Posts by jbird24
A World of Wonder: Early Childhood Wetlands Exhibit
Giggles of joy, squeals of excitement, oohs and ahhs of wonder. These are just a few of the sounds we expect to hear emanating from the upcoming Early Childhood Exhibit at the VINS Nature Center. This winter, we will open a new space dedicated to young audiences. The VINS Staff have been hard at work…
Read MoreBroad-winged Hawks: Tracking a Migratory Journey
If you have felt a recent change in the air and are starting to get excited for fall, you may just be a Broad-winged Hawk. Okay, maybe broad-wings don’t get excited about fall, but they do experience Zugunruhe, which is German for migratory restless period. September is not just the start of pumpkin spice everything…
Read MoreVINS Research Updates
by Jim Armbruster, Lead, Center for Field Research Some exciting updates from the research world! July 2024 Broad-winged Hawk Monitoring The VINS Field Research team, in collaboration with Hawk Mountain’s Broad-winged Hawk Project, recently deployed a second transmitter on a Vermont Broad-winged Hawk. “Billings” was encountered at Marsh Billings Rockefeller National Historical Park in Woodstock,…
Read MoreNest Box Monitoring
by Jim Armbruster, Lead, Center for Field Research The VINS Research team have 13 successful American Kestrel nest boxes this year that we have been monitoring: 2 of which were already successful with all 5 eggs hatching; 3 of the nests were successful with 4 egg hatches, and the remaining boxes are still being monitored…
Read MoreRemarkable Reptiles – A New Exhibit
By Chris Collier, Senior Director, Operations & Exhibits VINS new exhibit – Scales and Shells: Remarkable Reptiles – is in a new location (next to the Birds Are Dinosaurs exhibit in the Neale Pavilion), which provides our reptile ambassadors much larger, updated, bioactive enclosures. While most well-known for our avian ambassadors, VINS is currently home…
Read MoreLocating Broad-winged Hawk Nesting Sites
by Jim Armbruster, Lead, Center for Field Research This summer VINS will be focusing on locating Broad-winged Hawk (BWHA) nesting sites with the hopes to trap and band at least six of them with GPS trackers like we did with Ottuaquechee, a female BWHA. There is little known about BWHA’s and our efforts will help…
Read MoreAmerican Kestrels Return
by Jim Armbruster, Lead, Center for Field Research Some exciting news in the American Kestrel world! The VINS Research team is certain that a female kestrel we banded last year (pictured on the left) has returned to a nest box in Vermont with her mate (this will be confirmed by making sure she has a green…
Read MoreThe Wild Places – Book Recommendation
Charles F. Rattigan – VINS Executive Director The ‘wilderness” books I’ve read include Edward Abbey’s Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness and John Muir’s Steep Trails and I recommend both of these thought-provoking and mystical accounts of spending time in a quest to be truly in nature. These are first-hand accounts of the experience…
Read MoreThe Arbornaut – Book Recommendation
Charles F. Rattigan – VINS Executive Director I have a special affection for Dr. Margaret Lowman, Canopy Meg. Meg is an American biologist, educator, writer, and tireless advocate for trees, forests and their preservation. I first met her in 2010 when I was making field guide apps for smart devices (the iPhone). Meg was teaching…
Read MoreVINS Constructs a New Commissary
Chris Collier – Senior Director, Operations & Exhibits VINS is excited to construct a new commissary and add to our ambassador raptor enclosures to facilitate both our increased biosecurity due to Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI), and an increased number of ambassador raptors to support our on-site and outreach education programs. With the increase of…
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