Shorebirder

Not according to the calendar. In past years we have experienced major incursions of Cave Swallows into the 20s of November. One of the first big incursions to CT occurred on November 23, 2002. For a big Cave Swallow event here in New England you usually need two things to happen: 1) a strong SW flow directly from Texas to the Great Lakes region followed by NW winds to push them to the coast, and 2) a successful breeding year for the species at the northern edge of its range. Without the wind, the swallows don't have that extra tailwind they need to make it all the way up here. And without the breeding success there is not a large pool of young birds that are more likely to take the "scenic route" to their wintering grounds. I have no idea how Cave Swallows did this past summer in the Texas/Oklahoma region. But I do know that we have had not had any decent Cave Swallow setup weather this month. Not surprisingly there have been zero eBird records of Cave Swallow from New

Here are a few photos, with captions, from this past weekend along coastal Connecticut. immature Golden Eagle over Lighthouse Point, New Haven, CT lingering Baltimore Oriole at Harkness SP, Waterford, CT Lark Sparrow found by Russ Smiley in New London, CT Among about a dozen Horned Larks in fading light at Hammonasset Beach SP in Madison, CT was one noticeably paler individual. There is much variation in this species throughout North America, particularly regarding upperpart and head color. This pale individual is likely from a different breeding population than the birds with which it is flocking. At least two subspecies of Horned Lark occur in Connecticut...which might make for an interesting future blog post!  - NB

I spotted this interesting adult gull as I pulled into my parking space at Long Beach in Stratford, CT about a week ago. It immediately struck me as Herring Gull-like but darker mantled. A quick check of eye color showed a bright pale yellow iris...unfortunate, as this one feature lessens the chance at something mega rare like Vega Gull. Anyway, a glance at a few other features all pointed strongly towards HERGxLBBG rather than a pure bird of some rare taxon. ID points are included in photo captions below. the right-most bird next to two typical adult American Herring Gulls Head/neck streaking showing a concentration of fine streaks around the eye that is often seen in LBBG, but thicker on the neck and breast than in your typical LBBG (note that winter head streaking is notoriously variable in HERG). The dark mantle makes those scapular and tertial crescents really pop. Leg color was ambiguous to me at first...I had to talk myself into seeing definite yellow tones. More b

This autumn has been a good one for Orange-crowned Warblers in Connecticut. There was a flurry of local reports in late October and early November. I finally caught up with one about a week ago in East Haven, CT. Orange-crowned Warbler, apparently of the expected and widespread celata subspecies  - NB

For the past 2-3 weeks I have spent many hours in the field here in Connecticut scouring fields and thickets for rare birds, particularly for western vagrants. Other than a hybrid gull and a few interesting juncos, I haven't found much of note while birding. Last Thursday, a rainy and dreary day, found me running errands instead of birding. I brought my bins and camera bag along with me since I knew I would be passing a few fields and ponds worth checking for geese. After picking up some apples and donuts at a farm store, I casually checked a blackbird flock and immediately stumbled upon a YELLOW-HEADED BLACKBIRD . Dumb luck struck again today. I had a bit of time before I had to meet my father in Norwalk to winterize his boat, so I decided to stop into Seaside Park in Bridgeport to catch some bait for fishing later this month. While driving I glanced into the small horse pen at the park's entrance and noticed a CATTLE EGRET underneath one of the horses. No photos as I was

We had a big push of Dark-eyed Juncos through coastal CT during the first week of November. I ran into a few impressive flocks of 100+ birds. I checked each flock carefully for odd-looking individuals as this variable species takes many forms across the continent, and vagrants from western populations are sometimes recorded. Junco #1 Nov 9, 2014 - Long Beach, Stratford, CT This bird was, oddly enough, completely by itself in dune vegetation with no other juncos in sight. I noticed bright buffy flanks and a shadow of a hooded appearance, which caused me to take notice. Closer looks revealed a bird with very little dark in the buffy sides/flanks and an ambiguous hood shape (concave versus convex). There was no obvious contrast between the bird's back and head, and moderate contrast between a brown back and gray rump. Junco #2 Nov 3, 2014 - East Shore Park, New Haven, CT This bird stood out among a flock of well over 100 birds that were feeding o

First, read this blog entry by Newfoundland's Bruce Mactavish. Done? Ok, cool. Note the part about the number of Townsend's Warblers recorded near St. John's, Newfoundland...a whopping sixteen for this western vagrant. Connecticut, however, has zero records of Townsend's Warbler. It is arguably the most overdue bird to be found in CT...certainly a no-brainer for the top three! A few days ago I was birding the woods at Lighthouse Point in New Haven, CT. I was pishing and playing a screech owl tape, and birds were coming in. I heard a warbler chip note, at first distantly...then a bit closer. I smiled and thought, "I know that chip note...that belongs to one of three species I'm familiar with: Townsend's (mega rare), Hermit (mega rare) or Black-throated Green (common fall migrant, but very uncommon in November)." These three closely related species have rather similar call notes. With the calendar reading November and western vagrants on the mind,

This afternoon I decided to check a few fields and ponds for geese before grocery shopping. I like to do a circuit from Wallingford up to Middlefield and Durham. While driving past the Apple Barrel store at Lyman Orchard's in Middlefield I couldn't help but stop in for an apple cider doughnut. Freaking delicious. Anyway, on my way out of the store I noticed a flock of a couple thousand blackbirds swarming the lawn adjacent to the pond. At about this time, friend Mark Szantyr called, and while we were talking birds I began to scan the flock from my car while it was raining. Immediately a young male YELLOW-HEADED BLACKBIRD popped out among the mixed flock. After abruptly hanging up on Mark I snapped a handful of photos (without closely checking my settings, which were off), and a big female Cooper's Hawk spooked the birds. The flock continued to linger in the area, generally perching in the trees in the rain as the Coop's made repeated passes. I gave Julian Hough a call s