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Showing posts from 2010

Stratford-Milford CBC 2010

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Tina Green and I were able to sneak in a half-day's birding for the Stratford-Milford CBC before we decided it was time to give in to the snow. Our territory included South Bridgeport and a tiny sliver of Stratford. Our highlights were: Northern Pintail (female, Captain's Cove in Bridgeport) 34 Green-winged Teal (Bruce Pond in Stratford) 43 Lesser Scaup (Captain's Cove in Bridgeport) Red-necked Grebe (Seaside Park in Bridgeport - nice spot Tina, bird of the day!) 2 Northern Gannet (Seaside Park in Bridgeport) Double-crested Cormorant (Captain's Cove in Bridgeport) 2 Black-crowned Night-Heron (Captain's Cove in Bridgeport) 2 Peregrine Falcon (adults at nest box on I-95 bridge over Bridgeport Harbor) Iceland Gull (presumed returning adult to Seaside Park in Bridgeport, at least a few years running now - this bird likes to loaf with other gulls on the sandy shoals exposed during lower tides) 2 Belted Kingfisher American Pipit (Seaside Park in Bridgeport) Swamp Sparrow

Quinnipiac Valley CBC

I participated in the QV CBC yesterday, with my area covering the downtown Wallingford vicinity plus a small part of the eastern, more rural, part of town. Despite a good deal of effort and scouting, yesterday was not my day. A few common species I had scouted out did not cooperate. The woods and edges were dead. Large Canada Goose flocks held nothing different. Best birds were probably American Pipit, Horned Lark, Belted Kingfisher, and Great Blue Heron. It was my dullest CBC count ever, but it was still fun to help count the birds in my newish neighborhood. Perhaps next year will be birdier here. As far as I know, the count highlight was a nice flock of WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILLS found by Chris Loscalzo in Durham. Next up for me: Stratford-Milford (my favorite local count). - NB

Mountain Bluebird photos from Rollin Tebbetts

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This afternoon Rollin Tebbetts found and photographed a MOUNTAIN BLUEBIRD at Bradley International Airport in CT. I am posting his photos here for folks to see since Rollin does not have an online photo gallery. Mountain Bluebird (photos copyright Rollin Tebbetts 2010) Thanks Rollin!

Quinnipiac Valley CBC - last-minute organization

If you don't have any plans for Sunday, December 19th (not like it's a busy time of year or anything...) please consider helping with the Quinnipiac Valley Christmas Bird Count (Wallingford area). Last year's compilers were unable to organize this year's count for personal reasons, so Corrie Folsom and Melissa Baston have taken the reigns and are trying very hard to recruit more birders to participate. Working against them is the fact that there are six other CBCs running in Connecticut on the same day. If you haven't committed to any of them yet, your help would be greatly appreciated on this count! If interested, you can comment here or email me for Corrie's contact information. OK, enough CBC plugging. I hope to see you at the compilation! - NB

Stonington Point (CT) - Razorbill

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A half hour of seawatching this morning from Stonington Point in Stonington, CT was rewarded with fantastic looks at a RAZORBILL right off the point. These were undoubtedly my best looks at this species from land in CT and I was able to digiscope a few photos, though the 20 mph West wind made that difficult. Razorbill The bird's identity from that distance was unmistakable, but views of alcids in CT waters are usually quite distant and fleeting. If you're not too familiar with alcids, the most likely ID problem would probably be basic plumaged Thick-billed Murre. Compared to the murre, this Razorbill shows a deeper bill, a diffuse patch of white behind the eye (can be difficult to see from a distance), and a long tail that projects far beyond the folded wingtip. Any alcid other than Razorbill is VERY rare in CT waters, and Razorbill itself is a very uncommon winter resident, mainly in the eastern LI Sound. Also scoped from the point were 13 COMMON EIDER (increasingly common in

First Snowfall in Wallingford (White-crowns, GWFG, Snow Bunts)

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Early this morning parts of CT experienced a few bands of lake effect snow. It's not very often these snow bands reach CT before drying up. In my neighborhood we had a half-inch on the ground and about a full inch of fluffy stuff on the cars. The snow seemed localized though; nearby Lyman Orchards had nothing on the ground. I spent a couple hours driving some Wallingford area backroads in search of roadside sparrows and geese in the fields/ponds. Highlights on Cooke Road included 3 imm. WHITE-CROWNED SPARROWS and 3 flyby SNOW BUNTINGS. The only unusual goose I found was a single adult GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE all by itself on Pistapaug Pond. two of three immature White-crowned Sparrows along Cooke Rd adult Greater White-fronted Goose - NB

Stratford-Milford CBC

Perhaps my favorite local Christmas Bird Count, the Stratford-Milford CBC is scheduled for Sunday December 26th (Boxing Day). It is one of the younger CBCs in the state, and therefore it is not as well-birded as some of the other counts. Stratford and Milford (and parts of Bridgeport) are a few of the best birding areas in the state. If this is something that would interest you, check out the contact info on the COA website . Steve will be glad to hear from you. Hope to see you there. - NB

More European birds to come?

As has been recently mentioned on regional listservs, the UK has been experiencing some harsh and early wintry weather. This has coincided with the appearance of two Northern Lapwings here in New England. Are the two events related? If so, are there more Lapwings to be found? What about other European species such as Redwing and Fieldfare? This may sound familiar. Last winter was notably long and harsh in the UK, particularly in January. Redwings and Fieldfares were noted in great numbers in the western UK, which fueled speculation about a possible European invasion...which never materialized. But at least this time we have some local evidence of a possible connection between harsh western European weather and North American vagrants. Dennis Elphick notes "Easterlies have been prevailing on and off in the UK since September and back in October Red-flanked Bluetails, Red-breasted Flycatchers, Yellow-browed and Pallas' Warblers, Wryneck, etc were turning up on the East coast in

NORTHERN LAPWING in Storrs, CT

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Northern Lapwing A mind-boggling find by Phil Rusch in Storrs, CT at the UConn campus. A first state record, and I believe only the fourth New England record (singles from Maine, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island...nothing recent). With Barnacle Goose. No, this photo was not taken in Ireland. Apparent basic adult with a tall, wispy crest. At the risk of sounding like a teenage girl, OMFG. CT has hosted some damn good birds over the past few months, particularly WT Kite, Fork-tailed Fly, and now this bird. Incredible. On top of that, a BARNACLE GOOSE and GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE at the same location completed the Ireland/UK trifecta. A flyby COMMON REDPOLL was another highlight. - NB

Cave Swallows: conservation, expansion, and vagrancy

Concerning a recent/current die-off of Cave Swallows in New England: Cave Swallows from the southwestern population pelodoma (the one we see here in autumn) are doing very, very well. The species' IUCN conservation category is "Least Concern," which is the 'best' category possible. The expansion of Cave Swallow breeding range has been explosive in Texas. For some of the statistics, check out this abstract . There are multiple articles on the range and population expansion over the last few decades. A Google or SORA search will likely get you to some of those online. There may be other theories/reasons for the expansion, but the most prevalent is the species' adaptation to breeding on man-made structures, and the increase in number of those man-made structures. What we are seeing here is apparently a product of this exploding range and population. This may be an over-simplification, but vagrancy can be a method of, and/or result of, expanding populations. For

Coastal birding (LBBG, Common Terns, Cave Swallows, etc)

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Frank Mantlik and I spent the day battling some very strong west winds along the eastern CT coast this morning. One of our goals, late/rare passerines, was severely inhibited by the wind. Luckily there was a bit of a surprise movement of birds on the water, most of which were heading straight into the stiff wind. We started at Stonington Pt, where there were whitecaps in the harbor and the parking lot was bathed with sea spray! Here we had 10 COMMON EIDER, about 30 NORTHERN GANNETS, 4 AMERICAN OYSTERCATCHERS, a single PURPLE SANDPIPER, and 3 BONAPARTE'S GULLS. At Enders Island, we had our rarest birds of the day, 3 immature COMMON TERNS that put on a good, long show near the parking lot. This is my personal latest record for Common Tern in CT, by a good few weeks. We also had two lingering adult LAUGHING GULLS, 5 COMMON EIDER, all 3 scoter species, and 4 more BONAPARTE'S GULLS. At Haley Farm State Park, the only passerine of note was an EASTERN TOWHEE. Great habitat for late mi

East Shore Park - OCWA and other warblers

East Shore Park in New Haven, CT continues to produce late-season warblers in 2010 (as in past years). From 0715 to 0835 this morning I had four species: ORANGE-CROWNED, 2 Pine (one bright adult and one very drab), 2 Palm (one Yellow and one Western), and several Yellow-rumps. Also reported in the park in November have been Nashville, Blackpoll, and Northern Parula. That's 7 warbler species, if I'm not missing any. One of these days a western vagrant will be found there, hopefully sooner than later... - Nick

Brazil's Pantanal - 22 Oct (Day 10)

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On our last day we had time for a few hours of birding before heading to Cuiaba for our flights home. First stop was to the cerrado, followed by a waterfall observation tower. In these final few hours we were still adding new trip birds in the form of Small-billed Tinamou, Blue-winged Macaw, COLLARED CRESCENTCHEST, Rufous-winged Antshrike, Rusty-backed Antwren, the recently-described CHAPADA FLYCATCHER, and White-rumped Tanager. Collared Crescentchest Rusty-backed Antwren White-eared Puffbird It wouldn't be a trip to the Pantanal without a photo of a Rufous Hornero, a ubiquitous ovenbird we saw every day. One look at the photo will show you where the 'ovenbird' name comes from. Rufous Hornero So that concluded our fantastic tour of the Pantanal & vicinity! Our flight left Cuiaba around 1:30pm, bound for Hartford via Sao Paolo and Dallas. - Nick

Brazil's Pantanal - 21 Oct (Day 9)

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We started the day at sunrise in the cerrado habitat that was home to several new species for us. This habitat is dry and scrubby, even reminiscent of Arizona desert birding. Here we picked up Pheasant Cuckoo, Yellow-bellied Elaenia, Plain-crested Elaenia, and Grassland Sparrow among others. In a span of a few minutes we had our two coolest hummingbirds of the trip, and two of the best birds overall: SWALLOW-TAILED HUMMINGBIRD and HORNED SUNGEM . cerrado Our afternoon was spent at Giuliano's father's organic farm, picking up a few new species such as Gray-fronted Dove and Magpie Tanager . Giuliano & his father nice 'backyard' eh? Black-fronted Nunbird Gray Monjita A pre-dusk stop at one of Giuliano's stake-outs produced a stunning YELLOW-BILLED BLUE FINCH . Some nighttime owling produced incredible looks at TROPICAL SCREECH-OWL. Night at Hotel Penhasco. - NB

Brazil's Pantanal - 20 Oct (Day 8)

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Our goal for the morning was to return to the HARPY EAGLE nest to see if the bird had spent the night. Sure enough, the eagle was sitting on the nest itself, occasionally tearing some meat off the prey we saw it carry in the night before. What an impressive bird. HARPY EAGLE nest tree after sunrise Later in the morning we took a walk through a bit of forest that had suffered a large fire a few weeks prior. Despite the apparent extent of the fire, the forest here was birdy. We enjoyed great views of the minute SHORT-TAILED PYGMY-TYRANT and CINNAMON-THROATED HERMITS. The pygmy-tyrant is so tiny that it looks more like an insect during its brief flights. the fire still smoldering in spots... ...yet one can see some greenery has survived the fire. The vegetation here is very resistant to fire. After lunch it was back on the road again, this time to our final destination: Chapada dos Guimaraes & vicinity. On the way, in a flooded farm field, we picked up a species we thought we had mis