eNews | April 2021

The annual April battle between winter and spring in Vermont. Mount Ascutney, Vermont © K.P. McFarland

A Field Guide to April

Migrating birds, blooming flowers, and (of course) mud season. April in Vermont is upon us, and spring is here! Learn about nocturnal migration, early spring ephemerals, "springtime slime," and this month's featured parasite in "What's Eating Pete." Find the Field Guide to April on VCE's Blog.

West Virginia White Butterfly Watch

Pair of West Virginia White butterflies creating the next generation. © K.P. McFarland

Spring is changing. The snow is melting earlier, wildflowers are blooming sooner, and trees are leafing out faster. We'd like to learn how an unusual butterfly that flies only in forests in early spring, the West Virginia White, is faring–and you can help us find out! Your mission: from now until early June, locate a patch of rich, hardwood forest, walk a transect (daily, weekly, whatever works for you), count all the butterflies you find, and report them to our eButterfly website. Even if you don’t find any butterflies, zeros are important to report, too. Can you break the early or late record for a West Virginia White sighting? Who will have the highest count? Can we find them in places they’ve never been recorded? We can’t wait to find out! Learn more about this Vermont Atlas of Life Mission on our website.

Mammal Big Year: Winter Update

Bobcat footprint in snow © Pete Kerby-Miller

Mammals are on the move. Recent snowmelt has encouraged deer to venture away from their sheltered wintering yards, and male skunks to cover several miles each night as mating season kicks off. The changing season also encouraged Pete Kerby-Miller to report on Mammal Big Year progress (the goal being to observe every mammal species in Vermont). You won't want to miss it! Read Pete's update (complete with camera-trap images) on VCE's blog.

Birds of Southeast Arizona: A Virtual Tour April 21 | 7 - 8 PM

Painted Redstart in Arizona. © Jared S. Keyes

Let the sights and sounds of warmer, drier climes take you on a virtual vacation from mud season here in the Northeast! An experienced bird guide, Jared Keyes will lead us on a multimedia tour of some of Southeast Arizona’s special places and special birds. The unique habitats in this corner of the Desert Southwest host an extraordinary variety of avian life. Preregistration required - Click here to register Jared serves as Vice-chair and Treasurer of VCE’s Board of Directors, so not surprisingly, he’s also a lifelong bird watcher and conservationist. For the past 30 years, Jared has led field trips for the Brookline Bird Club (the birding club of record in the Boston area). A serious bird photographer, Jared sells his photographs to online content providers and also donates images to nonprofit conservation organizations for use in their publications. Like the rest of us, Jared has been unable to travel for birds this past year, so has had to re-live previous trips through his photographs and eBird lists. He hopes his images can help transport others to places we are, as yet, still unable to visit.

Save the Date BBQ2021 | May 22 Common Yellowthroat © Charles Gangas

In mid-May, around the peak of spring migration, birdwatchers and naturalists across Vermont will set out with more determination (and coffee) than usual. It's Birdathon time! In this one-day blitz, we hope to set a new single-day Vermont record of 200 identified species and 1,000 Vermont eBird checklists, and raise funds to support VCE’s wildlife conservation work. To accomplish these ambitious goals, we will surely need your help. Visit our Backyard Bird Quest 2021 web page to get all the details. We hope you'll join us!

April Events Learn online with VCE

Parenthesis Lady Beetle © K.P. McFarland

Check out the slate of free, virtual programs we've lined up for the month of April. Below you'll find a list of topics, but please visit VCE's Events page for more details and registration instructions. And check back often as our Events page is updated frequently! Lunchtime Learning Series (Wednesdays at noon): Join VCE's Community Science Outreach Naturalist Julia Pupko each week for a short lesson on how to use a feature of iNaturalist through the lens of a seasonally-relevant Vermont natural history topic, and get answers to your burning iNaturalist questions. Suds & Science (April 6 | 7pm): "Life on the edge - alpine plant communities" with Dr. Simone Whitecloud of Dartmouth/U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory Volunteer Opportunities with VCE (April 7 | 6:30pm): Curious about VCE's volunteer opportunities and how you can get involved? The Charlotte Public Library is hosting this online presentation and discussion–visit their website to register: https://www.charlottepubliclibrary.org/calendar/ Eastern Meadowlarks in Vermont: Ecology and Conservation of an Imperiled Grassland Bird (April 8, 12, 15, 19): Eastern Meadowlarks in the Northeast are rapidly declining. Learn more about this species and what you can do to help keep them on the Vermont landscape. Birds of Southeast Arizona: A Virtual Tour (April 21 | 7pm): See description in the block above.

Vermont Town Birding Challenge

Dickcissel in Waterbury. © Richard Littauer

From the northern boreal forests of Canaan to the fields and southern hardwood forests of Pownal, Vermont’s 251 towns offer up a vast array of habitats, natural communities, and birdlife. Recently, Vermont birder Bob Heitzman–after nearly a decade of birding across the state while meticulously documenting his sightings on Vermont eBird–accomplished his goal of birding in each of Vermont’s 251 towns, a monumental achievement! Focusing your birding efforts at the town level can be rewarding in so many different ways, in terms of personal birding enjoyment and even in relation to eBird data quality. Read this enjoyable, interesting, and information-packed article on the VCE Blog to learn how you, too, can experience the joys and rewards of birding new towns across the state!

When Porcupines Dance

Screen shot from video monitoring of a porcupine den. © Steve Faccio

This past winter, VCE conservation biologist Steve Faccio set up game cams to video-record activity at two different porcupine dens to see how frequently, if at all, fishers (and other predators) visited the dens. What did he learn? Read Steve's blog to find out and watch the action unfold.

Photo-observation of the Month Northern Flying Squirrel by Charlotte Bill

A Northern Flying Squirrel digging seeds out of the snow beneath a bird feeder. © Charlotte Bill

Congratulations to Charlotte Bill for winning the March 2021 Photo-observation of the Month for the Vermont Atlas of Life on iNaturalist. Charlotte’s image of a Northern Flying Squirrel foraging for fallen bird seed at her backyard feeder garnered the most faves in last month's lineup of nearly 4,000 observations submitted by 493 observers. Needless to say, it was very competitive.  The Northern Flying Squirrel (Glaucomys sabrinus) is a primarily nocturnal species, and sightings of these adorable, big-eyed squirrels during the day are quite rare. Vermont is home to two very similar-looking flying squirrel species, the Northern and the Southern Flying Squirrel. Visit the VCE Blog to learn more about this species and view fantastic images from the runners-up in the March 2021 Photo-observation of the Month! Visit the Vermont Atlas of Life on iNaturalist, where you can vote for the winner this month by clicking 'fav' on your favorite photo-observation. Make sure you get outdoors and record the biodiversity around you, then submit your discoveries—and you could be a winner!

The Vermont Center for Ecostudies promotes wildlife conservation across the Americas using the combined strength of scientific research and citizen engagement. Find us online at: vtecostudies.org

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