eNews | November 2022
Late Autumn frost in Vermont © Kent McFarland
A Field Guide to November
With November comes a stronger nip to the morning air and more rushed activity of wildlife preparing for winter. There is a sense of fall finality as maples and birches drop their last leaves. November also hails some of Vermont's winter migrants, coming just in time to catch the first flakes.

Click here to read the full field guide to November.
VCE Releases Comprehensive Report of Vermont's Bees
A Peponapis male bee on a flower ©Spencer Hardy
Over 350 wild bee species call Vermont home, but 55 of those species urgently need conservation action. A new report from VCE, prepared in collaboration with Vermont Fish and Wildlife, provides the first comprehensive assessment of Vermont’s bees. The State of the Bees report, which incorporates more than 55,000 bee observations from hundreds of community scientists and biologists, is designed to be engaging and easy to digest.

Check out the report here and join us for an informational webinar Nov 17 at noon here.
VCE Biologist's Work Featured in Audubon Article
A Swainson's Thrush at a banding station © Desiree Narango
VCE got another shoutout in Audubon! One of our conservation scientists, Desiree Narango, conducted a study tagging Swainson's Thrushes in order to learn more about food availability in different types of stopover sites during migration. Click on the link below to follow one of the birds down the Eastern Seaboard, and see where it ended up!

Read the full article here.
A Big Thank You to our Supporters
Nest signs at Chittenden © Eric Hanson
At VCE, it's easy to be thankful this time of year because we have such wonderful supporters! Whether you choose to donate now, on Giving Tuesday, or during our appeal at the end of the year, we deeply thank you for your support. Your contributions allow us to continue working on projects that promote conservation in Vermont and beyond.

If you wish to give a different way, please consider a monthly recurring contribution, and visit VCE's online donation page to set it up. However you choose to contribute, please know that we appreciate your support for VCE and your commitment to conservation. Thank you!
Photo-observation of the Month
Peregrine Falcon
by Craig Hunt
A Peregrine Falcon stretches and preens. Can you spot the metal band on her leg? © Craig Hunt
Congratulations to Craig Hunt for winning the October 2022 Photo-observation of the Month for the Vermont Atlas of Life on iNaturalist! His photo of a banded Peregrine Falcon received the most faves of any iNaturalist observation in Vermont during the past month.
The Peregrine Falcon is known far and wide as a speed demon, a champion migrant, and a true conservation success story. Those are all reason enough for a stellar image of this charismatic bird of prey to sit alone atop the list of most-faved photos, but this individual Peregrine Falcon is more than meets the eye. Thanks to a keen eye and crisp photos, Vermont iNaturalist-er Craig Hunt was able to learn more about this Peregrine Falcons’ past by documenting and reporting the colored and numbered bands on its legs. Things came together piece-by-piece as Craig and other iNaturalist users inspected the bands. The placement of color bands on the left leg revealed that this bird was a female, and the combination of black over green color bands indicated that this was a bird banded in eastern North America. Craig sent his photos and as many of the numbers on the metal band as he could read to the USGS Bird Banding Lab and learned that this Peregrine Falcon was banded as a hatchling alongside three siblings in Lewiston, Maine in May of 2021. In addition to this information, the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife was even kind enough to send along a photo of the very same Peregrine Falcon on the day she was banded! With this tale in mind, keep an eye out for other banded birds (especially waterfowl and birds of prey, which often have large, colorful, more easily visible bands) and be sure to report any banded bird sightings to the USGS Bird Banding Lab at the link above.


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 community engagement. Find us online at vtecostudies.org