What: It's FOY (first-of-year) season, and the skies are abuzz with the wing beats of our first returning migrant birds. Apparently, they didn't hear about our record-setting cold weather. I love the first flocks of vultures returning north. They come with the male red-winged blackbirds, the waterfowl (if only our ponds would thaw!!), and the courtship behavior of our over-wintering birds like chickadees.I spotted this committee of vultures (see my post on collective nouns) over the St Joseph Cemetery on Archibald St in Burlington on Saturday afternoon. There were at least 15 birds.
Over the next few weeks we'll see more and more birds returning to the state. It's an exciting time of year - I'd love to hear what other folks are starting to see as the days get longer and (hopefully) warmer.
I was (on a bicycle) at the UVM gym on Sunday and looking south out towards Spear Street and saw a profile of a huge bird gliding in the distance--it almost looked like a little airplane! It must have been a turkey vulture! Thanks Teage!
ReplyDeleteCould also have been a bald eagle, which are very nearly little airplanes. There's been at least one resident bald eagle along the shoreline in Burlington all winter.
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