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Mongolia: May-June 2025

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It took a year and a half, but I finally got to collecting my media from Mongolia and put together a video trip report of sorts! Birding trips to Mongolia are logistically difficult for foreigners to organize. Outside of Ulaanbaatar, this nation of nomads lacks much in the way of infrastructure. Basically there are a few major travel arteries that link cities to one another, and the popularity of the Gobi desert as a travel destination has led to the development of an industry there. But for anyone who wants to access some of the most remote and interesting parts of Mongolia in search of wildlife, planning such a trip on your own is a bit daunting. Yes, it could and has been done, but it would take quite a bit of effort and is not for the inexperienced traveler. First there is the issue of lodging or lack thereof. You'll have to camp at many of the birding sites. So you'd need to travel with camping gear or rent it when you arrive in Ulaanbaatar. Second is finding roads/tracks ...
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2026 Great Island Big Sit! Results

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Per Big Sit rules, you can count on either Saturday or Sunday of the designated weekend. Our group tries to maintain the flexibility to choose the day based on weather conditions. This year we were again able to do that, and Saturday was clearly the winner. While Sunday was forecast to be a washout, Saturday called for exceedingly pleasant weather with decent migration conditions. Phil was the first to arrive on site, at 4am, to a vocal Black-crowned Night-Heron. Slowly the rest of us trickled in. Listening conditions were perfect thanks to the total lack of wind. A light northwest wind was forecast overnight, which is perfect for migration, but conditions weren't as ideal to our north. Consequently, the volume of arriving birds was modest as indicated by the light radar returns. But some migration is still a whole lot better than none! We actually recorded 21 species predawn including such passerine NFCs as several Swainson's Thrushes, a late Wood Thrush, a Dickcissel, and a S...
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A Tale of Two Sedge Wrens

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Before 2026 I hadn't found a Sedge Wren in Connecticut, but I managed to break that streak in a big way this year...twice! The surprising part of the story is that both individuals were in my hometown of Wallingford. On May 19th I was birding the large Tyler Mill tract and was trying to locate a trailhead I had not before visited. I missed my turn and used a small pullover along the busy road to re-check my map. With the windows down I heard a single distant burst of song that I swore was spot-on for Sedge Wren. But that would be verrrry unlikely here, to put it mildly. Also, I couldn't just get that lucky, right? Well I sat frozen in the car for another minute or so until the bird again gave one burst of song. Yep, Sedge Wren! I grabbed my gear and slowly advanced toward the song. The bird was doing a bit of a circuit, as if on territory. There was no active nest building and there was no sign, yet, of any others. Anyway I hung at the edge of the territory until the wren compl...
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Big Sit! this weekend

This weekend is the annual Big Sit!, founded by the New Haven Bird Club back in 1992. A fun and unique tradition, the idea is that you and your friends count birds from a 17-foot diameter circle on either Saturday or Sunday. There are no real stakes. These events are usually as social as they are serious, though folks sometimes do their own solo Big Sit in their backyards. You can count for as long or as short as you want, and birders are welcome to come and go throughout the day. It's very casual, though some of us do make quite an effort. If you are interested in participating, check out  Home - The Big Sit!  and make it official! -Nick
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September Nor'easter recap!

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With the storm essentially done and dusted, barring a late surprise report, I think we can put a bow on this one! In my prior post, with the storm still a couple days away, I mentioned three mechanisms by which this system might spice up our local southern New England birding. First, we discussed wind-blown seabirds that might drift close to, or even over, land. This was already happening pre-storm with a few Leach's Storm-Petrels. Well, as expected, this effect only increased as the storm strengthened and approached. The persistent northeast winds drove several species from their typical open ocean haunts. The Leach's Petrels, which are particularly prone to wrecking, were driven southwestward and funneled into corners, such as the SW corner of Cape Cod Bay and the far western end of Long Island Sound. Your traditional eastern Massachusetts seawatch spots, such as Race Point (Cape Cod) and Andrews Point (Cape Ann), enjoyed fine shows on those northeast winds. And when the wind...
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An Unusual September Storm

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Let's *speculate* on this potentially fascinating weather system that is forecast to develop off the East Coast later this week! The meteorologists are classifying this storm as a nor'easter, not a tropical cyclone. This is, of course, the time of year we keep a sharp eye out for tropical system development. Nor'easters are rare this early in autumn, so this is unusual. Other than the time of year, another aspect of this storm that seems unusual is the proposed track of its center. In their most classic form, nor'easters form off the Carolinas/mid-Atlantic and move in a northeast-ish direction up the coast. But the models seem to show the system developing several hundred miles offshore, moving north, and then perhaps backing northwestward, towards the East Coast rather than along or away from it. It may even stall out? On top of that, it might pack tropical storm force winds at the surface. ECMWF model for Friday, courtesy of Windy.com Saturday Sunday The three images ...
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LIS LONG-TAILED JAEGER - Sep 6, 2026

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juvenile Long-tailed Jaeger Long Island Sound Pelagic Birding...it's not always an oxymoron! Outside of tropical cyclone landfall, I'd say there are three times of year during which the thought of birding the protected waters of Long Island Sound actually packs some juice. One such time is during early winter, like mid-Dec into January, when the southbound push of alcids results in a not-ridiculously-small chance of uncovering a Dovekie or Common Murre or the like. Another period arrives mid-late summer, when shearwaters sometimes settle into the far eastern Sound. It doesn't happen every year, but it has become more frequent over the past decade.  And finally, we have a very narrow window for two rare species. During the last week of August and the first couple weeks of September, Long-tailed Jaegers and Sabine's Gull migrate overland from their arctic breeding grounds to the open ocean, where they will spend the next several months. Every now and then, an individual w...
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