It’s 6:00am and already it’s 82 degrees—the kind of day where the air feels thick and wet to breathe in. We assemble at Isham Farm in Williston to conduct a baseline survey for birds and pollinators and make bird-friendly farming recommendations to the landowners. Birds and bees typically go hand-in-hand and when you manage for one, you usually get the other. 

Audubon Vermont staff Margaret Fowle, Gwendolyn Causer, Simran Padgett, and I are joined by Jason Mazurowski. He’s an adjunct professor at the University of Vermont and a pollinator expert from the Gund Institute, which focuses research on climate solutions, health and well-being, sustainable agriculture, and resilient communities. 

We’re all greeted by the warm and friendly smile of Helen Weston, one of the farm’s owners. Together with Mike Isham, she is the 5th generation to operate the farm. Originally a dairy farm purchased by the Isham family in 1871, it has had many different purposes through the years. Mike and Helen now grow market vegetables, blueberries, Christmas trees, and other crops, but this is not your typical farm. They focus on protecting the 4 B’s: birds, bees, butterflies and bugs, and manage the land with conservation in mind. They also host environmental education community events with guest speakers and musicians. Learn more about their First:Earth Summer Series – click here. Audubon Vermont is honored to be the recipient of proceeds from this series. 

The relationship between Isham Farm and Audubon Vermont started when the farm became involved in the Bird-Friendly Maple Project. This project helps landowners learn how to manage their sugarbush with forestry practices that support tree diversity and vertical structure for birds instead of trying to squeeze maximum syrup production out of a monoculture stand of sugar maples. Helen and Mike have been modeling a lot of other sustainable agriculture practices that have improved the diversity of the 4 B’s on the farm: delayed mowing of hayfields until late summer to protect grassland birds during their nesting season, keeping the Christmas tree patch unmown and controlling pests with flocks of chickens, planting native vegetation plots for pollinators, and managing diverse habitats on the property including a pond and hedgerows filled with native trees and shrubs. We’re here today to give them a species list of the birds and bees that are present, and to provide additional guidance on what more they can do.  

The sun is still low in the sky, but steadily rising over the mountains. A wave of gratitude hits me and it’s one of many reflections this field season where I found myself asking in disbelief “I get paid to do this?” We start our survey walking through the Christmas tree patch, which looks a little different from other Christmas tree farms you might see around since they don’t mow between the aisles or around the bases of the trees. Grasses, common milkweed, and other vegetation grows high and unruly. This means it takes a little longer for the trees to reach harvest-ready maturity, but the extra vegetation supports a greater abundance and diversity of insects that pollinate their crops and serve as a food resource for birds. Sometimes doing less, is actually doing more. The Isham’s also let their free-range chickens wander through the wonderfully unkempt rows, providing pest control. An especially curious and confident hen follows us for a few moments. In addition to stretching her legs, she too benefits from the overgrown grass by gobbling up extra insects she finds. Her eggs are sold at the farm and the idea is that happy chickens produce healthy eggs.  

We start to see and hear our first birds of the wild variety. A Song Sparrow holds a juicy caterpillar swinging from its beak as it rests at the top of a Christmas tree and watches us from a close but safe distance. In the field edges, a few back-lit avian silhouettes are perched on high branches in tall trees and they’re too hard to identify by sight, so we have to wait for a glimpse of flight or listen to their songs and calls to make a final determination. Margaret, Senior Conservation Biologist for Audubon Vermont, scribbles 4-letter codes for each bird we see to record them on her clipboard. Gwen, an Environmental Educator and Communications Coordinator for Audubon Vermont is particularly good at bird song ID (she’s also a plant ID whiz). She is the first to spot an Indigo Bunting, a fan favorite, and we quickly all chase the vibrant blue male with our eyes. To Gwen’s ear, he says “Fire, Fire! Where, where? Here, here! There, there!” While Margaret writes field notes old-school style with pencil and paper, Gwen uses an electronic app on her phone called eBird to track the species we see. Simran and I are here to absorb as much information as we can from the pros.  

While we birders peer through our binoculars, Jason swoops his butterfly net behind us at some vegetation with a quick and confident strike and twirls it to gently trap the insects he targeted. I hear him say “Hmm, I’m mostly finding bumble bees. This makes sense because they are the first ones up in the morning and it may be too early for the others; they must still be sleeping.” This fills me with a particular kind of delight as I think about bumble bees as early risers and other bees as sleepy teenagers of the pollinator world that have yet to roll out of bed. Jason also explains that in general, it’s a little bit humid for most bees and they’re not quite as active under these conditions. Can you blame them?

Before we depart, Helen shows us around the old dairy barn and her education stations out back. Walking paths and fun shapes have been carved into the grass for corralling excited young children to learning stations for Helen to teach them about the natural world around us in one of her outdoor education series. The time is now creeping into mid-morning and Helen has some work to do in preparation for the farmers market held weekly, so we go our separate ways. This is the start of a promising partnership with thoughtful landowners and wonderful ideals of what sustainable and environmentally conscious farming could aspire to be. 

To learn more about Isham Farm and their First:Earth Summer Series visit their website: https://ishamfamilyfarm.com/ 

Isham Farm eBird report:

3515 Oak Hill Rd, Williston US-VT 44.39162, -73.09453 Jun 29, 2021

6:19 AM

Traveling

1.33 miles

138 Minutes

All birds reported? Yes

Comments: Submitted from eBird for iOS, version 2.6.2 Build 2.6.18

7 Canada Goose

3 Mourning Dove

1 Yellow-billed/Black-billed Cuckoo

4 Killdeer

1 Wilson's Snipe

1 Northern Flicker

1 Eastern Wood-Pewee

1 Eastern Phoebe

2 Eastern Kingbird

5 flycatcher sp. (Tyrannidae sp.) -- Recently fledged chicks with parents

3 American Crow

1 Black-capped Chickadee

2 Tree Swallow

1 Barn Swallow

1 White-breasted Nuthatch

1 European Starling

1 Gray Catbird

2 Eastern Bluebird

1 Veery

1 Cedar Waxwing

7 American Goldfinch

1 Chipping Sparrow

1 Dark-eyed Junco

1 Savannah Sparrow

1 Song Sparrow

3 Bobolink

2 Red-winged Blackbird

1 Common Grackle

1 Ovenbird

3 Common Yellowthroat

1 Blackburnian Warbler

1 Scarlet Tanager

2 Indigo Bunting

Number of Taxa: 33