Posted in Connecticut, Fall on September 16, 2011| 2 Comments »
Since we are now in the peak migration period for Broad-winged Hawks in the northeast, I figured I’d share some videos I took this afternoon at the Quaker Ridge Hawk Watch in Greenwich, CT (over 6000 were seen there today). Broad-wings migrate in large groups, often forming “kettles” of swarming, swirling birds. Quite a sight!
Make sure you watch FULL SCREEN in HD for maximum effect!
Posted in Fall, New York on December 4, 2010| 3 Comments »
Varied Thrush
Today, Eamon and I took a trip to Central Park to see if we could catch a glimpse of the previously reported Varied Thrush. This is a bird that breeds in the Pacific Northwest, yet just about every winter a handful show up on the Atlantic coast. Ironically enough, I spent two weeks in coastal British Columbia over the summer, but managed to miss the bird in prime habitat. This was no doubt due to the mid-August date of the trip, after the birds had finished breeding and were no longer singing. Still, it was frustrating, so this bird was one I particularly wanted to see.
Cooper's Hawk
We got to the park at around 8:30 AM and headed straight for the Maintenance Field, where there were birders, but no bird. Apparently a Cooper’s Hawk in the area had caused all the birds to go into hiding. Fortunately, Eamon spotted the Varied Thrush high in a tree across the way, and a few seconds later it returned to its usual spot next to the Rambles Shed. Good looks for a few minutes, and then the bird retreated. We left and rambled around the Ramble for a while, finding nothing but the regulars.
My first Fox Sparrow of the season.
We returned to see if good looks were being had of the thrush, but I don’t think anyone had seen it since it disappeared on us. We went to check out a report of a Yellow-breasted Chat by the Boathouse parking lot, and in no time at all Eamon spotted it fluttering close to the ground. We followed it for several minutes, until it flew into a dumpster and then toward a flock of House Sparrows by the Boathouse itself. Still, we had great looks.
Yellow-breasted Chat
Yellow-breasted Chat in its natural habitat: the parking-lot dumpster.
One last check of the thrush spot didn’t turn up anything.
Posted in Connecticut, Fall on November 21, 2010| 7 Comments »
Today was the inaugural field trip of the newly formed Connecticut Young Birders Club. Close followers of this blog probably know that I’m actively involved with the New York YBC, but I couldn’t resist joining the CT crew–especially with some great birding planned for the day.
Our destination: Hammonasset Beach State Park, one of the best (if not the best) birding spots in the state. As one of our leaders, Frank Gallo, put it (and I’m heavily paraphrasing here), a bad day at Hammo is a good day at almost any other place.
Indeed, this proved true. As one might expect in mid-November, there weren’t vast numbers of birds to be seen. But, those that we did see were pretty nice, regardless. One of our first birds was a Lapland Longspur, which did a terrific job of staying hidden in the grass (hence, no photos). However, it was surrounded by good numbers of Horned Larks and Snow Buntings, birds that I never get tired of watching.
Snow Buntings in flight.
Other nice birds at Hammo included eight Common Eiders and a lone Purple Sandpiper.
We then drove to East Shore Park, the home of a sewage treatment plant. That’s terrific for birding, as the warmth produced by the plant attracts insects during the cooler months, which in turn attracts lingering insectivorous birds. We weren’t disappointed, as there was an impressive amount of late migrants, including American Redstart, Pine Warbler and Blackpoll Warbler. But, best of all, were two Cave Swallows–Mexican birds that, for largely unknown reasons, occur in small numbers along the coast in the northeast during November.
Cave Swallow
But why not stop at Mexico? We also went to check up on the local celebrity, a Fork-tailed Flycatcher staying in Stamford, CT. This bird is thought to be a member of the nominate subspecies savana, birds from southern South America that migrate north for the austral winter (our summer). Conceivably, this first-year bird, instead of migrating south after the winter, migrated north, to us. However it got here, it’s an awesome bird. I phonescoped this video:
I think I can safely say that this was a great first trip for CTYBC. Looking forward to many others!
Warblings 