Making Sense of the Peregrine Falcon’s Variable Migration Patterns

Recovery of peregrines in the eastern U.S. from the brink is a major conservation success story. Could the re-introduction strategies have possibly shaped the mixed migratory behaviors of the current population?

What if I told you that the current population of Peregrine Falcons that fly Vermont’s skies and breed here every year is actually a human-induced mixture of subspecies, some of which were not historically present in the eastern U.S. before re-introduction? Maybe you already knew this, but if you’re like me, your interest piqued when Audubon Vermont’s senior conservation biologist and peregrine expert, Margaret Fowle, shared this with me.

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Photo :A Peregrine Falcon takes flight off a natural cliff face. Photo: Teri-Franzen/Audubon Photography Awards

BirdCast

BirdCast, developed by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, is another tool that you may find helpful when exploring the wonders of migration. Using BirdCast, you can explore the pulses of bird migration in live time, day by day. Using data from weather radar systems, this powerful tool uses real-life detections of flocks of birds in flight to track the pulses of avian migration. By combining observed movements of birds in flight, with forecasts of incoming weather fronts, the BirdCast application displays the predicted volume of migrants moving through your area for a given date. This makes BirdCast a powerful tool with which to know when and where to keep an eye out for possibly unique migrant species. In this way, BirdCast is also capable of alerting the need for protective measures to be taken for these major flight events; for examples, some urban areas have begun turning off unnecessary light infrastructures during these major flight events- given that birds are known to be perilously attracted to lighted structures while in flight. So, after you check out Audubon’s migratory Bird Explorer App, be sure to also check out BirdCast as well.

Vermont's Birders and Landowners Are Joining Forces to Contribute to Science

A new state-wide program recruits volunteers to survey breeding birds that would otherwise go uncounted.

Since 2019, a program called Birder Broker has been pairing volunteer birders like Jacob Crawford with bird-curious landowners across Vermont. “Birders are building this community of people who care for the land,” says the program’s cofounder, consultant Bridget Butler, whose business goes by the name Bird Diva. Learn More.

Bridget Butler, co-creator of Birder Broker. Photo: Kelly Burgess

The Bird Migration Explorer Lets You Interact With Nature’s Most Amazing Feat

Many species of migratory birds are already flocking to their winter grounds, and many more will follow as fall migration continues. This month we launched the Bird Migration Explorer – a first-of-its-kind digital platform that visualizes the journeys of migratory birds.

The Explorer, a project led by Audubon and our partners, compiles the best available data to show where migratory birds travel, how they connect us, and the challenges that they face.

With this revolutionary new tool, anyone can follow hundreds of species on their epic journeys and discover challenges they face along the way.

Visit the Bird Migration Explorer at www.birdmigrationexplorer.org to learn more.

Explore Migration.

Photo: Explore Bird Migration

How Wifi Binoculars Could Help Make Birding and Nature More Accessible

On a brilliant August morning in Seattle, a man peers through a pair of binoculars, fixing his gaze on the shaggy bark of a Douglas Fir. Its impressive column rises alongside the wide, flat trail snaking through this vestige of urban forest, and a small knot of people are gathered beneath it, staring intently at iPads.

“So are you looking at that hole in the bark there?” Krista Hanson asks the man with the binoculars.

“I’m trying to take a picture of it,” Ed Dominguez replies as he fiddles with the heavy binoculars. “It's the Brown Creeper nest.”  

Dominguez aims the viewfinders at a flake of bark looping away from the tree, creating a narrow vertical opening now partially stuffed with twigs. In anticipation, Hanson cradles an iPad in front of the delicate frame of her son Lucas, a 13-year-old boy with glasses and tousled blond hair in a wheelchair.

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Photo: Lucas Hanson looks at a Brown Creeper nest in a Douglas Fir tree on an iPad held by his mother, Krista Hanson, during a guided trek at Seward Park in Seattle. Seward Park Audubon Center’s Lead Naturalist Ed Dominguez used wifi binoculars during the outing to help Lucas—who has limited mobility and vision because he was born with myotubular myopathy—see trees, birds, and other natural wonders more easily. Photo: Jovelle Tamayo

The Guam Kingfisher Could Soon Return to the Wild After a 30-Year Absence

Once extinct in the wild, the California Condor now soars across the western United States thanks to successful breeding in captivity that allowed their later reintroduction to the wild. Now, a dedicated team is poised to do the same for the bright red and blue Guam Kingfisher. Endemic to Guam and extirpated on the island since 1988, these birds may soon fly free on a Pacific island—one more than 3,000 miles from their native home.

“It’s the first, long-overdue, much-needed step,” says Suzanne Medina, a wildlife biologist at the Guam Department of Agriculture Division of Aquatic and Wildlife Resources who helps lead the kingfisher’s recovery. “I am feeling very optimistic.”

Photo: A captive Guam Kingfisher in the Guam Department of Agriculture’s Division of Aquatic and Wildlife Resources breeding facility. Photo: John Ewen

Avian Flu Threatens Seabird Nesting Colonies on Both Sides of the Atlantic

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect new positive test results from terns in Maine, the first confirmed cases of avian flu at seabird colonies on the East Coast of the United States.

Seabird colonies on both sides of the Atlantic have been devastated by avian flu outbreaks in recent weeks. Thousands of Northern Gannets have died at nesting sites in Europe and Canada, their carcasses washing up on the shores of the Maritime Provinces and the British Isles. On St. Kilda, Scotland, avian flu threatens to strain the Great Skua population. In the Netherlands, an entire colony of Sandwich Terns was wiped out. 

Photo: A dead Common Tern on Maine’s Stratton Island is a victim of a possible avian influenza outbreak. Photo: Michael Rickershauser

A Regional Guide to Garden-Friendly Birds—and How to Attract Them

Now is the perfect time to be thinking about creating climate-resilient habitat for birds. Explore advice from across the Audubon network (including Audubon Vermont!), featured in Martha Stewart.com.

"Local birds and your backyard landscaping are closely connected: Birds help your yard by controlling insect populations and pollinating plants, and, in turn, it provides them with their favorite foods, water, and a safe environment that supports the health of their populations." - Blythe Copeland, Martha Stewart.com Learn More.

Photo: A Hooded Warbler holds a fat, juicy caterpillar. Photo: Megumi Williamson/Audubon Photography Awards

More Than Just an Accessory: Bird Banding at the Green Mountain Audubon Center

Environmental Conservation Intern Grace Yaros brings to life a beautiful morning in early August at Audubon’s bird banding station – including the re-banding of a male Veery first encountered at Audubon in 2016.

“Though the exact location of where this particular Veery overwinters is unknown, let’s estimate that he winters somewhere in central Brazil, near the Brazil-Bolivia border, making each trip to his wintering ground around 4,000 miles each way. As of this summer, this bird has flown at least 52,000 miles in his lifetime. For a bird that only weighs around 30 grams (about as much as a lightbulb), that’s pretty impressive.” – Grace Yaros Learn More.

Photo: The 2022 Audubon Vermont Bird Banding team at work: Conservation Program Manager Mark LaBarr records data while Conservation Interns Grace Yaros and Tom Patti, with volunteer Meg Madden, band some birds. Photo: Lynn Attwood

Bird Banding to Track Migration

Tracking bird migration with the MAPS bird banding station at the Green Mountain Audubon Center.

Since 1997, Audubon Vermont has operated a MAPS bird banding station at the Green Mountain Audubon Center. Learn about all of the steps in the process and how these data are used to track bird migration.

Special thanks to Audubon Vermont Environmental Conservation Intern Thomas Patti for research, writing, and photography on this webpage. Learn More.

Photo: Vermont Audubon

Forest Regeneration With Birds in Mind

Over the years, I have had the distinct pleasure of visiting with hundreds of people who are making management decisions affecting Vermont’s forested landscape. Frequently the conversations around managing the forest with birds and other wildlife in mind hit on a common question: is it better to do nothing and let the forest to its own devices, or is active management, including the harvesting of trees, an appropriate choice? While there is no right or wrong answer to that question, invariably the conclusion to meeting a variety of forest stewardship goals is that in many situations, active forest management is not only desirable for enhancing habitat, it can be a necessity.

Every spring, thousands of migratory birds arrive back in the forests of Vermont after spending the winter in places as far away as South America. Once here they seek out suitable habitat providing food and cover for raising the next generation of their species. What does suitable habitat look like? Some of the most commonly known habitat features are standing dead trees (snags), cavity trees, and woody material on the forest floor. These forest attributes help support birds such as Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Dark-eyed Junco, and Winter Wren.

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Photo: Chestnut-sided Warbler Photo: Shirley Donald, Audubon Photography Awards

A Regional Guide to Garden-Friendly Birds—and How to Attract Them

Advice from across the Audubon network, featured in Martha Stewart.com.


Now is the perfect time to be thinking about creating climate-resillient habitat for birds. 

"Local birds and your backyard landscaping are closely connected: Birds help your yard by controlling insect populations and pollinating plants, and, in turn, it provides them with their favorite foods, water, and a safe environment that supports the health of their populations." - Blythe Copeland, Martha Stewart.com

Read the full article online at Martha Stewart.com.

Native plants provide food, shelter, and nesting sites for birds.

Consider foods that last through the winter: seed-bearing native trees such as birches, evergreens, and maples.

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Photo: A Hooded Warbler holds a fat, juicy caterpillar. Photo: Megumi Williamson/Audubon Photography Awards

Bird-Friendly Maple: Partners in Action

This article was written and published by Cold Hollow to Canada's Monica Przyperhart.
Learn more about Cold Hollow to Canada: https://www.coldhollowtocanada.org/  

Bird habitat. A sugarbush. Young people with chainsaws. Do these three things fit together? 

You bet! And Cold Hollow to Canada  is happy to be working alongside all three in the woods of Belvidere.

If you’ve been following Cold Hollow to Canada (CHC), you likely know about our Woodlots Program. We work with groups of landowners to provide resources, assistance, and a peer network that together engage landowners who want to incorporate wildlife habitat, climate resilience, and overall forest health into the management of their forests.

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Photo: Some of the Vermont Youth Conservation Corps members at Barred Woods Maple. Photo: Matt Paggi/Cold Hollow to Canada

More Than Just an Accessory: Bird Banding at the Green Mountain Audubon Center

Ovenbirds are easily one of my personal favorite warblers. Unlike most of the other members of their family, they are not especially colorful, but their plumage is subtly beautiful, with a bright orange crown that pops against their unique greenish-brown body feathers. The adult Ovenbird in my hand, however, is admittedly looking a bit scruffy. She’s finished breeding for the summer, and now that her chicks are fending for themselves, she’s started molting her feathers in preparation for migration. In addition to her new feathers that are currently coming in, she’s just received a shiny new band on her leg. This band isn’t just for show—this bird has just become part of a 33-year-long bird population monitoring project.

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Photo: A young Ovenbird is gently held in a "bander’s grip." Photo: Grace Yaros/Audubon Vermont

Introducing The Birdsong Project: What the Birds Tell Us

Volumes I, II, and III of For the Birds: The Birdsong Project are streaming now to benefit Audubon’s bird conservation mission and celebrate the joy of birds.

By Elizabeth Gray and Randall Poster

This summer, the hummingbird in your backyard may have returned after spending the winter on Mexico’s Pacific slope, and the warbler in your neighborhood park could be visiting you from its winter retreat in the Andes Mountains.

Humans instinctively understand that birds are both musicians and messengers. Our cultures (songs, literature, parables, visual art, dance, holidays, sports mascots and idioms) rely heavily on birds and what they represent to us, from the sacredness of eagles in many Native American cultures to the poems of Toni Morrison.

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Photo: Bald Eagle. Photo: Lori Rothstein/Audubon Photography Awards

Celebrate Vermont's Maple 100: The Bird-Friendly Way

Visit Audubon Vermont’s Green Mountain Audubon Center or tour a bird-friendly, organic sugarbush.

Vermont's Maple 100 offers visitors and Vermonters alike the chance to rediscover favorite Vermont maple snacks, treats and local products, as well as discover new ways to enjoy Vermont's sweetest export. Find maple-centered events, shop deals and find lodging packages here as you plan to enjoy Maple 100 between Sept. 15 and Oct. 15.

Vermont Maple 100

Audubon Vermont invites people to visit the Green Mountain Audubon Center in Huntington to visit our sugarbush trails and participate in an educational and fun Birds of the Sugarbush Scavenger Hunt during Vermont's Maple 100.

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New Phenology Monitoring Walk at Green Mountain Audubon Center!

Observe and track phenology while enjoying our beautiful trails.

Come take a stroll on the newly marked Phenology Walk at the Green Mountain Audubon Center!

Phenology is the study of seasonal changes in nature. We invite trail users to slow down, take a look around, and find five different labeled species of plants. Your observations will help researchers track plant life cycle timing in the face of a changing climate. 

The five plants we're tracking at Audubon are white pine, milkweed, goldenrod, sugar maple and red elderberry. Once you locate the marked plants, it's time to use the Nature's Notebook app. (Download the app ahead of time since cell phone coverage at Audubon is spotty at best.) Nature's Notebook will instruct you how to document observations of the plants, taking note of things such as their current life cycle or “phenophase.” This data will then be used by scientists to analyze the effects of climate change on plant life.

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