Birding our way through Connecticut
Friday 29 December 2023
39 °F
Today, I joined my buddy Will again for a day of birding Connecticut. We had several target birds in mind, some rare and others expected but always nice to see. Our targets were as follows: Rufous Hummingbird, Eurasian Wigeon, Sandhill Crane, Purple Sandpiper, and Tufted Duck. Rufous Hummingbird is an expected vagrant across the eastern US and would be a Connecticut lifer for me, Wigeon would be another Connecticut lifer for me (another expected eastern US vagrant), Purple Sandpiper is common in the northeast in winter but would be a Connecticut lifer for me, Sandhill Crane is rare in Connecticut and would be another state lifer for me, and Tufted Duck would be an ABA lifer for me as I had only ever seen it in England before.
We started “thicket birding” as Will likes to say, right outside his house in Greenwich. It was fairly productive with EASTERN TOWHEE, both CAROLINA & WINTER WREN, and plenty of HOUSE FINCHES:
Then we stopped at a nearby cemetery where Will had some passerine activity recently and were spoiled with stunning views of this male EASTERN BLUEBIRD in the sun:
Our next stop was also in Greenwich, this time for the RUFOUS HUMMINGBIRD which Will spotted within twenty seconds, sitting on a twig. It posed for absolutely incredible views in the light:
A great Connecticut lifer! Next stop was a bit further east at 14 Acre Pond for Eurasian Wigeon. Upon getting out of the car, a female PILEATED WOODPECKER flew in, calling raucously:
And allowed for some great views as she worked her magic on the tree bark, feasting on wintry insects:
Of course, Will spotted the reliable EURASIAN WIGEON almost instantly, here posing with assorted other ducks like AMERICAN WIGEON (note the difference in head color) and GADWALL:
Duck diversity was on point with NORTHERN PINTAIL:
And RING-NECKED DUCKS:
NORTHERN SHOVELER was nice for the area, according to Will:
Our next stop, now even further east and into New Haven County was for Sandhill Crane in a marsh alongside the road. There was a gorgeous drake HOODED MERGANSER displaying his namesake hood:
AMERICAN BLACK DUCK:
And within a minute of scanning, Will had spotted our target SANDHILL CRANE! Super cool — we were just racking them up!
At our next stop in Milford, I scanned the rocky shoreline for our target PURPLE SANDPIPERS and, after one false alarm, spotted a few foraging on the seaside rocks! Very neat and a species I had not seen in quite a while (maybe since like 2021?) — a true New England specialty!
Eleven of them ended up erupting from the rocks, zig-zagging over the water — the most I’ve ever seen at once!
Other waterbirds seen in the vicinity included LESSER SCAUP:
This flashy pair of SURF SCOTERS:
RED-BREASTED MERGANSER:
LONG-TAILED DUCKS:
HORNED GREBES:
Finally, our furthest-east location today was in East Haven in a random subdivision’s pond that had recently been hosting Tufted Duck, my most hoped-for bird today because it would be an ABA lifer that I had missed in Connecticut in previous years. Here was the view from the vantage point of this pond:
And, continuing with the theme of today’s easy birding, the first bird I spotted turned out to be the continuing female TUFTED DUCK, recognizable by her head tuft and bright yellow eye. Very, very cool to get an ABA (American Birding Area) lifer — and my bird-of-the-day for today!
Runners-up to the Rufous Hummingbird and Eurasian Wigeon. It was, once again, a FABULOUS day of birding with Will and I look forward to May when I will hopefully get to bird with him again. In the meantime, he will be traveling to Rome for a semester of study abroad and we wish him well on his semester in Italy, studying Latin and classics!
Stay tuned: a trip to the famous, owl-laden Sax-Zim Bog in northern Minnesota with Kim and Susie is right around the corner!!!
Happy birding,
Henry
World Life List: 1173 Species
Nice Henry, glad you got to bird some more with Will! What a day! Congrats on all those special lifers!
We did our CBC today. Bird of the day was two barn owls in Carey! No snow to get them to head out I guess!
by Poo