Mark your calendars for the week of April 30 – May 6! Audubon Vermont, along with our maple-producing partners, will be celebrating the return of migratory birds with Bird-Friendly Maple Week!

Over the past 8-10 weeks Vermont’s maple syrup producers have been busy. The sight of steam rising from the sugarhouse and the hustle and bustle of sugarmakers, working sometimes around the clock, has given us another year’s crop of nature’s perfect sweetener. Now that maple sugaring season has nearly come to an end, the activity around the sugarhouses and the forests that provide them with sap is going to be changing. Migratory songbirds will soon begin arriving in Vermont’s sugarbushes and “the other maple sugaring story” will begin again.

The Scarlet Tanager, having journeyed all the way from its wintering grounds in South America, will seek out sugarbushes that host a wide variety of tree species as they raise their next generation. The Black-throated Blue Warbler, which spent its winter in the Caribbean Islands, will be looking for young trees and shrubs growing in the forest understory. Here it will find insects and spiders to eat, as well as a well-hidden place to build a nest. Other scenarios will play out for various sugarbush nesting songbirds such as the Ovenbird, Eastern Wood-Pewee, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, and Wood Thrush.

2018 is Year of the Bird, a celebration of the centennial of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. As part of this year-long event Audubon Vermont is hosting its own celebration of the spring return of migratory birds to our forests with Bird-Friendly Maple Week! Maple syrup lovers everywhere can join in the celebration by getting bird-friendly and purchasing maple products from sugarmakers in our Bird-Friendly Maple Project. You will support producers who are going the extra mile to ensure that their sugarbush habitat is not only sweet for sap production but also for nesting birds.

Special thanks to the sponsors of this inaugural Bird-Friendly Maple Week celebration:

Branon Family Maple Orchards

Dan Clayton

Hagenbuch-Hudson Family Farm

Hi Vue Maples

Jed’s Maple Products

Mance’s Tree Farm

Runamok Maple

 For a full listing of participating maple producers, a Story Map, and more information on the Bird-Friendly Maple Project please visit vt.audubon.org/maple