Moose Bog Revisited
Wenlock Wildlife Management Area, northern Vermont

On the 3-5^th of May 2017 I birded the spruce-fir forests of Moose Bog, a place I had visited with Jared Keyes in June 2016. I re-visited a month earlier this year in order to have a better chance with Spruce Grouse, one of the elusive boreal species that can be found there.

The drive up from DC took 14 hours (with stops for three meals). I arrived at my campsite at 9:15 PM in the dark—and finding the campsite was made more difficult because its address was interpreted by my GPS as a location about 9 miles north of the place itself.

I camped at Big Rock campground in North Stratford, New Hampshire. Just across the Connecticut River from Vermont, Big Rock was the closest open campsite to Moose Bog this early in the season. It was about 9 miles southeast of the birding site. After Memorial Day it is possible to camp at Brighton State Park in Vermont, about 10 miles west of Moose Bog. Both are quite satisfactory places to camp.

Moose Bog is situated in the Nulhegan Basin, a big flat interior lowland surrounded by mountains. On a map, the Basin has the look of a ancient bolide impact site. This big flat frost pocket is filled with boreal forest of Black Spruce, Red Spruce, Balsam Fir, Northern White-cedar, White Birch, and Quaking Aspen. That is its great attraction. The lowest spots are very boggy, and these boggy areas are attractive to Moose and various north country birds. Much of the Basin is protected as Silvio Conte National Wildlife Refuge and two Vermont Wildlife Management Areas (Wenlock and West Mountain). Much of the Basin has been heavily logged, and there is not much old growth forest. Some of the very nicest is found along the Moose Bog trail—a flat walking track about 1.5 miles long on the north side of the bog and not far from route 105.

Early May in northernmost Vermont is the very end of winter. There was still snow hidden in small patches in the shadier spots, and none of the deciduous trees had leafed out. The Red Maples were popping their deep red buds, and the some of the Tamaracks were starting to push out tiny needles. The hillsides, mainly deciduous, gave off the faintest green haze in patches, where the trees were being encouraged by the weak sun.

A few Spring Peepers were singing in the bogs, and a few of the migrant songbirds were starting to arrive on territory: Myrtle Warbler, Palm Warbler, Northern Waterthrush, Hermit Thrush, the two kinglets. White-throated Sparrows were in song. Winter Wrens were giving their roller-coaster vocalization. A pair of Merlins made a lot of noise from some tall spruces where, I presume, they were putting up a nest.

Also the permanent resident species were in spring mode, in spite of the winter-like conditions. Black-backed Woodpeckers were drumming, as were Pileated Woodpeckers.

Moose tracks divotted the dirt roads. The single Moose I encountered was a sad-looking calf that appeared to be suffering from an infestation of ticks. The Moose in the area are not doing well, in part because of ticks.

I was there mainly to track down and photograph the Spruce Grouse. The males start displaying in late April when the snow is mainly gone. The males hang out in the interior spruce forest where the ground is covered in a mat of green moss. Individual males attract females with a display flight and also a noisy wing flipping. The display flights that I saw were simply quick transits from the ground up to a nearby branch. This wing sound is what alerted me to the presence of the single male I encountered on two different days. I never saw a female in my three days in the woods.

The male I encountered was very tame. He would hang out in a small patch of woods and move about on the ground and also periodically shift from the ground up onto low branches.

In both mornings that I encountered him, at around 0745am, he did not mind my clambering noisily into the thick woods from the trail. Both times I spent more than a half-hour with the bird, departing and leaving him to his ongoing activities.

At one point the male, perched on the ground, ran straight at me and approached to within a couple of feed of me.

I never heard the male make any sounds except those sounds he produced with his wings. He did not do a lot of display, instead just moving back and forth from the ground to the low tree branches and back. I assume he did not confuse me with a female grouse, and that had a female grouse been present, he would of done his thing more resolutely.

This patch of old growth spruce-fir forest and the adjacent bog and lake are a wonderful place for a naturalist to spend time. It is very verdant and peaceful and filled with solitude. The presence (or possible presence) of all sorts of wilderness creatures makes it all the more enchanting. I saw Beaver and Muskrat in the wetlands. On my last morning there the main patch was filled with the footprints of a cow and calf Moose that had passed through since I had been there late the previous afternoon. I also saw scat of a Black Bear. I am assuming the Fisher and Porcupine were in the vicinity. The Vermont Fish & Game folks have added a new boardwalk out to the lake itself--which is a wonderful place to take it all in.

One suggestion for future visitors. For those eager to encounter a Spruce Grouse, be sure to visit early in the year—before the 5^th of May.