Field Update: Loon Wins and Losses
Every year, some of our returning loons get themselves into “hot water,” so to speak. Eric Hanson, VCE’s loon biologist, gives us his mid-season good news/bad news update here.
Three VCE Biologists Appointed as Adjunct Faculty at UVM
We are pleased to announce that three VCE biologists have been appointed as adjunct faculty in the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources at the University of Vermont.
Mansfield Reflection: A Bird in the Hand Instills a Conservation Ethic
Alex Kulungian’s summerlong VCE internship gained him a wealth of experience and insight, including how vital it is that we expose and inspire our youth to take action on behalf of the natural world. An encounter as simple as releasing a banded bird on Mt. Mansfield can be the trigger for a lifetime commitment to conservation.
Mansfield Wrap: Molt, Migration, and a Crowd-Pleasing Owl
VCE’s final 2018 summer banding session on Mt. Mansfield featured a much-anticipated tiny owl, songbirds in heavy flight feather molt, and thoughts about the impending fall migration that will take Bicknell’s Thrush (and VCE biologists) back to Cuba.
Field Guide to August 2018
We’ve still got plenty of summer here in Vermont and points north. So in this edition of VCE’s monthly field guide to nature, we’ll celebrate a few audacious summer insects. But we’ll also alert you to animals on the move.
Mansfield Update: Hatch-years Predominate
VCE’s penultimate summer banding session featured relatively few birds, some very warm and humid weather, a preponderance of youthful banders, and several family members.
Mansfield Update: the Ridgeline Quiets, Planets Shine
VCE’s mid-July banding session on Mt. Mansfield featured diminished bird song, but a surprise Tennessee Warbler and spectacular planetary viewing.
Mansfield Update: Kids (Avian and Human) Steal the Show
VCE’s sixth banding session of 2018 on the Mt. Mansfield ridgeline featured several free-flying juvenile birds in our nets and some enthusiastically engaged youth in our work .
A Plethora of PUFIs on Mansfield
VCE’s fifth weekly banding session of 2018 on Mt. Mansfield featured a plethora of Purple Finches, a bounty of Bicknell’s Thrushes, and a chance to mentor our three eager bird banding apprentices.
Field Update: Mansfield Yields Avian Surprises
Philadelphia Vireo, Least Flycatcher, juvenile White-winged Crossbill — VCE’s third 2018 field session on Mt. Mansfield produced several notable surprises among our 61 mist net captures. The addition of our Board of Directors provided energy, enthusiasm, and learning for all.
VCE Launches Field Season #27 on Mt. Mansfield
VCE’s inaugural 2018 field visit to Mt. Mansfield on May 30-31 yielded good weather, some surprise mist net captures, and an enthusiastic group of visitors, who were treated to a very obliging Bicknell’s Thrush in the hand.
A Tale of Two Recoveries
It’s extremely rare that banded birds are recovered or re-sighted outside of the immediate area in which they were banded. Imagine VCE’s surprise and excitement upon learning of two “foreign” band recoveries in 2017.
