Guildhall is one of Vermont's smaller towns, with only 261 residents. Most of the settlement in this town is along a highway corridor through the north of the town; however, since I live in the south-central part of the state, I targeted a southern section of the town that could be accessed from neighboring Lunenburg.

The one road that crossed into Guildhall from the south crossed a natural gas pipeline and then a small swampy area, before climbing up a small hill. This seemed like an area that would provide a diversity both of habitats and of bird species.

Well, it was not a rich bird habitat. The wooded hillside yielded only 2 Black-capped Chickadees and 1 Red-breasted Nuthatch. The swamp yielded only 3 warblers, 1 Blue Jay, and 1 Hermit Thrush -- all totally common for this time of year.

I returned to my car totally disappointed, and decided to give a gravel road a try. After half a kilometer, I hear a unique and different call... "bob WHEET" repeated 3 times over a 1 minute period! I checked my iBirdPRO app and confirmed I had a Northern Bobwhite out thru the woods; this was a new bird for my lifelist and my first quail! I followed the well-spaced calls thru the woods to the pipeline corridor, and then slowly zeroed in on the area from which the call was coming. Finally, there! In the low grass of a mountain bike path thru the treeless corridor I saw a black & white striped head. The Bobwhite is a beautiful bird, and I was thrilled to see it Unfortunately I didn't have my nice 8MP camera, so I had to settle for record photos from my 3MP iPhone's camera.

All of the range maps (Sibley, Peterson, iBird) show Northern Bobwhites ranging up into Connecticut and Rhode Island, but eBird.org shows at least 20 reports in Vermont, as well as in Maine and Massachusetts. The field guides need to be updated.

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