE is bringing its biodiversity mapping skills to the conservation of vernal pools across the Northeast. With a major grant from the North Atlantic Landscape Conservation Cooperative (NALCC), VCE will compile…
Vote for the November Photo-observation of the Month
With October’s foliage extravaganza long over, the brown and gray month of November posed a challenge for photo of the month. As always iNaturalist Vermont photographers came through. They captured…
Bumble Bees in Peril
Unprecedented search by VCE reveals four species either extinct or declining More than one-quarter of Vermont’s bumble bee species, which are vital crop pollinators, have either vanished or are in…
Vermont Atlas of Life Map of the Week: Rusty-patched Bumble Bee (Bombus affinis)
As recently as the 1990s the Rusty-patched Bumble Bee was a relatively common bee in Vermont. They were probably found in every town of Vermont. The Vermont Bumble Bee Survey,…
How Falcons Die
A new VCE study tracks Peregrine Falcons at birth and at death One peregrine falcon, which hatched on a cliff in Salisbury, Vermont, died after eating a European starling that…
