Shorebirder

Things have been pretty busy on my end over the past month, but not too busy to squeeze in a Big Day with the usual crew - Patrick Dugan, Frank Gallo, Dave Tripp, and Fran Zygmont. Below is a brief synopsis. History : This was our sixth year (out of the past seven) as a Big Day team in Connecticut, and we have slowly but steadily improved since we started back in 2009. There have been peaks and valleys, but overall we have been gradually raising our average over the years. Our totals are as follows: 2009 - 177 2010 - 185 2011 - 192 (CT state record) 2012 - off year for me 2013 - 186 2014 - 188, 188 (two separate days) 2015 - 191 Scouting : This year our scouting was collectively less extensive than it usually is. I personally was more limited than ever, but still managed to free up enough time to give a solid effort. Having less time forces you to be more focused and efficient with your scouting, which meant less exploring of new areas and a greater percentage of time focus...

Last Wednesday afternoon was a spectacular one along the West Haven shoreline. I celebrated taking (and let's just assume *passing*) my board re-certification that morning by enjoying a couple lunchtime margaritas with a friend followed by some time in the sand with my gear. Bright sun and temps well into the 60s had quite a few people doing the same...most minus cameras and scopes though... Other than the killer "Kamchatka" MEW GULL at Oyster River , which obviously would have made the day (week? month?) in itself, the afternoon was dominated by a few quality white birds. This "Kumlien's" ICELAND GULL at Bradley Point showed well and was quite aggressive towards the nearby similarly-sized Herring Gulls. first cycle "Kumlien's" Iceland Gull Julian Hough joined me later in the afternoon as we unsuccessfully tried to relocate the Kam Gull. We did, however, have a late SNOWY OWL appear out of nowhere on one of the rocky islets jus...

The winter/spring of 2014-15 has been a fascinating one for Mew Gulls in the northeastern United States. In addition to a few "Common" Mew Gulls ( Larus canus canus , from Europe), which has traditionally been the expected form in the region, there have been one or two "Short-billed" Mew Gulls ( L. c. brachyrynchus , from NW North America) in coastal New York, a very convincing "Kamchatka" Mew Gull ( L. c. kamchatschensis , from NE Asia) candidate in Massachusetts, plus a couple of more confusing individuals as well. With any form of Mew Gull being rare in these parts, these birds tend to be closely scrutinized whenever found. It is obvious that we are getting Mew Gulls from all different directions around here, which makes the process of identification even more challenging and ridiculously interesting. Case in point, on April 10th Mayn Hipp and Mike Warner located an adult Mew Gull at Southport Beach, CT. Mayn obtained some nice images through the fo...

Any day with a Little Gull is a good day. So, today was a good day. I arrived at the mouth of the Oyster River this morning to find just a handful of Bonaparte's Gulls on the exposed flats. Soon, though, a stream of Bonies began to arrive with a basic-plumaged adult LITTLE GULL among them. While most of the flock settled in after bathing, the flock took flight and the Little Gull plus a few of the Bonies peeled off and flew westward down the coast. A couple hours later I was able to relocate the bird with Tina Green and Jory Teltser (life bird for Jory!) just around the corner at Merwin Point. The bird was plankton feeding among a rather distant mixed flock of gulls. There were at least 200 Bonaparte's Gulls in the immediate area this morning, which is up from a few days ago. It is clear that Bonaparte's are currently widespread yet scattered along the central and western Connecticut coast, and they are likely moving around quite a bit. Finding them can be a bit of a ...

Going back a month here. After successfully twitching the Tufted Duck in Bridgeport, CT, Julian Hough and I stopped into nearby Seaside Park and spent a few minutes with gulls that were coming in to bread. We focused most of our attention on a second cycle "Kumlien's" Iceland Gull. "Kumlien's" Iceland Gull "Kumlien's" Iceland Gull While watching this bird, we noticed a few other individuals showing interesting features. First, an adult Herring Gull with a rather Thayer's-like pattern, showing a reduced amount of black in the primaries including a fully white tip to p10. Herring Gull Herring Gull Next was a Great Black-backed Gull with rather yellow legs. Great Black-backed Gull Great Black-backed Gull Finally, an adult Herring Gull with dull yellow legs, which is actually regularly seen in late winter and early spring as these birds come into breeding plumage. Herring Gull  - NB

A flock of about two hundred Canada Geese on a dreary day in Wallingford, CT today held a few interesting birds: two small Canada Geese and one Canada hybrid. First, the small Canadas. Note that the usual caveats to white-cheeked goose identification apply here...there are many pitfalls! For a quick summary, check out David Sibley's blog post on the subject or this article in Cackling Goose ID by Mlodinow et. al . I find that my confidence in identifying white-cheeked geese waxes and wanes from year to year. Or, more accurately, perhaps flock to flock. I am currently in a "less confident" phase, perhaps owing a bit to recent interest discussions on the topic. Both of today's small Canada Geese are birds that I usually put squarely into the Canada Goose category, and for all I know that may be correct. But I am going to post some photos here to show just how small these geese looked next to adjacent obvious Canadas. The size difference held up well in the field ...

I woke up on the early side this morning in hopes of getting to the coast for a few hours of birding. Glancing at my phone, the outside temperature read a frigid 18 degrees, which gave me more than a brief pause. I don't know how I got myself out of bed with that piece of information in mind, but I did. And I'm glad I did, because it turned out to be a beautiful day. Once the sun rose the temps climbed into the lower 40s. Combine that with almost zero wind until mid-afternoon, and I didn't have to wear all those layers I brought with me. On my way to the water I lucked into a flock of Canada Geese in Northford which held an adult GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE. I continued to the coast, where I started at South Cove in Old Saybrook in search of Bonaparte's Gulls. This used to be one of the two best spots in the state (along with the Oyster River mouth in Milford/West Haven) to view roosting flocks of Bonaparte's Gulls numbering in the hundreds to a few thousand. It h...