Author Archive

This past July I wrote about the extreme heat that had been felt on a global level during the first half of 2010. We (the planet Earth) were still on pace for the hottest year ever recorded through October. It seems very likely 2010 will end up as #1. July featured a few days of […]

Stratford Point always hosts the “Ipswich” Savannah Sparrow in the fall and winter. This subspecies is a bit larger, heavier, and much paler than other more common Savannah Sparrows. The differences are noticeable enough that it used to be its own species. I know it is a frequent target of experienced birders. I snapped a […]

Yesterday our friend Tina Green discovered Connecticut’s third Fork-tailed Flycatcher at Cove Island Park in Stamford. It is the first of the species that birders have been able to chase. Suffice it to say, this caused as much of a scene as the White-tailed Kite. Birders from all over Connecticut and neighboring states flocked to […]

While they seem to be avoiding me personally, the waterfowl have definitely returned across Connecticut. Brant have once again become common at Stratford and Milford Point, with loons flying by quite frequently. Greater and Lesser Scaup have been seen occasionally. Red-breasted Merganser are seen often enough. The three scoter species are being picked up readily […]

Identifying House Finch from Purple Finch seems to be an important task this year since so many of the latter species are showing up in Connecticut backyards. I set my HD camera up at my bird feeders earlier today to film a female of each species side by side. In this first video on feeder […]

As fall migration winds down and winter knocks on the door we turn our attention to the species that have decided to stick it out here in Connecticut. One of these winter-only residents is the Rusty Blackbird that breeds in the boreal forests of Canada, as well as Alaska and extreme northern parts of the […]

In Sunday’s entry, I casually ended the piece with a line about Connecticut seeing its first snowfall on Monday, knowing there was a chance for some parts of the state to see some flakes overnight and early Monday morning. Full disclosure here: I love snow! Always have, always will. However, I can be objective about […]

Each day fall birding continues to excite while the prospects for winter continue to improve. I wrote about how I noticed Red-breasted Nuthatch everywhere what seems like ages ago – it was before the winter finch forecast was even out. They continued to push through the state in October, and November has continued to bring […]

Late this morning Dennis Varza found a female Harlequin Duck in Long Island Sound waters very close to Milford Point. You may remember Dennis from him finding the White-tailed Kite. Last week he also found a Western Grebe at Milford Point, which I had been waiting for photos of before making a post about. Dennis […]

As fall sparrow migration begins to wind down we are left to await some of the winter resident species. I have not seen my first American Tree Sparrow of the season yet, but I was able to spot a Fox Sparrow last weekend in the Stratford Great Meadows IBA. While at home today I saw […]

The recent weather pattern has dropped a couple of very nice birds in our state. Although these may not be quite of the caliber of Milford Point’s LeConte’s Sparrow, the birds currently visiting the paddle pool at Cabellas in Hartford (right by Rentschler Field) are still unusual in Connecticut. Unlike the LeConte’s Sparrow, these birds […]

Tom Sayers found a Le Conte’s Sparrow on Thursday, October 28, at the Coastal Center at Milford Point. He was photographing Nelson’s Sparrows and a brief glimpse made him think it might be a Le Conte’s, though he could only positively identify it as such on October 29. With it hopping in and out of […]

Satellite image from October 26 at 4:32PM CDT courtesy of NOAA-NASA GOES Project No one knows what it will be called yet, but a historic and massive extra-tropical cyclone affected over half of the United States on October 26 and 27. It spawned everything from tornadoes to blizzard conditions, primarily across the Midwest. It was […]

The month of October is known for a variety of migrant sparrows. The Coastal Center at Milford Point and Stratford Point are fantastic spots to find multitudes of common, scarce, and rare species. Lately numerous Nelson’s Sparrows have delighted visitors at the former, while of course on Sunday a rare Grasshopper Sparrow showed up at […]

Earlier this afternoon I was conducting a typical survey of Stratford Point when I found a Grasshopper Sparrow. It was hanging out with some Savannah and Song Sparrow, as well as an American Pipit, at the end of our driveway as it goes towards Long Island Sound. The spot has surplus rocks from repairing the […]

On Monday, I spent some time at the Boothe Park Hawk Watch. I got there at about 8AM despite the fact that the site performs poorly for raptors in the early morning hours. The few that move early are still low and therefore out of our sight, not able to climb in altitude because thermals […]

Last Monday I wrote about seeing a Grasshopper Sparrow in the community gardens on Connors Lane in Stratford. Today I was with another expert birder – Charles Barnard Jr. – in the same gardens. There were many sparrow migrants, mostly Savannah with some Swamp, Song, and Field. While we looked through them we quickly found […]