*Vermont
*Statewide
*10/17/03
*VTVT0310.17

This is the Vermont bird report for Friday, October 17, 2003.

As usual the hot place to be is beside Lake Champlain under layers of winter
clothes.  Huge movements of BRANT were noted on 16 Oct ­ 2,631 at Charlotte
Town Beach, 300 off Grande Isle and 85 on the water at Dead Creek.  Large
movements apparently began yesterday on the NH seacoast too.

A LEACHS STORM PETREL passed Charlotte Town Beach on 14 Oct.

Gull species included ­ 300 BONAPARTE'S GULL in Grande Isle on 16 Oct.; 2
LITTLE GULLS at Charlotte Town Beach on 16 Oct. and 1 2nd year LITTLE GULL and
1 BLACK-HEADED GULL off Grande Isle.

73 COMMON LOONS at Tri-town on 11 Oct., 36 off Grande Isle on 12 Oct. and 
40 on
16 Oct.  RED-THROATED LOONS seen off Charlotte Town Beach (1) and Grande Isle
(2) on On 12 and 13 Oct., respectively.

Also on 13 Oct. 12 species of ducks were seen off Charlotte Town Beach.
Specific reports from Grande Isle during the week included ­ 168 WHITE-WINGED
SCOTER, 9 RED-BREASTED MERGANSER, 6 LONG-TAILED DUCK, 10 GREATER SCAUP, SURF
SCOTER.

RED-NECKED GREBE observed in Grande Isle on 16 Oct. and Charlotte Town 
Beach on
13 Oct. with 3 HORNED GREBE also noted.

SNOW GOOSE reports include - >3,000 at Dead Creek WMA on 16 Oct., 50+ in field
in Dorset on 12 Oct. and 60+ in Quechee feeding in corn field and on Lake
Pineo.  Several ROSS'S GEESE have been noted among the flocks at DCWMA.  Also,
as one observer noted, the flocks at Dead Creek were away from the viewing 
area
and hard to count. Estimates were at >5,000 and perhaps as high as 
10,000.  The
spectacle should be something this weekend!

Raptor reports have been few.  Mt. Philo was quiet on 11 Oct. with only RED-
TAILED HAWK, N. HARRIER and TURKEY VULTURE reported; ditto for Dead Creek WMA.
An OSPREY near Fern Lake seen on 12 Oct. silhouetted against the perfect blue
sky, framed with maple color.

Moving onto the little ones....

An AMERICAN PIPIT was seen on 15 Oct. at Union Village Dam.  Also in the Upper
Valley on 13 Oct. ­ PALM WARBLER, BLACK-THROATED GREEN WARBLER, MYRTLE 
WARBLER,
BLUE-HEADED VIREO and PURPLE FINCH.

Reports from across the state noted flocks and influxes of KINGLETS, JUNCO,
WHITE-THROATED SPARROW, WHITE-CROWNED SPARROW, CHIPPING SPARROW, SWAMP SPARROW
and LINCOLN SPARROW.  Heavy movements and large flocks of AMERICAN ROBINS 
noted
in both the Upper Valley and Champlain Valley.

Thanks to the following contributors whose observations were cited above for
the period:
Scott Morrical, Murry Morro, Dave Hoag, Dick Lavalee, Shelagh Smith, Ted 
Murin,
Bill Shepard, Doug Hardy, David Merker, Beth Hughes, Kent McFarland, Julie
Nicholson, Sherman Kent.


This message is also available by phone recording: call 802-457-1053 and press
3. This will put you into a menu where you will be directed to press 5 to hear
the RBA. If you have any interesting birds to report, you can leave a message
by pressing 6, or you can send your sightings to the RBA via e-mail at:
[log in to unmask]  Or enter your sightings on Vermont eBird at
http://www.ebird.org/VINS/.

Kent McFarland, Roz Renfrew, Chris Rimmer
VT RBA Compilers

Vermont Institute of Natural Science
Conservation Biology Department
27023 Church Hill Rd.
Woodstock, VT 05091
802-457-2779