Each year I make a trip to southeast VT in the early fall to
look for sparrows and late warblers. I
almost made the trip to VT a week earlier, but literally at the last moment I
changed my plans and headed to Maine instead, where I had a successful search
for Prothonotary Warbler. I made the
right choice, right? Then again, who
knows what I may have found if I had stuck with my original plans to go to
VT.
So when my schedule opened up a week later I found myself
once again thinking about possible statebirds in VT. It wasn’t too late to give it another try, so
I made my plans to make my regular annual trip to southeast VT. I have 4 key targets on these trips –
Orange-crowned Warbler, Gray-cheeked Thrush, Blue Grosbeak, and Lark
Sparrow. None of these are very likely,
and certainly the last two are real long shots.
And only one of the 4 had been spotted recently – there was an
Orange-crowned reported in the area a week earlier. As a result these are almost always truly
speculative trips. But my stops are
designed to be in good habitat for one or more of these species, and I was
successful on my 2016 trip in finding a Connecticut Warbler which was another
of my targets at the time. So I was
always optimistic that I might find one of my targets. And if not, I’d still have fun birding in
good habitat.
I was out of the house by 6:30 and arrived at my first stop
at the Brattleboro marina on this crisp clear morning just before 8. There is a large cornfield next to the
marina, and the perimeter can be good for sparrows and dicky birds in the
brush. This site did not disappoint,
with an estimated 230 sparrows of 8 species, 4 warbler species, and a late
Indigo Bunting. And overhead I watched
as a Merlin and Peregrine passed by. But
despite spending more than 2 hours in great habitat, I couldn’t scare up any of
my target birds.
Next I was on to the Brattleboro Retreat Meadows, where a
goldenrod/aster field has always looked like a great spot for
Orange-crowned. But this year the field
had been cut, and habitat was limited to say the least. The best birds were 3 early Wigeon in the
flock of Canada Geese in the backwaters of the river.
The Harris Hill ski jump area was my next stop. There is a large open field at the base of
the ski jump, and the perimeter has yielded good numbers of sparrows and
warblers in the past, including my Connecticut 2 years earlier. My routine here is to walk the perimeter
“clockwise”, starting at the southern edge.
But this time I found almost no birds at all. As I reached the southwest corner I found a
few sparrows, and these birds were joined by a few others along the western
wooded edge. At one point I caught a
glimpse of yellowish color in the brush, but it only turned out to be a late
Magnolia instead of my hoped-for Orange-crowned.
By the time I reached the base of the ski jump most of the
flock had moved up the hill along the edge.
I was tempted to follow them up the hill but I figured I had already
seen most of them. Just then a bird flew
out from the edge directly overhead. I
got it in my binocs and as I watched it head to the north my initial thought
was it was a large sparrow. But the
color wasn’t quite right – it seemed to have some chestnut shades below. Luckily I was able to track it to the distant
treeline and it landed in the open. It
was a chunky bird, uniformly chestnut brown.
Could it be a Blue Grosbeak?
Although it was very distant, I thought I could see a large bill. Then I started to hear the characteristic
loud “chink” calls. I watched it perched
in the tree for at least a minute, and tried to temper my excitement. Was it big enough to be my target? Was the bill large enough? I was starting to second guess myself and lean
toward just another Indigo when the bird flew from the northern edge of the
clearing, and I watched it disappear into the brush near the southwest
corner. It took me just a couple minutes
to get back there, but there were no birds in sight. On a lark, I decided to play some tape of
Blue Grosbeak call notes – no response.
Then a minute later I looked up and there was a female-plumaged Blue
Grosbeak right in front of me!
Finally with close views I could see all the field marks –
uniformly chestnut brown, rusty wing bar, massive grayish bill. And it was calling again – giving those
distinctive “chink” call notes. I
watched it for several minutes before it flew back toward the base of the ski
jump. This was an extreme rarity for VT,
so I quickly went to my phone to call local birders – unfortunately I just got
Hector Galbraith’s voice mail but was able to talk to Dave Johnston. Dave said he’d be over in 15 minutes.
While waiting for Dave to arrive I tried to re-find the
Grosbeak so I could hopefully show it to him.
I headed back toward the base of the ski jump where I last saw it and
found a few sparrows but little else. Then
I spotted a couple sparrows pop up from the grasses to the right to perch on
top of a fence that surrounds the base of the ski jump. I scanned the fence and saw a Song Sparrow,
then another Song, then – there was the Blue Grosbeak! As it continued to sit in the open all I
could think of was that I wish I had brought my camera. Lately I’ve taken a few photos holding my
phone up to my binocs, and they’ve come out pretty well when the bird has
perched still for a while. So I gave it
a try this time, and got these 3 pretty nice shots -
Shortly after taking these photos the bird dropped back down
into the grass. Luckily after Dave
arrived we re-found the Grosbeak, including once seeing it perched back up on
the fence. Always nice to share a
rarity.
Not surprisingly my later stops were uneventful by comparison. It’s interesting to note that my last stop
was at the Stebbins Road stump dump, which has always been on my itinerary
because it has hosted Blue Grosbeak in the past. Needless to say that’s now one less target to
hope for in my future fall trips to southeast VT.
In my Blue Grosbeak statebird map below, the dark blue
states are those where I’ve seen this species.
The cross-hatched states are those in its regular range where I still
need it as a statebird – just a few more to go.
- 5/84 - Norwich - noted in eBird as "1st accepted" state record
- 8/84 - Winhall - "2nd accepted
- 5/85 - Newbury - "hypothetical - 3rd accepted"
- 5/96 - Shaftsbury - "3rd accepted"
- 5/96 - Danby - same bird apparently entered into eBird at 2 locations - "4th accepted"
- 6/97 - West Arlington - "5th accepted"
- 10/10 - Vernon - 2 birds found by Dave Johnston at the Stebbins Road stump dump
- 10/11 - Vernon - same bird perhaps returning from the previous year?
And now -
- 10/18 - Brattleboro
I really like my fall trips to southeast VT!
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