2024

Winooski, Vermont

The trip to Winooski was originally planned as a trip to see Centennial Woods, a property of the University of Vermont which rests near their campus. I had wanted to go there for a long time, as early as a year before I went, but I didn't go there because I was nervous about having to use the city bus networks to get around for the first time.

I took the wrong route and never made it to Centennial Woods that day, but things worked out. I ended up wandering around the happy little city of Winooski, one of Burlington's neighbors.

After getting off the bus, the first place to catch my interest was a small, quiet cemetery. Following the tradition of me getting a new lifer the moment I start birding and no more afterward, this white-throated sparrow was at the cemetery's entrance.

Here's a chipping sparrow, perching on a gravestone.

Being alone means I can take a lot of time to get a clear shot. This bee had caught my eye in the grass, a little red shimmer that was moving around quickly. It took a good amount of time to follow it and catch it at the right moment, but I did! On a closer look, it's really more of a reddish brown.

I left the cemetery and started walking down the street and into Winooski proper, passing by several houses. I had never seen a goldfinch using a bird feeder before, and did what any nosy neighbor would do.

The town was historically dependent on a dam that runs through the Winooski River. Here's a view from atop the dam, where you can see the rocks that have been dynamited through to make way for the water.

As I was leaving the dam, I saw this tiny butterfly. I've seen these before in captivity, but never in the wild, and from what I've gathered about this color combination, it could be one of many different species.