Birdwatching in Vermont, pp. 116-117.

Tom Berriman's Birding Essex County, Part 1.

Damon’s Crossing is on River Road where Bog Creek flows into the Moose River.

Victory Basin Wildlife Management Area (WMA) is a 4,970-acre wetland and forest complex owned by the State of Vermont and managed by the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department. The property is located 15 miles northeast of Saint Johnsbury in the town of Victory, in Essex County. Access areas are located along Victory Road, a dirt road that bisects the WMA and follows the Moose River from North Concord to Gallup Mills.

This WMA hosts a variety of habitat types, all within close proximity to each other. Within the heart of Victory Basin lies a 20-acre, broad-leaved, evergreen scrub-shrub community classified as a “boreal bog”. Small stands of black spruce are scattered across the lowest elevations, growing on lush sphagnum moss beds. Extensive stands of red spruce and balsam fir surround these wetland sites on slightly higher elevations, providing critical wintering habitat for white-tailed deer.

The Moose River’s meandering floodplain is dotted by alder swales, black cherry “islands” and sedge meadows. The hills surrounding the basin are dominated by yellow birch-American beech-sugar maple forest typical of the region.

Beaver ponds provide feeding grounds for great blue herons and bitterns, and nesting habitats for wood, black, and mallard ducks, and hooded and common mergansers.

A universal access trail at Damon's Crossing leads to an accessible wildlife viewing platform with views of wetlands as well as the surrounding landscape. The trail is .15 miles each way, 4+ feet wide and the surface is compacted stone with some sections of boardwalk.