On Fri, 26 Jul 2002, Mike Resch wrote:

> This weekend I've finally decided to take the long drive to go to Brilyea.
> After seeing some great shorebirds, I was hoping to try to fill in some other
> gaps in my statelist.  Can anyone out there give me some advice for finding
> the following birds in VT -
>
> Black-billed cuckoo

Dead Creek - Brilyea is as good a place as any to find these.  Look for
tent caterpillars and BBCU is likely to be around.  Not
easy to see, though.

> Orchard oriole

Orchard O's are rarities in VT but a few breeding pairs have shown up in
recent years.  Unless somebody has a pair staked out right now, and I'm
not aware of any, you will just have to get lucky with this one.

> Merlin

You have a decent chance of seeing Merlin chasing shorebirds around Dead
Creek.  Peregrines are frequent there, too.

> Fish crow

Best chance is Red Rocks Park in South Burlington, where they have nested
for the past three yrs or so.  Be warned-- there are a lot of young
American crows making Fish Crow-like vocalizations now.

Scott