Regrettably, this winter is wimping out on us. We've only had two real snowfalls, and then the weather warmed and brought rain. Our snowpack is threatened with extirpation. We are hoping that some precipitation tonight will turn from liquid to solid phase.
We've had two winter visitors of note, though. Both are new since the last post. Dawn noticed two medium-sized birds up in the trees right next to the house, and quickly identified them.
Pine Grosbeak
I had seen a few birds a few miles up the road before, but it is always exciting to see them right in your yard. Pine Grosbeak is an annual visitor to northern Vermont, but that doesn't make them easy to see, because they seem to wander around a lot. I am learning that they vocalize, musically, more so than other finches.
We were at the breakfast table when an even more exciting visitor dropped in.
Northern Shrike
A day with a Northern Shrike is always a good day indeed. These speed demons of winter fields wander to an even greater extent than the grosbeaks. This one landed on our seed feeder, no doubt attracted by the large group of chickadees using it. This is due to the fact that the Northern Shrike is part-time raptor. If other food is scarce, shrikes will pursue chickadees and other small birds and make a tasty meal out of them. Which explains why our feeders (suet and sunflower seed) became rather oddly quiet for a few minutes.
We took a trip to Lake Champlain, north of Burlington. Waterfowl have not arrived yet in large numbers to Lake Champlain, because the unseasonably warm temperatures have not driven them here. But it was nice to gaze at a raft of 400 Common Goldeneyes, working the quiet waters near the Colchester Causeway. Last winter, I had an even larger flock of 1100. I don't know yet how this compares to historical numbers for winter, but it is at least encouraging as a sign of population health.
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