Hello Vermont Birders:

Saturday morning I snuck out at 0430 before my family woke up and hit a few
wetland areas. The chorus of Swamp Sparrows, Red-winged Blackbirds, and
Spring Peepers made it a challenge to tease out anything else but I managed
to hear some other highlights.

Route 116 bisects a large cattail marsh on the east side of Shelburne Pond,
a litte north of Pond Road. From the roadside I heard an American Bittern
thunder-pumping, a grunting Virginia Rail, and several Marsh Wrens.

Walking the 0.4 mile stretch of marsh habitat along Pond Road at the
southeast end of Shelburne Pond produced a good look at one close Virginia
Rail and I could hear three others grunting in different directions. An
American Bittern was thunder-pumping way out toward the pond. I also saw a
Green Heron stuck to an alder branch motionless.

Yesterday evening, my wife, daughter (2), niece (3), and I slipped our
canoe into the LaPlatte River at Shelburne Bay. We enjoyed some intimate
encounters with a Great Egret, a Great Blue Heron, a Belted Kingfisher, a
Caspian Tern, and five adult Black-crowned Night-Herons. A Great Crested
Flycatcher "weeping" seemed a tad on the early side. Also, a European
Starling was singing a spot-on imitation of an Eastern Wood-Pewee (the
springtime bane of every eastern eBird reviewers existence).

Cheers,

Eric Hynes
Hinesburg