Shorebirder

Frank Mantlik struck again yesterday by finding a bright adult CURLEW SANDPIPER in a small golf course pond along the Stratford, CT coast. This was the first chaseable Curlew Sand in the state in over 20 years, thus unblocking this species for an entire generation of birders. Out of town and unable to partake in the twitch, I was hoping the bird would stick another day. This morning's negative reports were discouraging. The only reasonable play was to wait for the afternoon high tide and hit the local roosts. I started on the rising tide at Milford Point, where some 150 birds came to roost but could not settle thanks to foot traffic. Even with more tide to come, this felt like a lost cause, so I drove across the estuary to Stratford Point. The roost here held ~500 birds, and the Curlew Sand was smack in the middle. Better late than never! Thanks, Frank! (click image for higher res viewing)  - NB

Well, we are nothing if not consistent! Our previous five years had totaled 191>193>189>187>192...for an average of 190.4 species. We did not deviate from that range this year. While we continue to refine the route annually, sometimes significantly based on tides, there isn't much outside of luck that needs to change for us to challenge that mythical 200 number. I say that because we have successfully reduced our "big misses" down to just a couple per year. The inland route is tighter than ever, and we rarely leave the north with much on the table. Our coastal path is less predictable, but we have still established patterns and reliable locations to the point where it takes significant fog or heat shimmer to significantly hamper our total. The result is that we have a relatively high floor to our total, barring, like I said, anything truly unlucky like fog or vehicle issues. The issue now is raising the ceiling, and while this would certainly be inched higher