Chris, you guys really missed a unique camping experience by being one
day ahead of that violent cold front! ;)

Regarding the relatively quiet avian activity... it was a rather lonely
morning last Saturday during the first visit to my forest bird
monitoring plot in Bristol. Amazingly, I think I encountered only 4 or
5 bugs of the unwelcome variety all morning, and (I think for the first
time in ~10 years of surveying there) I failed to tally any
black-throated blue warblers at all (5 survey points), although I did
hear a couple during my hike. I guess it's bound to happen sometime,
but that is a noteworthy zero for a top-5 bird in that habitat. At one
station I had only a single, distant ovenbird in 10 minutes of
observation. That's a lonely point count when there aren't even any
mosquitoes or black flies to swat! (... not that I'm complaining about
returning with zero blood loss)

Ernie

Chris Rimmer wrote:
> The VCE Brute Force Biology team spent Mon night and Tuesday morning
> on our long-term study plot on the Mt. Mansfield ridgeline.
> Conditions were about as warm as they can be up there, and black flies
> were insatiable. Avian activity was quiet for mid-June, but a good
> dusk chorus of Bicknell's Thrush let loose, and we counted 18 birds
> total, catching 9 of those in our mist nets that evening and the
> following morning. All but one had been banded in a previous year. I
> did a series of point counts on Tues. morning, and the list below
> combines all encounters from that day:
>
> Location: Mt. Mansfield
> Observation date: 6/10/08
> Number of species: 14
>
> Yellow-bellied Flycatcher 2
> Common Raven 2
> Winter Wren 5
> Ruby-crowned Kinglet 1
> Bicknell's Thrush 18
> Swainson's Thrush 5
> American Robin 5
> Cedar Waxwing 2
> Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) 17
> Blackpoll Warbler 13
> White-throated Sparrow 15
> Purple Finch 4
> Pine Siskin 5
> American Goldfinch 2
>
>
> This morning I was on top of Burke Mt. for my annual Mountain
> Birdwatch count. Tough conditions -- 43 degrees F, summit in clouds,
> east wind 10-15. Birds were singing, but there appear to be no
> Bicknell's Thrush up there this year. Last year I found 3, two of
> which were yearlings. This peak is one that blinks in and out for
> Bicknell's, likely absorbing 'surplus' birds following productive
> breeding years (which alternate with the biennial boom-bust
> cone-squirrel cycle). Last summer was a 'squirrel year', following a
> banner balsam fir cone crop, and avian breeding success was
> characteristically low, reflected in this year's scarcity of yearling
> birds. We have yet to encounter a red squirrel on Stratton or
> Mansfield, and there were none on Burke. Nesting success should
> rebound. There is a low cone crop emerging, so we may have
> consecutive 'non-squirrel years', good for the birds.
>
> Location: Burke Mountain
> Observation date: 6/12/08
> Number of species: 14
>
> Yellow-bellied Flycatcher 5
> Common Raven 1
> Winter Wren 3
> Swainson's Thrush 7
> Hermit Thrush 1
> American Robin 1
> Nashville Warbler 4
> Magnolia Warbler 4
> Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) 10
> Blackpoll Warbler 5
> Canada Warbler 1
> White-throated Sparrow 8
> Dark-eyed Junco 10
> Purple Finch 1
>
> This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org/vt)
>
> Chris
>