This morning Ed Hack and I looked for birds in Norwich, VT. Some  
highlights follow.

Our first stop was on Tucker Hill Road where we greatly benefitted  
from having Spencer and Doug Hardy along with us. In the old beaver  
pond area we were treated to nice views of a variety of species  
including 2 Pileated Woodpeckers flying over, Eastern Wood-Pewees.  
Blue-headed and Red-eyed Vireos, Chestnut-sided, Black-throated Green,  
and Blackburnian Warblers, American Redstart, and Common Yellowthroat.  
A few Bobolinks, presumably migrants, were heard calling while flying  
over.

Ed and I then checked a few Norwich locations on or near the  
Connecticut River. A Green-winged Teal was present with Mallards, 2  
Black Ducks, 2 Great Blue Herons, a Belted Kingfisher, and 3 Barn  
Swallows at Pompy. Despite a moderate exposure of mud flats at Pompy,  
we found no shorebirds there, possibly because of a Peregrine Falcon,  
seen soon after our arrival. On Hogback Road, alongside the fields of  
the Pirouette Horse Farm, a Savannah Sparrow was seen with a flock of  
Chipping Sparrows. Highlights along nearby Campbell Flats Road  
included roughly 90 Canada Geese foraging in a field, a flock of 16  
Turkey Vultures in the air, a Killdeer. and a flock of numerous  
European Starlings, most of which were young birds showing various  
stages of transition between the bland plumage of juveniles and the  
dramatically patterned first mature plumage.

Other species on or near the Connecticut River this morning included a  
couple of Hooded Mergansers, 2 Wood Ducks, and a number of Eastern  
Kingbirds.

George Clark
Norwich, VT