Danny and Sara Go Birding

So after our Boston adventures we headed back to Quechee, where I had to work a few days. I did an outreach at the Ben and Jerry's Festival which I don't have pictures of, but afterwards we went to visit the Hawk Owl who was sitting on the same tree that I saw him at over a month ago. We saw him fly though, so he's definitely real. And I got another blurry picture. I should take this moment to mention the following pictures of birds will be poor quality, and that's because I was taking them with my iphone through binoculars.

Danny got to meet the crow that lives at VINS. 

And he got to watch me do a program with this guy (Harris Hawk).

We took a hike down the gorge and saw the pretty valley and ice structures.

We took selfies in front of the Quechee covered bridge.

And then we went birding - YAY! So we went to the coast of New Hampshire and Northern Massachusetts and had a great day of birding. One of the best parts was that we saw almost everything from the car and did not freeze to death outside. It was snowing almost all day too which was pretty.

First we had to see some ducks. This is my new favorite duck - Common Eider.

There were plenty of gulls to laugh at and enjoy - look how they all face the same direction!

And oh, should I mention the snowy owl we saw on a roof? This is actually the same snowy I had pictures of from my last trip. She was pretty easy to find again as she lives on such a nice piece of coast.

And loons. They look so different in winter! This one was starting to molt and get it's spotted back.

Mergansers! They have the funniest hairdo!

We walked to the beach...then immediately returned to car because it was so cold.

Snowy #2! So pretty. We were about to drive away and leave it in peace when...

It took off and caught some dinner!

Then we got to watch it fly back to a more comfy place after eating.

Snowy #3!

Then we saw a new bird flying and we didn't know what it was!...

It was a short-eared owl, the first one either of us had seen! If that wasn't exciting enough we saw a northern harrier come and chase it off. It was intense, and I'm sorry I don't have photographs of it but I was too involved in the moment.

Meanwhile, snowy #3 had dinner and we watched her clean up after. 

Snowy #4 was seen about 5 minutes after we left #3, but I have no photo proof! It was on a telephone post on a skinny bridge and we decided I did not need to stop traffic or get in an accident because I had already seen and photographed 3 that day. 

In case any of you are still wondering what I do with my life. Here is me and the kestrel on the job.

Danny and Sara Learn History

I had a very exciting visitor this past week - Danny! And we started off his visit with a couple days in Boston. I took A LOT of pictures, so this bunch I'm sharing is the most I could make myself cut it down. So sorry if it's too many and you hate history, and sorry if it's not enough and you want to see the insides of buildings.

First we went to Cambridge, so I could take this picture to my parents...

We visited the Harvard Natural History Museum which was pretty cool, and we learned we could fit inside this prehistoric creature's mouth.  

We spent a full day on the freedom trail, is a 2.5 mile trail through Boston that includes 16 historic sites. One of them was Boston Common's (that's what that sign says), which is now a large park that our hotel was near. In the olden days fun things like hangings happened here.

We toured our way around their current State House aka capitol building. Lots of cool stuff inside and tributes to people like John Hancock and Sam Adams. They have a fish hanging in their House of Representatives which is silly in my opinion.

Next up was Park Street Church which we only saw from the outside. 

But next was Granary Burying Ground where Paul Revere, John Hancock, B Franklin's parents, and victims of the Boston Massacre are buried. 

It was after this third stop that I realized we were following an actual trail on the sidewalk, which was very helpful at times....Danny did not realize this until the 12th or 13th stop :) 

This was King's Church so naturally loyalists to the crown liked it. 

There was a cemetery next door that we explored. A lot of the old puritan gravestones had some interesting art on them because they didn't believe in religious icons. But they used the gravestones as a way to express their beliefs on the afterlife. This one showed a battle between a skeleton and father time. 

This statue of B Franklin is where the old Boston Latin School used to stand - it was the first public school in Boston, and it still exists in some form elsewhere in the city. They were being ironic I think when they put B Frank there since he dropped out of the school. The three other Deceleration signers that attended the school were Sam Adams, John Hancock, and Robert Treat Paine. 

There was a donkey statue...so obviously I had to take a picture with it.

One of the stops was Old Corner Bookstore, but it's now a Chipotle that we had lunch at it. Across the street was the Old South Meeting House...

...Apparently any a debate has happened in this room. Also during the revolution when England held Boston they turned into in a riding school which was a rude thing to do to a church, or at least that's what George Washington expressed when he saw it. 

One of my favorite stops was the Old State House that was the center of the government up until the revolution. It had a nice museum and sometimes the building shook from the subway running underneath.

This is one of the rooms inside where the royal governor (appointed by the king) would meet with the representatives.

The Boston Massacre also happened right outside the Old State House.

This was Faneuil Hall, that was and is a marketplace/trade area.The upper floors were meeting areas where Sam Adams and others protested the Stamp and Sugar Acts from the British Parliment.

We met with some of the locals.

Paul Revere's House was actually much bigger than how it appears here. The house had some interesting history and cool to see what a large house looked like back then.  

Snowy Boston Street

Us on the snowy Boston street.

Paul Revere is still riding.

Old North Church where the lantern was lit by Paul Revere's friends to let the patriots know the British were coming by sea.

U.S.S. Constitution - was fun to explore the different decks.

And last was the Bunker Hill Monument, but did you know this is not Bunker Hill and the battle didn't happen on Bunker Hill? It happened on Breed's Hill. It was a mess up by some British map drawer guy. The patriots lost this battle, but proved they could fight effectively against the British. This is where the supposed line "Don't fire till you see the whites of their eyes" was said. 

And we climbed up that monument....

And when my legs were about to give out, we reached the top. 

And were rewarded with the 360 views of the Boston area. This is a shot of downtown where we had been exploring all day. 

The morning before we left we took a walk through Boston Commons and met some cool duck :)

And visited Cheers, at least the outside since it wasn't open yet. 

Check back soon where I will post on our adventures in Quechee and the superfantasticawesome birding trip we took on the coast where I saw some new birds!