The weather prediction was rain in the afternoon (it didn't happen) so we moved out in the morning, covering some of the same ground we did in previous days, but with a twist.
We had not been into Colchester or Essex, another nearby town , so this was a good time to do that. Both towns are small, quite typical of small town Vermont, with the city's main building (city hall, historical society, police, etc) all situated in the same block in town. These older towns have grown but started in a concentrated area. Colchester is a town of 17,000, but there are so many trees in the neighborhoods you would never see the homes. Named for the Earl of Colchester, it is the second most populous TOWN in the state of Vermont. Pre-Columbian natives lived here 2,000 years ago. The suburb of Winooski Village seceded from it ,causing it to lose about 1/2 of its base.
(** If you wish to see a very confusing election for merger , look up' Essex VT' and see how they merged and then "unmerged" all in the same year. )
A short drive to Sand Bar beach again brought few birds but the wind was now blowing at 30 mph across the Lake (Champlain) and the birds are not dumb. We continued on to seek some doughnuts at Hackett's Orchard and some cider to take along on the rest of the trip. The owner was taking a load of school children on a hay ride in a wagon.
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| Tis the season. |
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| The children were excited for the ride in the wagon through the orchards. |
From there we meandered on side roads starting to pick up some birds. We actually ended up with as many as the day before (21) and that included: BALD EAGLE (young one), GREAT EGRET , GREAT BLUE HERON, LINCOLN SPARROW, BLACK CAPPED CHICKADEE, CHIPPING SPARROW, NORTHERN FLICKER, DOWNY WOODPECKER ( long time no see) , BLACK DUCK, MALLARD, PIED BILLED GREBE, WOOD DUCK, and hordes of CANADIAN GEESE in the fields resting or eating . The Geese were very active , flying over in huge flocks, or resting in fields of corn. In one field the farmer had deliberately left the corn on the ground after harvesting, The Gees appreciate that both in the fall and the spring.
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| In the distance the Geese are resting |
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| Better view of them resting. |
Then we got serious about seeing both the apples and the barns in the area. Ruth is always looking for another barn to photograph and she spotted two today , only one was "photo class".
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| These are probably Ruby Mac. |
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| A row of Ruby Macs with wonderful yield. |
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| One of Ruth's finds. (Side view) |
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| Front view. |
Then came the surprise of the day. As we were looking for a spot along the water to eat lunch, we saw these hundreds of birdhouses on trees all painted many bright colors. There were hundreds of them. Here... let the photos tell the story.
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| This was the view as we approached the woods. |
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| A view through the woods. |
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| The reason for it in the first place.Very practical. |
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| Part of the woods that was covered with bird houses (Swallows) |
BE SURE TO READ THE "STORY" ABOVE.
That ended the day on a high note for sure. We returned to the trailer in the wind but were in the middle of supper, when the rain showers came . Just during the rains, however, the sun came out near sunset so it was very low in the sky. I ran to the door with my camera and there was a rainbow! Just after that the sun set so you get both of them tonight!
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| Sunset after the rain. |
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| Rainbow during the rain. From the trailer door. |
Tomorrow we head for NY state taking the ferry across Lake Champlain to Plattsburgh and then around by the St Lawrence River to Watertown, NY, area on Lake Ontario. See you then.
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