May 31st : Burlington Visit

 My flight to Burlington on Tuesday was delayed due to weather. Fortunately, I was able to alert Terri before she started on the 2 hour drive to pick me up. I arrived around 6PM instead of 4:45PM so not too bad. My sister arrived  Tuesday evening and we drove back to her house in Burlington, VT.

The Scott's back yard is gorgeous. Here is a view from their 2nd floor deck.

My sister and niece, Stephanie, are seriously into bird watching. Terri informed me that the Bobolinks were sighted nearby at a beautiful nature preserve. Hiking in Vermont is always beautiful so I was in. There was this nice plaque which talked about the Bobolinks. They arrive here in late spring to mate and nest. 

Here is some very interesting information and nice pictures of the birds we were hoping to see. They nest in big open fields. Bobolinks info 

We were just getting started and I spotted a pretty little yellow bird. Terri identified it as a Common Yellowthroat. Common Yellowthroat info

We walked up a trail to get to the fields where the Bobolinks had been spotted. The view was amazing. The water is Lake Champlain and the mountains are the Adirondacks. I heard hundreds of birds on the way up the trail. I spotted about ten. I decided this birdwatching is more difficult than I thought. Most of the "Best" birds are elusive. But there were plenty of Red Winged Blackbirds. Red Winged Blackbird info 

View of Lake Champlain and the Adirondack mountains

I saw some very interesting trees. Terri was able to identify them with her App. They were Eastern Red Cedars. The trunks were very colorful.

Eastern Red Cedars

Terri and Scott

Scott is not really into birding, but he does enjoy walking so he came along.

Beaver Hut

On the way up the hill, we spotted this nice little stream and a beaver hut. Beavers are very plentiful in Vermont.

Picturesque stream

Many of the trees are very tall as you can see looking at Terri searching for birds.

In particular I liked this tree. Apparently the center trunk had a problem but the tree just kept on growing. It would make a great tree fort.

Scott walked on ahead of us because we kept stopping to look for birds and searching for the Bobolinks. Our efforts paid off. We saw a number of Bobolinks, some fairly close up and some flying by.

We also saw a beautiful Tree swallow. It's feathers were iridescent when the sun hit them just right. He was flying around us, presumably catching bugs, and we got great views of him. We weren't able to get pictures of any of the birds ourselves. 

Tree Swallow pics

On the way back down I happened to see this cute little gray squirrel silhouetted against the sky.

As we were headed back to the car I spotted a King Bird. They are apparently pretty common but I had never seen one before that I know of. Kingbird

The weather was very comfortable and our walk was successful. After the walk we went out for a nice late breakfast.

Thursday, rain was forecast in the afternoon, so Terri and I went for a 4 mile walk around her neighborhood in the morning. That afternoon we relaxed and packed for our visit to Albany, NY. My great nephew, Owen was in an AAU basketball tournament. It was a pretty scenic ride and we arrived early enough Friday to go for a bird watching hike at Pine Harbor Arboretum. The tournament started Saturday morning.

The arboretum was very peaceful and had many unusual species of trees and plants. This tree had pink leaves with a green shape in the center. Very unusual. 

Stephanie & Terri

I heard many, many birds and saw about 5! Stephanie saw many. She is an expert. Terri had an app that helped identify plants which were not marked.

I found this tree pretty unique. Relatively small branches seemed to be coming out from the middle of the trunk

Saturday morning we headed to the first basketball game. The tournament was held at Sienna College in Albany. The campus was very nice and the gyms were very large. 32 teams were participating.

Interesting approach to a "Bell Tower."

It was very difficult to get a good action picture of Owen while he was playing. This is the best I have. Owen is #10, in black. They played well and won handily. Fun way to start. 

The original City Hall

Next game is late afternoon so we did a walking tour of Albany, the State Capitol of New York. The buildings were very impressive. I included quite a few in case you are a history buff! There were a number of interesting and informative plaques on the City Hall building. I copied them here for you.

When my sister Julie found out we were going to Albany, she said to be sure to go see the State Capitol Building. I can see why. It's very impressive from the outside. It was closed so we couldn't see the inside.

State Capitol building, (Terri and Stephanie in foreground)

The Egg

Terri had done some research and heard about "The Egg". We found it. It's a fun performing arts center. Quite unusual design. We could only get into the lobby area. Notice the doors at the very bottom for a size perspective. The building is very large.

State Department of Education Building

We were walking past a building that I said reminded me of the Parthenon because of all the columns. Turned out it is the State Department of Education. It is quite a building

Scott was getting more interested in lunch than touring. He patiently waited for us by the large reflecting pools in the center of the area. The pools are used for ice skating in the winter. 

Concrete reflecting pool

We found a very good place for lunch, The Iron Gate. We all enjoyed our meals which were a little different (better!) than the usual fair. My Thai shrimp dish is on the lower left. 

The Iron Gate Cafe, Albany

We continued with the tournament which ended Sunday afternoon for us. Owen's team did well, placing 3rd. We headed back to Burlington. Stephanie was our chauffer for the weekend and did a great job.

Terri

Stephanie on her paddle board

The weather continued to cooperate. I definitely wanted to get in some Kayaking at Stephanie's reservoir where her home is located.

The view from Stephanie's front yard

The last time I visited here, we were supposed to go birding at Moose Bog. In particular we would be looking for a Spruce Grouse, a rare bird that reportedly lived at Moose Bog.  It is located in Silvio O. Conte National Fish and Wildlife Refuge, about 2 hours away. The weather did not cooperate so I said hopefully, next time I come.

This was next time and the weather was great. This birding is serious. I set my alarm for 4:45AM so we could arrive at Moose Bog as the birds were becoming active. I was told that in particular, we were looking for 4 rare birds, the Spruce Grouse, the Black Backed Woodpecker, the Grey Jay and the Boreal Chickadee.  Terri and Stephanie had yet to see any of them. The bird watching began right outside the visitor center when 4 Cedar Waxwings flew into a nearby tree and just sat there. We had a great view with the binoculars.

We went into the visitor center to use the restrooms and I saw a moose head on the wall. It was huge and intimidating. Terri said she wanted to see one, but from afar!

If you are like me, you don't know many birds by name. So I provided links with pictures of some of the ones we saw. 

Cedar Waxwing

We headed up the Moose Bog trail searching for the elusive Spruce Goose in particular. Second hope was the Black Backed Woodpecker.

We arrived at the boardwalk leading to Moose Bog and Stephanie spotted male Black Backed Woodpecker. It is large and beautiful. Stephanie got a few hard won pictures. It hung around long enough for us to get a good look at it. Then shortly afterward, a female showed up! Great day for birding.

Black Backed Woodpecker

Terri had remarked that she would like to see a moose. She had never seen one in the wild. As we were standing on a viewing deck overlooking Moose Bog, Terri spotted a young male moose on the far shore. It stayed around quite a while and we got a good view with the binoculars.

It was time to head back. We had talked to a couple guys that were also looking for the Spruce Grouse. One had been there three days searching for it. It was a long trail back so we were still hopeful. We were halfway back and one of the guys told us he found a male. It was just sitting in a tree. It's a beautiful bird. It was not skittish at all. Stephanie was able to get great pictures. That really topped off a great birding day!

Spruce Grouse

As we drove out of the park we stopped at another little boardwalk. It went down to a very pretty little creek. Here is a good sign explaining about the Refuge Center.

Chris and Theresa's Lake house

One last thing I wanted to do was see my nephew Christopher's lake house. The old one was torn down and a new one was nearing completion. Christopher said he and Theresa had spent a couple years designing it. They did a great job!

The ceiling is 24 feet high. There is a sunporch 6 feet above ground level and a deck on top of it. Both provide a wonderful view of the lake. I can't wait to come back when it's finished. 

My time in Burlington was coming to a close. I planned a seafood dinner with Christopher's family. Christopher and Annika love seafood so swordfish, clams and lobster tails were on the menu. It was a feast. Plus, Terri made brownies with ice cream! Great way to finish off the visit. 

I fly to Toronto Thursday. The Peterson's will pick me up and take me to their home until Guppy is ready to be launched.