There have been a number of locations around where Common Gallinule have been reported, this Spring. Unfortunately, I've been skunked at all of them. My latest effort also allowed me to survey yet another town.
The area where the Gallinule had been reported was Brandon Swamp, also known as Long Swamp. This is about the only place where the threat of mosquito-born Eastern Equine Encephalitis is so great that the state sprays mosquito insecticide. So, armed with an extra covering of insect repellant, the Gallinule quest continued.
I was accompanied yesterday by my nephew, Andrew McPhillips, who is a sophomore at Castleton State College. We had a great chat while walking slowly along VT-73, stopping frequently to listen or observe. Andrew spied a Red-tailed Hawk soaring over the marsh, and it was being harassed by 4 Red-winged Blackbirds. One particularly irritated RWBL tagged the hawk multiple times; you couldn't help but feel sorry for the hawk because it could neither get away fast enough nor turn on its aggressors.
Andrew and I were heading up into the Champlain Islands this day, so we turned around and returned to the car after a half mile. While we did not hear or see a Gallinule, we did hear a Virginia Rail oinking in the tall cattails, we found a turtle's nest that had been ransacked and the eggs consumed, a flattened and sundried milk snake, an intricately-patterned moth, and a Yellow-billed Cuckoo. Not a bad walk.
My checklist for Brandon:
Red-tailed Hawk
Virginia Rail
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
Warbling Vireo
Red-eyed Vireo
Marsh Wren
Mourning Dove
Blue Jay
American Crow
White-breasted Nuthatch
Least Flycatcher
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Belted Kingfisher
Yellow-billed Cuckoo
Veery
American Redstart
Yellow Warbler
Baltimore Oriole
Common Grackle
Red-winged Blackbird
Son
The area where the Gallinule had been reported was Brandon Swamp, also known as Long Swamp. This is about the only place where the threat of mosquito-born Eastern Equine Encephalitis is so great that the state sprays mosquito insecticide. So, armed with an extra covering of insect repellant, the Gallinule quest continued.
I was accompanied yesterday by my nephew, Andrew McPhillips, who is a sophomore at Castleton State College. We had a great chat while walking slowly along VT-73, stopping frequently to listen or observe. Andrew spied a Red-tailed Hawk soaring over the marsh, and it was being harassed by 4 Red-winged Blackbirds. One particularly irritated RWBL tagged the hawk multiple times; you couldn't help but feel sorry for the hawk because it could neither get away fast enough nor turn on its aggressors.
Andrew and I were heading up into the Champlain Islands this day, so we turned around and returned to the car after a half mile. While we did not hear or see a Gallinule, we did hear a Virginia Rail oinking in the tall cattails, we found a turtle's nest that had been ransacked and the eggs consumed, a flattened and sundried milk snake, an intricately-patterned moth, and a Yellow-billed Cuckoo. Not a bad walk.
My checklist for Brandon:
Red-tailed Hawk
Virginia Rail
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
Warbling Vireo
Red-eyed Vireo
Marsh Wren
Mourning Dove
Blue Jay
American Crow
White-breasted Nuthatch
Least Flycatcher
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Belted Kingfisher
Yellow-billed Cuckoo
Veery
American Redstart
Yellow Warbler
Baltimore Oriole
Common Grackle
Red-winged Blackbird
Son
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