Birds abound on MLT holdings

#Middlebury

A great blue heron snags a tasty fish at Fenn’s Pond. MLT properties offer great bird-watching opportunities. (Curtiss Clark photo)

By JANINE SULLIVAN-WILEY

This column has considered large and small wildlife and even ticks but hasn’t yet considered birds. It’s time to change that! I’m not a great expert on birds, but I can identify the usual backyard feeder frequenters such as several kinds of woodpeckers, chickadees, nuthatches, mourning doves and wrens. There are sparrows (although I cannot tell them apart), house and purple finches, hummingbirds, cardinals and blue jays. I have learned to tell the red-tailed from the red-shouldered hawk by their calls.

But when I wanted to know which birds make their homes on several of our Middlebury Land Trust (MLT) properties, it was time to call in a really good birder – my daughter, Kira. She tells us the only way to identify specific species of birds is to note the small details. (That black bar above the eye? That small red patch under the tail? Really important.)

Kira originally got into birding because of a field component of an undergraduate class that involved bird identification. She said, “I tried around campus basically expecting to get just all the backyard birds that I knew, but within a few weeks I had discovered cedar waxwings, a short-eared owl, a Cooper’s hawk and an American kestrel within a mile of my dorm, and I realized I just hadn’t been looking right before. Also, a great pair of binoculars opens up a world of possibility. It’s kind of addictive. You begin to notice the little differences and feel compelled to look at every bird you see or hear, because you’ve been surprised before and maybe this one is one you’ve never seen.”

Here’s what Kira helped me find on MLT properties. We started with meadow habitat at Bronson Meadow, which is easy to find because it’s on Whittemore Road next to Pies and Pints. Early evening found my husband and I on the restaurant patio, dinner on the table and our daughter beside us with binoculars to her eyes. In just 30 minutes we added red-winged blackbird, song sparrow, chimney swift, catbird, goldfinch and American crow to our list.

Next day, Sperry Pond (off Straits Turnpike) was our early morning wetlands destination. That pond is surrounded on several sides by marsh that blends into woodland. Our bird list grew as Kira pointed out lots of breeding pairs of red-winged blackbirds, plus blue-winged teal, Eastern kingbirds, wood ducks, a vireo, a big hawk (too indistinct to identify), as well as grackles and robins.

Our last destination was Lake Elise. Here the list grew longer with the addition of the Northern waterthrush, great Northern flycatcher, two unidentified warblers, and a possible bluebird or black-throated blue warbler.

As Kira discovered, many surprises await bird watchers. If you want to give bird watching a try, perhaps you could borrow a pair of binoculars at first. Start in your own backyard, or visit any of the public MLT properties. Have a walk around, see what you can see and listen to the birds that are there but cloaked in the thickets and trees. It’s a lovely way to spend a few hours with our beautiful natural world.

The MLT would love to know what birds you’ve seen and when and where you saw them. Please email that information to me at jswspotlight@gmail.com. Happy birding!