Vermont ebird & Pollinators

Posted on by Jessica Boone

Birder Broker – Vermont ebird

I have spent two mornings this week learning more about my own backyard through educational programs provided by Cold Hollow to Canada. Friday was the first walk for a citizen science project – Birder Broker in conjunction with Vermont ebird. Birder Broker pairs land owners with experienced birders. We will go a total of three times this year and potentially again next year. The route takes us on about a mile walk starting at my house then past the sugarhouse to the Bliss field, from there we enter the song bird patch cut we completed this spring. After passing through the patch cut we will complete our loop in the pine forest next to Lucas Brook. All bird species are counted but our priority are migratory songbirds. Yesterday we saw an olive backed thrush, heard oven birds, several warblers and vireos. We also came across a nice size black bear print.

Richford Woodlots

This morning we had our quarterly gathering of the Richford Woodlots. My neighbor Greg hosted us on his property for a nature walk through his pollinator field and a search for the elusive salamanders. The pollinator field was full of early, mid and late plants, such as spirea, milk weed and various grasses. Some of the pollinators we found were native bees, butterflies and beetles. Greg has planted several varieties of trees for successional growth such as cedar, butternut and red oak.

Our walk then took us to a spring brook (it’s only a brook when there’s plenty of water). We managed to find a couple of salamanders in the brook itself. The biggest problem we had in looking for salamanders was our distraction level by everything around us. We learned that “sedges have edges, rushes are round and grasses have knees that bend to the ground”. That’s just an example of why I love these gatherings – the learning. I felt the edges that create a triangle on the stem of a sedge, next time I will know what sedge is.

I also learned why trees have knees! I have shared pictures of trees – mostly yellow birch with “knees”. They start with a yellow birch seed that takes root on top of an old stump. As the tree continues to grow the roots grow over the stump into the ground. As they mature more roots cover the stump but the stump is composting itself back into the soil, when the stump is fully gone – the tree remains as it formed over the stump leaving “knees”.

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Check out Cold Hollow to Canada to learn more about conservations activities we have going on!

Woodlots and Birds

Posted on by Jessica Boone

We are a certified Bird Friendly Sugarbush with the Vermont Audubon Society. Our next project is a woodlot in the lower part of our property. We don’t tap this area because its heavily concentrated with softwoods. Most of it used to be pasture for cows when I was growing up. I would like to convert part of the area into agriculture – an apple orchard and possibly berries. Some of it may convert back to pasture as well.
I have taken 5 acres and will be working on a “patch cut” this year. A patch cut is to increase the habitat for native bird species and migratory birds as well as mammals. We will be removing 90% of the trees that are on this 5 acre piece. I am selectively choosing the trees that I want to keep – no most of them are NOT maple in this case! I have chosen several apple trees, a nice stand of white birch and another stand of old spruce. I’ve randomly picked a few younger trees – a cherry or two, but sometimes I’ve picked some huge gnarly old mishaped trees just because they spoke to me. I like trees with character.
In addition to those I also will leave some of the trees that are already dead and fallen and several trees that are either already dead or mostly dead but still standing – bugs love these trees which in turn means birds love them. Most of the trees that are cut will be used to heat my house next year. The branches and leftovers will be thrown in piles to create natural hiding and nesting places for the birds and creatures like bunny rabbits.
The point of cutting such a high percentage of trees is to encourage the undergrowth to flourish – this will be grasses that create seeds and berries to grow to feed the birds. Overall the hope is the patch cut will see an increase in the number and variety of birds in the area.
The woodlots program that created this patch cut idea also ties back into the Cold Hollow to Canada program that wants to create wildlife corridors. We are a tiny piece of the largest temperate forest in the world and are trying to help do our small piece to this big puzzle.
#birdfriendlymaple #coldhollowtocanada #audubon