Shorebirder

Earlier this month I was joined by Frank Mantlik, John Oshlick, and Phil Rusch for three days of seabirding off Hatteras, NC with Brian Patteson . We had a nice turnout, as expected for the date, with a full boat on June 1 and most spots filled on the following two days. Top-notch seabirding, as usual. Here is a brief day-by-day summary with some accompanying photos. Thanks to Kate Sutherland for the official numbers. June 1 Today was warm and rather calm, perhaps too calm (if there is such a thing). The lack of wind kept many birds low or on the water, but there was enough breeze to disperse the scent of our chum slick for the storm-petrels. It was a beautiful and comfortable day to be in the Gulf Stream. Diversity was quite high, with several notable species seen. The final highlight of the day came on the ride home when Brian intercepted a pod of FALSE KILLER WHALES. Awesome. Black-capped Petrel  4 Cory's Shearwater  63-73 Great Shearwater  7 Sooty Shearwater ...

I recently acquired a copy of Princeton University Press's "Birds of Europe, Russia, China, and Japan" by Norman Arlott (copyright 2007), a two-volume illustrated checklist (7.5x5 inches, ~240 pages each, one for passerines and one for non-passerines). I have loved most of Princeton's line of bird books, but my review of this one may come across as a bit harsh. First off, I'm not a fan of "illustrated checklists," whatever those are. Generally when I see that term, I picture a checklist with a single crummy representative photo per species. But that is not what you'll find here. Amazingly there isn't a single checklist to be found in either book. I don't know what to make of that exactly, given the sub-genre to which these books supposedly belong. Basically we're dealing with a low-end field guide here. I will explain. Here is the format: text on left page, plate on opposite page. See photo below: This quote from the Introduc...

Back in the summer of 2007 I began to piece together an article, later published in The Connecticut Warbler , that attempted to predict (AKA 'guess') the next 15 bird species to be added to the CT state list. Now that we're six years out, it's time for another look back. The "research" included assembling a 13-member panel to submit their own Top Ten Lists, ranked from most (10 pts) to least likely (1 pt). A total of 47 species received votes. Here they are (since recorded species in bold): Rank Votes Points 1 Townsend's Warbler 13 117 2 Swainson's Warbler 11 68 3 Black-chinned Hummingbird 10 70 4 Little Egret 6 39 5 California Gull 6 28 6 White-winged Tern 6 19 t7 Allen's Hummingbird 5 29 t7 Hammond's Flycatcher 5 29 9 Sla...

Porcupine! My first in CT.  - NB

While Big Day scouting in Watertown, CT back on May 18th I heard a high-pitched 'tee-see' song coming from a stand of spruces, which I initially thought was a Bay-breasted Warbler, an uncommon migrant around here. I grabbed my camera from the car and went to take a look, where I was even more pleased to find a CAPE MAY WARBLER instead. Spring male Cape May Warbler is one of those birds that never fails to make my day, even when in areas where they're common. Cape May Warbler  - NB

Today can be summed up with just one phrase: mind-blowing. Late this morning (technically yesterday morning, by the time this gets posted) Patrick Comins passed along a shocking yet vague report of an adult BROWN BOOBY that was photographed on a boat in Westport, Connecticut earlier in the day. A first state record. All we knew at the time was the town in which it was taken...no further details. I made a bunch of phone calls and soon local birders were scouring the coast without any sign of the booby. In the meantime I was taking care of a few odds and ends before finally arriving in the early afternoon. Satisfied that the coast had been covered from land by others, I headed straight to the boat club to prepare the boat for its first excursion of the season. I was soon joined by Tina Green, Roy Harvey, and John Oshlick. We headed into Norwalk Harbor in search of the booby, which as far as we knew could have been long gone by then. But I had a good feeling that, given the crummy w...