Greetings,

On February 27, my girlfriend and I had the extreme fortune of getting away to Vermont for a few spectacular, mid-winter days. While the trip was originally planned as a visit to the University of Vermont so I could look into their graduate programs, it also allowed me to meet up with Ryan and his wonderful girlfriend for the first time in over a month, and to of course do some birding along the way in NY and VT.

On the way up to Burlington, Betsi and I made a quick, but eventful stop in the grasslands of Fort Edward, NY to check up on the Short-eared Owls that have been reported for the past few weeks. As expected, our first owls were found sitting on bales of hay off of Fitzpatrick Road. At first only one owl was noticed, however, the more we looked at the bales of hay atop the wagon, the more owls we noticed and within the blink of an eye we went from one owl to four! These of course were to be Betsi’s first owls ever observed, and what amazing looks we had. The closest owls were a mere 20 feet away!

Over the course of the next hour we observed a total of 20 Short-eared Owls from one location. While it was only 3:00pm and the owls were not actively hunting, we did observe a lot of movement from the owls flying around from perch to perch. This of course allowed for great study of their moth-like flight. Many of the owls returned to the bales of hay, but several also perched atop trees or telephone poles.

Unfortunately, our rewarding stay with the owls was all but cut short as we needed to make good time up to Burlington. However, we did observe many great moments with the owls as well as those with a Northern Harrier and Common Raven. After a quick (2hr) ride to VT, we met up with Ryan, had a wonderful dinner downtown with him and his girlfriend, and made it back to his place for some needed sleep.

…And that sleep would be much needed, for the next day we would get up early and head to Lake Champlain and South Hero Island in search of winter field birds and waterfowl. Reaching the island we easily found the causeway which we were to hike out to look for a reported large mixed raft of ducks in search of a previously observed Tufted Duck. Hiking our way out over a mile of packed snow, Ryan, his girlfriend, Betsi, and I had a wonderful time, and gave me a great opportunity to stretch my legs in a way that winter never often allows.

We quickly found the flock which contained nearly 5,000 ducks. Unfortunately, none of the ducks observed were of any rarity…no Tufted Duck…no Barrow’s Goldeneye. But, we did find Greater and Lesser Scaup, Ring-necked Duck, Canvasback, Common Goldeneye, Black Duck, and Common and Hooded Mergansers. Several of these were either year birds or life birds for most of us. Other birds observed on the island were few, but a nice flock of 5 Horned Larks posed for us roadside, allowing for close views.

As always, the birding and the good times quickly came to an end. While no megararities were observed, lots of quality birds were. Of course, any bird shared with good friends becomes that much more special.

~Chad (03/05/2007)