The Hermit Thrush Newsletter
With over fifty Audubon chapters throughout the United States moving to rename themselves to become “Bird Alliances,” the Vermont chapters met to discuss taking a similar action. After considerable thought and discussion over a two-year period, the Green Mountain Audubon Society voted to change the organization’s name to the Green Mountain Bird Alliance.
Nature has always been my best teacher. The other day, it reminded me, painfully but beautifully, that conservation successes are hard won, measured in tiny increments, and result from tireless work, usually over long periods of time. It reinforced, too, that each of us has a role to play in bringing them about—some admittedly more skillfully than others, as I witnessed firsthand—but a role, nonetheless.
The final tally from last month's Burlington Winter Bird Count was 75 species on count day, plus one hybrid and another 3 count week species (that I know of). Despite challenging conditions with morning snow, we set quite a few new records and had a relatively high number of species for a non-irruption year.
In recent weeks, I have had the pleasure of leading a number of Green Mountain Audubon Society bird walks at sites in Chittenden, Franklin, and Grand Isle Counties. Participating in each of these outings have been birders with all levels of experience. Chatting with these novice-to-veteran bird watchers has made me reflect upon my own growth as a birder and the gratitude that I have toward those from whom I have learned.
To know recently retired, distinguished, and dedicated GMAS board member Ali Wagner is, first of all, to marvel at her extraordinary birding skills, including a preternatural auditory recall of the songs and chip notes of hundreds of Vermont’s resident and migratory species. Equally inspiring, she has never lost the joy and wonder that birding gifts us.
