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Antarctica (Nov-Dec 2025) - Part 1: Intro & Ushuaia

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Few locations on earth allow the imagination to run wild the way Antarctica does. Not only is it the least visited continent on the planet, but media from the White Continent is not something one stumbles across often unless you are a follower of adventure travel Instagram accounts. And even if you have caught up with photos and videos of the place, I find it nearly impossible to give justice to such a vast landscape via media. Simply put, you have to be there to appreciate the magnitude of the place. Though it is a land I had always dreamed of visiting, Antarctica was not in the plans for 2025. In fact, there was a solid chance it would have to wait until much later in life (retirement?), when one starts to prioritize "bucket list" destinations. The reason? The cost of the trip. Getting to Antarctica as a tourist is financially daunting. But rather unexpectedly late last year, Caroline and I were presented with a deal on a cruise to Antarctica that we could not pass up. So w...
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Senegal videos

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Wrapping up the Senegal content, here are some video highlights! Quail-Plover: Egyptian Plover: Djoudj National Park: - NB
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CT Big Day - May 15, 2026 - 183 species

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We're back! After a two-year hiatus, our "Raven Lunatics" Big Day team reloaded for 2026. Re-energized after our break, and with two new team members, we put up a respectable total of 183 species. Here's an old-fashioned recap! The Team Dave Tripp, Fran Zygmont, David Mathieu, Dan Errichetti, Nick Bonomo The Window We set the long weekend of May 15-17 as our three-day window this year. Scouting Gone are the days of a week-plus of scouting. I decided that if I was going to give this another run, I would scout just the few days before the window. No more weeks off from work. No more 36-hour marathon day-night-day sessions. I'm in my 40s now, folks. And I wanted to enjoy more general migration birding. The rest of the team seemed to feel similarly. Despite the reduced scouting, I think we were pretty well prepared and were capable of putting up a big number if we had a strong migration day. Per usual, Dave and Fran took the northwest. Dan, David, and I nailed down th...
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Bridgeport, CT migrant traps

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The city of Bridgeport, Connecticut is not exactly known for top-notch birding. Urban environments are often lacking in quality (and quantity of) habitat. But like many cities, Bridgeport boasts wooded parks that serve as oases amidst a starkly less hospitable landscape marred by human development. Over the last few spring seasons I have explored a few interesting locations for passerine migration, and each has proven to produce as a migrant trap in its own way. Of the three places I'm writing about today, only one receives any sort of regular coverage by birders. Elton Rogers Woodland Park I'll start with my favorite of the three, Elton Rogers Park. Over my small sample size of visits, this seems to be the most productive of the bunch. I've recorded 22 species of warbler here and many other migrants including a SUMMER TANAGER this year. According to the sign at the entrance, it is 73 acres. The Maps.me app has the trails marked fairly accurately as far as I can tell. femal...
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Spring "vismig" at Lighthouse Point

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Last year (2025) I began to toy around with observing spring diurnal migration at Lighthouse Point in New Haven, CT. Well-known as one of the premier coastal autumn hawkwatches in New England, Lighthouse gets little attention in spring. This is understandable, as Connecticut's east-west coastline (land to north, water to south) is really set up for southbound migration, as Long Island Sound acts as a barrier to birds that prefer to migrate over land.  Last spring I made a few visits on northwest winds, just to see if any overland birds might be pushed to the coast. I did observe some migration , which was pretty cool, but what really surprised me was the direction of the movement. Just about the entire flight of raptors, swallows and swifts was westbound down the coast. This is the direction that our autumn (southbound) migrants usually take. a spring migrant American Kestrel at Lighthouse Point typical direction of southbound diurnal migrants through Connecticut during autumn To b...
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