CT Big Day - May 15, 2026 - 183 species

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 the coast.

The Weather

We had a couple days' worth of inclement weather leading up to the window. The question was whether or not we should go on Friday when we had a chance of some rain knock-downs. Saturday and Sunday were both looking sunny and hot, without any weather to concentrate migrants. We decided to go with Friday, knowing that it was a roll of the dice. The biggest risk was being stuck with a cold, breezy morning inland with few migrants on the ground.

The Route

We started in the northwest for owls, nightjars, rails and bitterns. Dawn broke in Litchfield County for the landbird portion of the day. We then went down the Route 8 corridor and worked the coast eastward from the Bridgeport area. After dark we ran back up the Connecticut River Valley until the clock struck midnight again.

The Day

As midnight approached, the forecast was looking more and more benign. This would bode poorly for potential weather knock-downs, but might make for an easier first night and morning. But as we started our night, we quickly realized that the wind would still be an issue. And it was cold! Still, we managed to tick Whip-poor-will, Great Horned Owl, Sora, Common Gallinule, and both bitterns before daybreak. We were off to a strong start. 

Our morning inland route is dominated by breeding species. Any species can theoretically give you trouble on a big day, so it feels good to log even common birds like White-breasted Nuthatch. We enjoyed plenty of quality, too, including Sandhill Crane and Merlin, both very recent additions to Connecticut's breeding avifauna. The cold and wind kept the passerines more quiet than usual. It was like pulling teeth for a few reliable species, and some of those teeth just refused to let go. Normally we don't have an issue with Blue-headed Vireo or Red-breasted Nuthatch, but on this day they gave us the slip.

We know that without migrant passerines, our ceiling is lower than we'd like. Not that we have many migrant traps along our route, but we cover enough ground that we usually know by 8-9am what we're dealing with migrant-wise. Well, this year it was clear early in the day that we would struggle bigtime for migrant flocks. Scratch that...we would struggle for migrant individuals.

Not only did the migrants not show, but two necessary breeders had not yet arrived in any numbers. Alder Flycatcher and Eastern Wood-Pewee, our two latest-arriving breeders in the northwest hills, were MIA. Turned out we were a day early for those to hit.

The lone place we encountered migrant warblers was Point Folly at Bantam Lake, a well-known trap. Here we added Wilson's Warbler, Tennessee Warbler, and Black-billed Cuckoo in relatively short order. Better than nothing!

The skies were clearing and there was no precipitation to be had, which ruled out those weather knock-downs we had hoped for. The one advantage to mostly sunny skies was that hawks and vultures were out and about. We had Broad-winged, Red-shouldered, and Cooper's Hawks before we left the north. It was only Black Vulture that would make us wait.

We did not depart the northwest without a few goodies. First, a flyover Red Crossbill in Norfolk was awesome. And a female Ring-necked Duck at Little Pond in Litchfield was a great find by Tripp. 

Because the landbirding wasn't easy, the north route took longer than usual. This set us behind schedule for the coast, where we arrived 1-2 hours later than we were hoping. By the time we saw salt water, we knew we had to make cuts to the route and be uber surgical at those stops we did make. 

We decided to skip Stratford straightaway. Our first coastal stop was Milford Point, where we cleaned up pretty well on shorebirds including White-rumped Sandpiper (several) and Red Knot. Moving east from there we dropped into New Haven Harbor where Dan finally pulled out a distant Black Vulture. Offshore Madison was productive for all three scoters, and Hammonasset delivered its usual burst of new birds, but there were no Roseate Terns offshore. In Clinton we caught up with the Boat-tailed Grackles that we skipped in Stratford and found a Little Blue Heron that was reliably scouted by David. A quick stop into Old Saybrook for a couple common species was followed by a more extended search along the Old Lyme coast that yielded Worm-eating Warbler, White-eyed Vireo, Common Eider and Red-throated Loon. The daytime closer was a continuing Great Cormorant on the Thames River.

It always amazes me how quickly the afternoon flies by. This year we had to make a couple big cuts (Stratford and Guilford), but we made up the time and were able to complete the coastal run without sacrificing anything major. Helping the cause were good-to-excellent viewing conditions along the coast. A light offshore breeze kept the seas flat. The sun glare was an issue at times, but not nearly as bad as it can be. Overcast skies would have been better, but we can't complain.

Our second night session led us up the Connecticut River to clean up a few species. Eastern Screech-Owl and Grasshopper Sparrow were achieved, and we added Swainson's Thrush via NFC and Yellow-billed Cuckoo. We went all the way to midnight, overall pleased with the 183 total.

Highlights 

Sandhill Crane, Great Cormorant, Ring-necked Duck, Common Goldeneye, Merlin, Common Gallinule, Red Crossbill.

Big Misses 

Eastern Wood-Pewee, Alder Flycatcher, Winter Wren, Blue-headed Vireo, Blackpoll Warbler.

Analysis

This is pretty straightforward. We were a day early for the Alders and Pewees. The lack of migrants on the ground hurt us. The weather kept a few reliable breeders silent. The night sessions were very productive, and the coast delivered pretty much everything it should have (but was thin on surprises). Perhaps with more time on the coast we would have turned up that flyby Laughing Gull or rare ibis that we missed. Basically, if we add the five or so missed breeders and a few more passerine migrants, that puts us right around 190, which would have been an excellent total. For reference, our record is 193. The ingredients are still there for a magical 200 run, but that would take a helluva lot of luck.

Doing this after a two-year hiatus definitely rekindled my love of Big Days. I might have even tried to rally the troops for a repeat run a couple days later. I feel like I personally struck a really nice balance this year between Big Day scouting and migration birding. Hopefully we can give it another go in 2027!

- NB