<![CDATA[Bob Heitzman -- The 251 Town Birder

<![CDATA[Bob Heitzman -- The 251 Town Birder - 251 Town Blog]]>Wed, 26 Jul 2023 02:52:21 -0700Weebly<![CDATA[Epilogue]]>Sat, 01 May 2021 07:00:00 GMThttp://251townbirder.weebly.com/251-town-blog/epilogueThere was a very nice write-up about the completion of my quest in the News section of the Vermont eBird portal. You can read the article at https://ebird.org/vt/news/vermont-town-birding-challenge]]><![CDATA[Penultimate Road Trip: Brownington & Westmore]]>Sat, 13 Mar 2021 08:00:00 GMThttp://251townbirder.weebly.com/251-town-blog/penultimate-road-trip-brownington-westmoreMarch 9th - 11th brought a string of days with really nice weather, so I committed to making a final push to complete my quest. On the 9th I surveyed the last outlier, Huntington, which is over in the mountains on the west side of the state. Since it's also the home of the Vermont chapter of Audubon, I made that my survey location. Done.

On the 10th, Skylar joined me as we trekked north to Brownington and ten to Westmore. I'd been told that actor Charles Bronson was buried in Brownington, but on the day we visited, the cemetery grounds were covered with knee-deep snow. Sorry Charles. It would've been a nice photo for this blog post, but it was not to be. Instead, we found a nice sunny back road, and hiked it for roughly a half hour. Nice views of low, rolling hills, no noises but the sounds of our boots on the soft earthen road. A small white house with a small barn, named the Chick Inn Hotel. Cute. Nothing much of note... UNTIL THAT TURKEY CALLED OUT FROM JUST OVER MY SHOULDER! A huge white tom turkey was the watchdog for the hotel. I've encountered many turkeys during my years of birding, but Geez! I jumped a foot! Holy cow, I was not expecting that.

After Brownington, Sky and I had our lunch and made our way towards Westmore, home of the spectacular Lake Willoughby. Purportedly Vermont's deepest lake, Willoughby is flanked by steep cliff faces on both sides... truly spectacular! The photographs cannot fully capture the drama of those cliffs. The lake was frozen thick, and anglers were still driving trucks out to their ice fishing shanties out on the lake. I must admit, it is somewhat surreal to walk 100-200 feet out onto a frozen lake, to take pictures of the shoreline. To survey Westmore, we drove to the South Trail parking area, just beyond all of the dramatic vistas. Sky decided to nap in the sunshine while I hiked up towards Pulpit Rock, some 600 feet above the lakeshore. The slope was surprisingly steep -- almost 45 degrees in some areas -- but the trail zigged and zagged its way up, making the slope more passable. Turns out Pulpit Rock was 2 kilometers up the trail, and I was encountering nothing for birds. So, when I reached a viewpoint at roughly the halfway point, I took some photos, cut my losses, and headed back down to the car. It's quite eye-opening to lean out on a tree, to get a better view, and then look down to see that the ground just ends in front of your boot, and one step beyond that is a 200-300 foot drop. Again, my photo just doesn't capture the full depth of view.

]]><![CDATA[Belvidere - Montgomery - Westfield: Chasing down the final dozen]]>Wed, 30 Dec 2020 01:30:39 GMThttp://251townbirder.weebly.com/251-town-blog/belvidere-montgomery-westfield-chasing-down-the-final-dozen243 - 244 - 245... I'm now chasing down the final 12 towns, cities, and gores to complete the State of Vermont. All but 3 are in the far northern reaches of the state, requiring 2 to 2 1/2 hours of driving just to get to the town. Of course, getting to the town is only the beginning of the effort; I next have to find a suitable - and safe - place to park my car and conduct my survey.

Birding in the mountains in wintertime provides the opportunity to see rural Vermont in one of the prettiest of seasons. The mountain tops all white with snow, the valleys gray-brown from deciduous trees without snow or leaves, and the sinuous gray of the lone highway weaving through the valley and around meanders in the brooks and streams.

Birding in the mountains in wintertime does not often provide for great birding opportunities, however, mostly due to the short days and diminished food for birds. These latest towns featured the basic 3 species that I encounter everywhere in the north: Black-capped Chickadees, Common Ravens, and occasionally Blue Jays. Boreal species are unlikely due to the deciduous nature of the forest. Owls would be more likely if I were willing to bird after dark, and then wind my way back south towards the highways and the Interstate. As it is, I try to find locations in each town that will give me the best chance at the best diversity of species at this time of year. But it is always up to chance.

My final 9 towns include 5 I have never visited before, and 4 I have visited but could not find a desirable location to hike and bird. This is my home stretch, and with time running short, beggars can't be choosers, so what I see (or hear) during my survey will have to suffice.

]]><![CDATA[Lewis - Enigmatic Lewis - The Town With No Human Residents]]>Fri, 03 Jul 2020 02:21:45 GMThttp://251townbirder.weebly.com/251-town-blog/lewis-enigmatic-lewis-the-town-with-no-human-residentsLewis has long been a town (unorganized town) that posed a great challenge for me. The nearest access to the area of Lewis was a 5 mile hike through boggy areas and barely passable trails from outside the Silvio Conte National Wildlife Refuge. I'd tried in the summertime, and I'd tried in the wintertime with no luck. It seemed that Lewis would be one of my last towns, if not the very last town.
But a chance conversation with someone at the general store in Island Pond (a couple of towns to the west of the NWR) gleaned the information that there is a maintained service road that is open to the public in the summertime. Eureka! Lewis would be mine after all. Today I went to explore that access road, but before dropping into the massive VerizonWireless dead zone that is this part of the Northeast Kingdom, I stopped in Lyndonville and logged GPS coordinates of where the proposed access route would cross into Lewis -- I would need to travel beyond that coordinate to make a valid survey. I drove out VT-15 from Island Pond thru Brighton, Ferdinand, and Brunswick, passed the NWR Visitors Center, and then down to Stone Dam Road. Sure enough the gate was open, and there was even a Welcome sign. The road was well maintained, and was not fraught with potholes and pop-up boulders, as many back roads are. I drove in comfortably in my Honda FIT for 5.6 kms until I reached the intersection where my coordinate was set. I was there at last! Lewis.
I decided to press on along Stone Dam Road -- now called Canal Road -- to see what lay further into the interior of Lewis. Another 5 kms down the road and I arrived at a major junction -- this would be my survey base. I had lunch (I'd picked up a hamburger and beverage in Island Pond), sprayed with Deep Woods Off, then headed off down the road.
The weather was almost ideal for birds and butterflies, and the butterflies didn't disappoint. During my 3 km outward hike, I counted 106 butterflies of 16 species -- more species than the birds. My only bird sighting was a pair of Winter Wrens, but I did hear many other birds along my walk.
I will add Silvio Conte NWR to my Northeast Kingdom itinerary, along with Moose Bog in the Wenlock State Wildlife Management Area, which is only 5 miles back towards Island Pond.

LEWIS CHECKLIST:
Red-eyed Vireo Cedar Waxwing
Unidentified Vireo species Ovenbird
Golden-crowned Kinglet Common Yellowthroat
Ruby-crowned Kinglet Northern Parula
Winter Wren Black-throated Blue Warbler
Hermit Thrush Black-throated Green Warbler

]]><![CDATA[Headwaters of the White and Mad Rivers]]>Mon, 11 Nov 2019 01:46:16 GMThttp://251townbirder.weebly.com/251-town-blog/headwaters-of-the-white-and-mad-riversBack onto the quest! With winter setting in, I wanted to knock off some of the mountainous towns along the spine of the Green Mountains. Driving up the VT-100 corridor was the perfect way to accomplish this and to make good headway northward; my route took me from Rochester north along the Mad River Valley to Morrisville. Along the way, I stopped to photograph some of the more notable waterfalls in Vermont.

In GRANVILLE, I hiked up National Forest Route 55 into the White River Headwaters Recreational Area. Two inches of early winter snow covered the ground. There were not many birds along this route, but I could see that a very large moose had been walking along the middle of the same road within the last day or two; it's hoof prints were as large as my hand with outstretched fingers.
On my way north from Granville, I stopped to check out Moss Glen Falls, which surprisingly, was right along the side of the highway. The State of Vermont has built a nice walkway to the base of the falls, as well as a paved parking area and informational plaque.

WARREN holds the headwaters of the Mad River, and one of the first sights one sees upon cresting the knoll is a pull-off for Warren Falls. Here the Mad slices through a narrow passage through vertical-bedded rock, in a series of 4 steps. There must be a thunderous roar through this gap when the water is high, but otherwise it looks like a beautiful - if not slightly challenging, swimming hole. Warren is the location of Lincoln Gap Road, which rises steeply over the spine of the Green Mountains. The upper 2 miles of the road are closed in winter, but it is possible to hike from the gate up to the Gap. Turns out, the closed road is also a phenomenal sledding trail, and the recent snow put just enough cover on the paved road to make for a slick sledding route. For a kilometer, the roadway was covered with the 3-groove tracks of plastic snow sleds. Folks must've really had a great time that day; too bad nobody was sledding when I was hiking up the road.

FAYSTON is the home of Sugarbush ski resort, and I was fearful I wouldn't find a good place to hike and bird. Fortunately, I stumbled upon the Chase Brook Town Forest, which suited my needs perfectly. The Catamount Cross-Country Ski Trail passes through the town forest, making for a nice easy route for me to hike. I needed an easy route because I needed to get back to my car fairly soon, as storm clouds were crossing over the mountain ridge, and snow was starting to fly. But my hike was successful and most enjoyable.

The Catamount Cross-Country Ski Trail runs the entire length of the state of Vermont, and roughly parallels the Long Trail. It's only open in the winter, and is intended for skiers only; no snowmachines, no summer hiking.

Photos will be added below the Checklists

GRANVILLE #217 Checklist:
Blue Jay
Golden-crowned Kinglet
Black-capped Chickadee
Slate-colored Junco

WARREN #218 Checklist:
Black-capped Chickadee
Blue Jay
Golden-crowned Kinglet
Common Raven
White-breasted Nuthatch

FAYSTON #219 Checklist:
Blue Jay
Golden-crowned Kinglet
Black-capped Chickadee
White-breasted Nuthatch
American Goldfinch

]]><![CDATA[The Long Absence]]>Sat, 09 Nov 2019 18:22:02 GMThttp://251townbirder.weebly.com/251-town-blog/the-long-absenceI cannot believe that it's been 4 years since my last posting to this blog.

My quest is 80 percent accomplished, and I have a renewed urge to complete the quest -- before eventually moving out of this state. But before I could resume my exploration of Vermont's towns, I needed to reconcile which towns I have actually surveyed, and which I have not.

Today I took on that reconciling. What a mess I had on my hands. Some surveys in eBird, others still on my phone; numbers on this website not matching those in my Delorme field atlas. But my Delorme is the foundation of my surveys; it is always updated when I survey a new town. So, I went thru all 55 map pages and reconciled the Town Number and Survey Date in a spreadsheet. I thought I had surveyed 215 towns, but in fact I had missed a 216th that I'd surveyed in 2017. Sorry about that Newbury!

So, three dozen towns to go. Fortunately, most of them are in clusters around the northern and central areas of the state. I was surprised to see that I regularly drive thru two of them - Richmond and Williston - on my way up to Burlington; I've just never gotten off the Interstate and explored them.

Here we go!]]><![CDATA[So much time, So little writing]]>Sat, 23 May 2015 01:13:23 GMThttp://251townbirder.weebly.com/251-town-blog/so-much-time-so-little-writingWow! How time has flown by this year. I bummed up my knee last September, while hiking along a section of the Long Trail in Stratton (survey town #201), and that lamed me up thru October. My knee still wasn't right, so I worked with a physical therapist and then a strength trainer to get my knees back in shape. That took me thru to the beginning of March, but I have neglected to blog about the surveys I've done since last July. Shame on me. But I'll have more stories to backfill this blog once I review my checklists and photos.

In the meantime, check out my Cape May Birding 2015 page; that was some serious birding! And it feels good to be able to hike or bike for miles and not start to limp after just a half mile. Enjoy the summer!!]]><![CDATA[182 down, 79 to go... The list is getting shorter :-)]]>Sun, 13 Jul 2014 15:39:31 GMThttp://251townbirder.weebly.com/251-town-blog/182-down-79-to-go-the-list-is-getting-shorterWell, I have made some progress this Spring and Summer, but there's not been much to blog about. My biking, hiking, and birding efforts have been encounters with the same summer species: Song Sparrows, Red-winged Blackbirds, Common Yellowthroats, Cardinals, et cetera. Raptors have been surprisingly absent.

For example, I spent yesterday up in the northwest corner of the state. I biked a 9-mile section of the Missisquoi Valley Rail Trail, transiting St Albans Town, Swanton, and Sheldon; the only raptor I saw or heard was one Broad-winged Hawk. It was a great ride, on a very well maintained trail, but the birds were not the highlight.

I've now logged 182 towns in my quest, with 79 left to go. Almost all require a 2 hour drive to get to, so there's a competition now on what to do on nice sunny weekends; amazingly (to my son), birding does not always win out!

]]><![CDATA[155 Dorset: Earth-shaking trek]]>Sun, 15 Jun 2014 15:24:36 GMThttp://251townbirder.weebly.com/251-town-blog/155-dorset-earth-shaking-trekThe last thing you expect to experience while birding in Vermont is an earthquake. These are uncommon occurrances, and most of the ones that do occur are too small to be felt. Generally a magnitude >3 will be noticed by people.

My birding trek in Dorset had already been a joy because I'd stumbled upon a beautiful hilltop meadow that was rich with butterflies and a very scenic skyline. While moving into this meadow to get a full view of the mountains from Dorset down to Equinox, I startled a group of fledgling Ruffed Grouse... still gawkish in their first feathers, but able to fly short distances.

Fully enjoying the warmth of the sun, and the scenery around me, I was totally shocked to feel a b-b-b-boom rumbling in me and all around me. I instinctively bent my knees slightly, to absorb the shock. My brain flashed excitedly "Earthquake?!?" But then an instant later, I realized where I was... "No! Blasting in the Dorset Mountain Quarry!" Dorset Mountain is (supposedly) the largest underground marble quarry in the world, and they use controlled explosions to release the blocks of white marble from the mountain. That's what I was feeling... a new block of marble being released.

]]><![CDATA["Peent" and the promise of Spring]]>Wed, 26 Mar 2014 02:40:00 GMThttp://251townbirder.weebly.com/251-town-blog/peent-and-the-promise-of-springAh, the sounds of springtime... the "Too-dle-DEE" of the male Redwing Blackbird and finally the "PEENT" of the American Woodcock. I have had a flock of the former at my home for about a week now, but I had to travel 50 miles down to Putney to hear my first woodcock, this evening. While in Putney, I encountered a family of beaver and a local nature lover, Luann Wilson. We shared stories while hoping to hear a woodcock, and watched the beavers gnawing away on the brush growing along the flooded stream. The conversation sure made the growing chill more pleasurable, but alas, no woodcock song before we headed our separate ways. But, just as I reached my car on the far end of the causeway, "PEENT... PEENT" followed shortly by the bat-like chirping of a woodcock! Success at last. And only 2 degrees below freezing.

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​My final 9 towns include 5 I have never visited before, and 4 I have visited but could not find a desirable location to hike and bird. This is my home stretch, and with time running short, beggars can't be choosers, so what I see (or hear) during my survey will have to suffice.

My final 9 towns include 5 I have never visited before, and 4 I have visited but could not find a desirable location to hike and bird. This is my home stretch, and with time running short, beggars can't be choosers, so what I see (or hear) during my survey will have to suffice.