Posted in Connecticut, Summer, tagged Birding, white-tailed kite on August 1, 2010| 7 Comments »
Here are some pictures of a White-tailed Kite spotted in Stratford, CT this morning. What an awesome bird, all the way from Florida/Texas/Louisiana (or potentially even further)!
Other birders posted photos; here are a few links to additional pictures:
Frank Gallo
Alex Burdo
Scott Kruitbosch
Posted in Connecticut, New York, Summer, tagged Birding, shorebirds, terns, whistling-duck, young birders club on July 31, 2010| Leave a Comment »
Willet!
For the past couple weeks I’ve been doing a lot of birding along the New York coast. Late summer (yes, mid-July is late summer in the birding world) brings many early migrants to the area. These include some songbirds (Louisiana Waterthrush and Yellow Warbler are good examples), but also large numbers of shorebirds and other coastal species. What better places than Cupsogue Beach, on the south shore of Long Island, and Jamaica Bay, south of Queens?
Sorting my sightings reverse-chronologically, this afternoon I stopped my Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge to see a just-found Black-bellied Whistling-Duck. This species normally occurs in Florida and Texas only, but strangely enough, it’s been found in many northeastern states this year, including New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. There is a possibility that some of these birds are escapees, but many (including the one I saw today), had no leg bands and normal feet (captive waterfowl often have clipped toes). Global warming? Possibly, but who knows. . .
A content Black-bellied Whistling-Duck surveys several birders watching from afar.
Rewinding to last weekend, I spent an adventurous half-day at Cupsogue Beach park with the New York State Young Birders Club. Despite a failed seawatch in the early morning (just wasn’t one of those days), we headed out to the flats at low tide to observe the large congregation of shorebirds and terns. Luckily we had the help of superb NY-area birder Doug Gochfeld, who found most of the notable birds that morning. Highlighting those was a Sandwich Tern, followed by other nice terns (Roseate, Royal, Gull-billed, Least, Common). Western Sandpiper, an adult, provided a good opportunity to study its structure (more upright stance, different head shape than Semipalmated), and several of the the declining Red Knots were heartening to observe as well. Of course, I managed to not get a photo of any of the notable birds seen that day. Not sure how that happened. Returning to the parking lot was an interesting experience, as it was about six hours after the time we got out there — in other words, high tide. Some faired better than others; it depended on if you were unlucky enough to step in a low area while wading to shore.
A close flyby American Oystercatcher. Really cool looking birds.
The state-endangered and federally-threatened Piping Plover nests at Cupsogue.
A relaxing Least Tern (state-threatened).
A Snowy Egret, great to see, as always.
A Saltmarsh Sparrow checks us out in the early morning light.
Just as a side note, I visited Jamaica Bay last week also and saw lots and lots of terrific birds, led by American White Pelican, Hudsonian Godwit, Least Bittern, Long-billed Dowitcher, Black Tern and Tricolored Heron, but I had left my camera in the car to prevent it from being dropped in the East Pond while slogging through the mud and water. Bad decision, since there were lots of photo opportunities and I never actually tripped. Inexcusable, I know. Next time.
As a further aside, I was up in Connecticut (away from the coast) doing some bird banding earlier in the month, and got to band some really cool birds that you don’t normally think of as CT residents, like these three:
A really nice male Magnolia Warbler. Probably my second-favorite warbler.
A female Blackburnian Warbler, my first favorite! Unfortunately we didn't catch any males that day, though there were many singing high above us.
A female Canada Warbler, from the bog down below us. Some really nice habitat in that area of northwest Connecticut.
Posted in Birding, Colorado, Summer, tagged Camp Colorado, YBC on July 4, 2010| 9 Comments »
I know what you’re thinking – my last post, only a week ago, was about a birding camp. Well, I was lucky enough to be able to go to the American Birding Association’s Camp Colorado as well. I joined 16 other avid young birders to bird the various habitats that Colorado has to offer, from Rocky Mountain peaks to sagebrush plains. Leading the group were excellent birders, Michael O’Brien and Louise Zemaitis (VENT tour leaders) and Chip Clouse from the ABA. Michael is a co-author of The Shorebird Guide and the ground-breaking CD Flight Calls of Migratory Birds, in addition to being one of the best birders in the country. Needless to say, we were in for a great week.
I arrived at the Colorado Springs airport a bit before 1:30pm on the afternoon of June 26, only to find that I had just missed the first van taking kids to camp. No matter, I’d just wait a bit for the next one. Well, it turned out that the “next one” didn’t come until after 6pm… I used the time to finish reading a book I had started on the plane and talk to the few campers that had already arrived. We got to our camp, just outside of Woodland Park, CO, as it was getting dark. Everyone had been assigned a tent to share with a few other campers, but since it was raining the leaders decided to let us all sleep upstairs in the main building that night.
The next day we got up early (this would become a regular pattern) and headed out to the Hayman Burn area, a place where a huge fire had swept through in 2001 and was in the beginnings of regrowth. On the way we stopped at a marshy area and found some really nice birds, most surprisingly a whole flock of Evening Grosbeaks, one which landed only about 30 feet from us! We also saw western birds like Brewer’s Blackbird, Band-tailed Pigeon, Black-headed Grosbeak, Western Bluebird and Violet-green Swallow.
A cooperative Evening Grosbeak in the Hayman Burn area.
We traveled to different spots within the burn area, finding Mountain Bluebird, Townsend’s Solitaire, Western Tanager and Red-naped Sapsucker. Chip led us to his Breeding Bird Atlas territory, a census that lasts 5 years and documents what species of birds breed where in the state. We split up into groups and attempted to find and “confirm” different species in the area, by finding evidence that they were breeding. My group was able to confirm MacGillivray’s Warbler, Mountain Chickadee, and Hammond’s Flycatcher. Other spots we birded that day included a grassland area (Western Meadowlark, Vesper Sparrow), and around our camp once we returned. Good birds there were breeding Williamson’s Sapsuckers and a group of Clark’s Nutcrackers flying over the ridge. Michael O’Brien gave a terrific presentation on birding by ear in the afternoon.
Mountain Chickadee carrying food -- confirmed!
The male Williamson's Sapsucker at his nest.
We awoke the next morning (in tents) to the sound of Red Crossbills, (more…)
Warblings 