I went back to Okemo Mt. in Ludlow last evening to search for Bicknell's 
Thrush (BITH).  My early morning survey on June 19 had come up empty, 
but I thought a dusk survey might be more likely to reveal any birds 
that were present.  I arrived at 7:45 pm and walked from the uppermost 
parking lot (~1/4 mile below the summit) to the Summit Deck restaurant, 
then up the ski trail work road to the summit. Broadcasting BITH calls 
and songs at regular intervals, I managed to find 2 birds, both males 
that eventually sang.  The first, in a regenerating blow down area about 
100 meters downslope from the top of the road, approached silently at 
very close range but didn't respond vocally for 2-3 minutes, then called 
with fairly high intensity and sang a few times.  The second bird sang 
and called persistently from an area below the summit tower. Interesting 
that neither bird, both of which were presumably present on June 19, 
responded to playback or vocalized spontaneously that day.

Swainson's Thrush (SWTH) were very common from the parking lot to the 
summit.  I heard 11-12 singing, and several calling.  In the mid-1990s I 
conducted several surveys of Okemo and had 7-8 BITH there, all the way 
down to the parking area, with fewer SWTH overall.  I'll have to dig out 
my old field notebooks to compare actual numbers, but there is no doubt 
that the local BITH population has diminished and the SWTH population 
increased.  Magnolia Warblers were the second most abundant species 
vocalizing, with 7 singing males, and I saw/heard at least 6 Chipping 
Sparrows, which I don't remember from the 1990s.

This is a somewhat isolated peak, and it bears watching during the years 
ahead.

Chris

-- 
Chris Rimmer
Vermont Center for Ecostudies
P.O. Box 420
Norwich, VT 05055
802-649-8281 ext. 1
www.vtecostudies.org