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Showing posts from January, 2015

Field Day

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Spent today helping Daniel Field catch up with a couple species he's been meaning to see in Connecticut... Northern Saw-whet Owl Glaucous Gull  - NB

CAS trip to Pacific Northwest - September 2015

Each year I lead or co-lead one or more overnight tours for Connecticut Audubon Society. I will keep links to these trips in the sidebar to the right. Join us for high quality birding, culture, and great fun! Nonmembers from anywhere in the world are welcome of course! Olympic Peninsula and the San Juan Islands September 12-21, 2015 Bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north by the Strait of Juan de Fuca, the Peninsula is anchored by the majestic Olympic Mountains. No place in America can match its diversity in terrain and weather in such a compact geographic area. Explore lakes, waterfalls, rivers, mountains, beaches, and rain forest. While the main attraction is Olympic National Park, time will be spent among the San Juan Islands and on Puget Sound, the second largest estuary in the United States. Its numerous glacier-carved channels and branches are fed by freshwater from over 10,000 rivers and streams that flow down from the Olympic and Cascade Mountains to

A few days in Florida

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Just back from a few days in Florida with Daniel Field and Frank Mantlik. Our searches for the continuing (but sporadic) Key West Quail-Dove and American Flamingos were largely unsuccessful, but we did enjoy our time in the field. The highlight was a morning kayak down the Snake Bight Channel. Here are a few pics! American Alligator Great Blue Heron Purple Gallinule Purple Gallinules and Florida Redbelly Turtle Double-crested Cormorant Brown Pelican "Wurdemann's" Great Blue Heron Little Blue Heron Barred Owl on nest American Bittern Tricolored Heron American White Pelican American White Pelicans  - NB

"COMMON" MEW GULL - Southbury, CT

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Work was slow today, which allowed me to get out and do some birding while waiting for the pager to go off. I had wanted to check the Shepaug Dam section of the Housatonic River for gulls for some time now. It had always been on my radar, as I recalled Greg Hanisek and Mark Szantyr having a Thayer's Gull there some fifteen years ago, about the time I started birding as a young teenager. Patrick Comins really brought attention to the place by birding it often last winter, during which he recorded a fantastic "Common" Mew Gull that was seen sporadically for a few days. Due to work, travel, and personal obligations I never did find the time to go there myself, until today. I arrived mid-morning to find few gulls around. After some waiting they began to trickle into the river itself. The turnover was steady as birds came and went from the main flock along the river. A first cycle "Kumlien's" ICELAND GULL and second cycle LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL appeared side-