Shorebirder

I spent some time at Seaside Park, Bridgeport in the rain this afternoon. Highlights included a Snowy Owl on the rocks that lead to Fayerweather Island, a first-winter Iceland Gull, the usual drake Eurasian Wigeon, and a few Snow Buntings in with the Horned Larks. This is probably the fourth different Snowy Owl I've gotten to see so far this winter. Snowy Owl at Seaside Park - Nick

For those of you looking for a cheap digital camera, whether for digiscoping or just for fun, the model I use has recently dropped in price. The Canon A590IS is now selling on Amazon.com for just $111. That's pretty darn cheap. I thought I was getting a deal when I got mine in March for $150. If anyone is going to purchase a camera for digiscoping, I highly recommend bringing your scope to a camera shop so you can see if the camera "fits" your scope well or not. One of my resolutions for 2009 will be to better learn how to successfully digiscope. Lately I've been having some exposure and/or white balance problems while digiscoping bright white birds such as Snowy Owls and adult gulls. I think it's more of a problem with my usage than with the camera itself, but the Auto mode just doesn't get the job done sometimes. Nick

I'm still thrilled about that Slaty-backed Gull. So much so that I can't help but review Mark Szantyr's incredible images on a near-daily basis. I also found one more of my photos that I thought was worth posting. It was one of my first looks at the bird, when a large, angry-looking dark-backed gull popped-up among the feeding masses. While feeding, this SBGU was very aggressive, chasing whichever bird stood in its way. An intimidating bird, note its fierce expression, which was the very first thing I noticed when I saw its head pop-up above the trash. Also can appreciate the blotchiness across the upper breast, almost creating a warm brown bib. This may be my only shot of the tri-colored underwing (white wing linings, gray flight feathers, black primary tips). James P. Smith has posted his collection of images along with an analysis of the mantle shades of several adult gulls including Slaty-backed. Larry Nichols was able to capture a video of the bird bullying his co...

As I've mentioned before, my final 16 months of PA school consists of 14 months of clinical rotations and 2 months of research time. I just started (today) my first research month. While I'm not looking forward to reading journal article after journal article, I will essentially be on my own schedule for much of the next four weeks. Sooooo, I'll have time during the week to do a fair amount of birding, which should mean regular updates to this site, and hopefully a few more good birds! Looking forward to CBCs, more gulling, and some hardcore coastal birding. Giddy up! - NB

I took a 45-minute walk around East Shore Park this afternoon and saw a few continuing birds including 7 Cave Swallows and a Black-and-white Warbler. The number of Cave Swallows, originally at 24 birds, has slowly dwindled this week. Makes you wonder if they've been trickling southward or simply succumbing to the cool temps. Cave Swallow from below . Black-and-white Warbler - Nick

In a hurry to get these up so I'll be brief. At 10:30 this morning I spotted this stunner at the Windsor-Bloomfield Landfill in Windsor, CT. My first glimpse was only ~10 seconds long, but I was able to relocate the bird about 20 minutes later (felt more like an hour...). Tentatively IDed the bird as a 4th-winter Slaty-backed Gull and made a few calls. Birders were on their way, and in the meantime I was finally able to view the wing pattern, which clinched the ID as the state's first SBGU. As always, click images for larger views. My apologies, as many of the shots here are overexposed thanks to me just using the Auto feature of my p&s camera. This makes judging shades of gray in several photos rather difficult. Note the "eye shadow" look, pale eye, broad tertial crescent, dark gray upperparts, and pink legs. One can see here how the streaking becomes blotchy and warmish brown on the upper breast. Also gives an accurate depiction of the wing-tips that...

Birding on Thanksgiving morning is one of my favorite traditions; seems like there are always quality birds around. And if not, there's always great food and family later in the day. I started the day at 8am by walking Walnut Beach and Silver Sands in Milford, both of which were very quiet. Then on to Milford Point, where hunters in the marsh had flushed the dabbling ducks out to the Sound. While scanning through several dozen Black Ducks I picked up on a female KING EIDER that was loosely associating with the flocks. She was very settled into one general area straight off the back side of the "Piping Plover" sandspit, which was quite distant but close enough to provide the occasional decent scope view. After being slowed down by the eider at Milford Pt, I had to hurry through the Stratford area so I wasn't late for dinner. Highlights here were 3 Semipalmated Plovers behind the warehouses at the McKinney refuge, and an adult Northern Gannet that was flying around Brid...