Birding West Campus

Just the regulars...

2012-02-03T16:38:00.008-05:00

Red-tailed Hawk, Buteo jamaicensis, photo Lynn Jones

The "tails" have been more noticeable these last two weeks. Three were seen more-or-less together one morning over West Campus. Lynn recently photographed this beautiful dark adult.

No snow cover, night-time temperatures in the twenties, daytime temps in the forties - this seems more like mid-March than February. The birds are usually around our feeders when it's particularly cold, or when a storm is threatening, but with the milder temperatures, they've been rather scarce.

Still we've managed a two-week list of twenty three species.

Birds seen at West Campus between January 30th and February 10th, 2012:

Wild Turkey
Canada Goose
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
Turkey Vulture

Lynn caught this male Wild Turkey displaying yesterday.

Red-tailed Hawk
Mourning Dove
Rock Pigeon
Downy Woodpecker
Red-bellied Woodpecker

American Crow
Fish Crow
Blue Jay
American Robin
Northern Mockingbird

European Starling
Black-capped Chickadee
Carolina Wren
Northern Cardinal
White-throated Sparrow

House Finch
American Goldfinch
House Sparrow

same handsome fellow as above, now you can appreciate the detail

January 2012

2012-01-23T08:36:00.006-05:00

We've been birding and blogging at West Campus for two and a half years now, compiling quite a list of bird species, and documenting seasonal changes in the process. Occasionally we submit a list to e-bird, a website developed by Cornell University for the purpose of collecting and sharing data on bird sightings. (see end of blog post)

Usually when we contribute a list to e-bird it's because we've either seen something "good" that we want to share, or because we've done a thorough survey, such as the Christmas Count or a hawk watch. Advocates of e-bird would like us birders to get in the habit of submitting ALL of our birding efforts, to better document year-round bird activity in our favored "hot-spots".

Although we understand the reasons, we don't necessarily always have the time. Ultimately e-bird is happy to get whatever data we citizen scientists are willing to volunteer. As an end-user of e-bird data I certainly appreciate a plethora of birding reports. For example, over the semester break I was birding in Florida, and was able to check the reports of other e-birders to plan my stops.

I checked for species, such as the Florida Scrub-Jay (Florida's only endemic bird), and the Red-cockaded Woodpecker (a vulnerable species). Searches can also be made by specific location, such as Sanibel Island or the Anhinga Trail within Everglades National Park. Ultimately, e-bird is just one of many tools a birder can use to find good places to go birding.

We finally have some snow cover, and look what shows up...

I haven't posted our list here on the blog in over a month - feeder activity has been s-l-o-w, but I'll list the birds we've seen since the start of the new year. Many of these birds are using our assorted feeding stations, placed in the courtyard where we can observe. I'll just write "feeder" after these species.

West Campus bird list for the first three weeks of 2012:

1. Wild Turkey - feeder
Canada Goose
Turkey Vulture
Red-tailed Hawk
5. Merlin
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
Mourning Dove - feeder
Rock Pigeon
10. Downy Woodpecker - feeder
Red-bellied Woodpecker - feeder
Blue Jay - feeder
American Crow
European Starling
15. Black-capped Chickadee - feeder
Carolina Wren
American Robin
Northern Cardinal - feeder
Dark-eyed Junco - feeder
20. Song Sparrow - feeder
White-throated Sparrow - feeder
Fox Sparrow - feeder
American Goldfinch
House Finch - feeder
25. House Sparrow - feeder

Here's a link to e-bird. http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ You'll see there's a lot to explore, and Cornell continues to improve the user interface as well as the data-generating possibilities.

112th Annual Christmas Bird Count

2011-12-19T14:33:00.004-05:00

The year 2011 is the 112th CBC, the first official Christmas Bird Count was in the year 1900. There's a pretty long run of citizen science for you.

As we have for over a decade, Tom, Lynn and I each participated in our own regional counts on Saturday, which meant West Campus was not counted that day. Instead we counted here today, and by the official rules we cannot add numbers, only species to the official tally - and only if it's a species that was not found in the New Haven circle on Saturday.

Two years ago our Barred Owl was added as one of these "count week" species. Today we weren't able to add any new species, but put in a good birding effort anyway.

Here are the results:

number in party: 3 (Lynn, me, Tom)
party hours: 7 (6:45 to 2:15 with a lunch break)
weather conditions: cold 20-28F, clear and calm in the early morning, partly cloudy and breezy through the mid-day.
no snow, moving water was open, still water with thin ice
number of species: 34
number of individual birds: 454

31 Canada Goose
1 Mute Swan
5 Wild Turkey
1 Turkey Vulture
4 Red-tailed Hawk

75 Ring-billed Gull
20 Herring Gull
30 Rock Pigeon
10 Mourning Dove
3 Red-bellied Woodpecker

6 Downy Woodpecker
1 Northern Flicker
7 Blue Jay
40 American Crow
1 Fish Crow

8 Black-capped Chickadee
1 Tufted Titmouse
2 White-breasted Nuthatch
2 Carolina Wren
3 Ruby-crowned Kinglet

1 Hermit Thrush
50 American Robin
1 Gray Catbird
2 Northern Mockingbird
43 European Starling

9 Song Sparrow
1 Swamp Sparrow
14 White-throated Sparrow
1 White-crowned Sparrow
2 Dark-eyed Junco

14 Northern Cardinal
45 House Finch
10 American Goldfinch
20 House Sparrow

An excellent birding effort - beats our 2009 number by one, and the 2010 number by several - but last year's search was hampered by two feet of snow on the ground!

2010 results here
2009 results here

Mid-December update

2011-12-16T08:21:00.005-05:00

Immature Cooper's Hawk, Accipiter cooperi, perched just a few meters above our feeders one morning last week. photo: Lynn Jones

December is just not a normal month. There's the transition from late fall to winter, when those warmish days are just fewer and farther between, and we resign ourselves to the fact of cold weather.
We have ways to deal with this.

If you're connected to students and the academic world in any way, there are end-of-semester issues. Grades and evaluations are due, plans are sketched out for second semester, last-minute challenges are par for the course.
We have ways to deal with this too.

And then there's the craziness of the "holiday season". THIS is self-inflicted, I mean the craziness part. The holidays, well they've all been around longer than we have, but what have we done to make them so crazy?
We have ways to deal with this too - GO BIRDING!!!!

It's time for the annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count, so tomorrow instead of joining the shopping craziness we birders will be out driving and walking our "territories" in search of every last chickadee, gull and wandering warbler we can find.

New squirrel baffle for one of our feeders - provided by Tony - the other two feeders are there in the background - one for sunflower seeds and the other for thistle seeds, which the finches are supposed to prefer.

West Campus bird list for the past two weeks, December 5-9 and 12-16, 2011:

Wild Turkey
Herring Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Red-tailed Hawk
Cooper's Hawk
Mourning Dove
Rock Pigeon
Downy Woodpecker
Red-bellied Woodpecker
10. Blue Jay
American Crow
Fish Crow
American Robin
European Starling
Northern Mockingbird
Black-capped Chickadee
Northern Cardinal
Song Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
20. Dark-eyed Junco
House Finch
American Goldfinch

Twenty two species for the middle of December - probably just about what you'd expect.

Next week, Lynn and I will report on our West Campus Christmas Bird Count.

2011-12-02T15:08:00.004-05:00

Sue and Lynn - West Campus birders - with camera trap.

The segue from November to December this week brought a few cold nights, but warm daytime temperatures linger still. Our sparrow population is down, but a good variety of thicket-haunting birds was around this week.

Ruby-crowned and
Golden-crowned Kinglets

Carolina and
House Wrens

Northern Mockingbirds and
Gray Catbirds

Dark-eyed Juncos and a
White-throated Sparrow

Blue Jays and
American Crows

House Finches and
American Goldfinches

Mourning Doves and
Rock Pigeons

Downy Woodpeckers and
Red-bellied Woodpeckers

Lynn keeps the courtyard feeders full.

Black-capped Chickadees and a
Northern Cardinal

American Robins and
European Starlings

Ring-billed and
Herring Gulls

Wild Turkey flock browsing? grazing? one morning this week.

Wild Turkey flocks
Canada Goose flocks, and a
Red-tailed Hawk
and always a few
House Sparrows

Twenty six species for the week - again, a week in which we didn't get outside much during the workday, but saw our good skulkers before work in the mornings.

Nocturnal visitors

2011-11-28T08:38:00.008-05:00

Okay, here's something fun we've been trying for a few weeks - off and on...
We noticed some unusually large scat out in the courtyard and set up our camera trap to see who the nocturnal visitors might be. The possibilities are limited, since the area is only accessible via the trees - or via flight.

Virginia Opossum, Didelphis virginianus - North America's only native marsupial.

We were thinking it could have been a Gray Fox, since they're arboreal - and the scat was fairly large - so we'll keep trying! - fun stuff.

Bird list for the last few weeks (November 14-18 and 21-23, 2011):

Wild Turkey
Canada Goose
Herring Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Red-tailed Hawk
6. Cooper's Hawk

Mourning Dove
Rock Pigeon
Downy Woodpecker
Red-bellied Woodpecker
11. Northern Flicker

Blue Jay
American Crow
Fish Crow
American Robin
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
18. Cedar Waxwing

Celastrus scandens, Oriental Bittersweet - bad weed, but good food supply for the birds.

Black-capped Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
House Wren
23. Carolina Wren

Northern Cardinal
Song Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
House Finch
28. American Goldfinch
Brown-headed Cowbird
Baltimore Oriole - two!!
31. House Sparrow

Diverse habitat near the Leaf Pile - some bittersweet, some Phragmites, some open woodland.

This is often a good place for morning bird activity - in fact on a warm, humid morning earlier this week, this spot was alive with birdsong. Robins were singing, the Baltimore Oriole sang a few notes, White-throated and Song Sparrows joined in. Felt like spring!

2011-11-14T16:03:00.003-05:00

An unseasonably warm week - such a pleasure, after a string of frosty mornings, well, and not to forget the big snowstorm 2 weeks back.

Bird list for the week of November 7-11, 2011.

Wild Turkey
Canada Goose
Herring Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Red-tailed Hawk
Cooper's Hawk
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Downy Woodpecker
Hairy Woodpecker
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Blue Jay
American Crow - 89 birds counted
Fish Crow - 12 birds counted
(the West Haven crow roost is gathering again!)

American and Fish Crows gather on a West Campus rooftop.

American Robin
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
Cedar Waxwing
Carolina Wren
Black-capped Chickadee
American Goldfinch
House Finch
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Northern Cardinal
Eastern Towhee
Song Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
Brown-headed Cowbird
House Sparrow

Catching up

2011-11-09T08:35:00.009-05:00

fall colors afloat on the Oyster River

Among other excuses, I have had a cold for the past two weeks and opted to stay indoors knitting, rather than go out birding - so, the list this week is 100% attributable to Ms. Lynn Jones - her photos too.

Bird list for the week of October 31 through Nov 4th.

Wild Turkey
Canada Goose
Great Blue Heron

Ardea herodias, G B H, passing through West Campus

Ring-billed Gull
5. Herring Gull
Killdeer
Turkey Vulture
Red-tailed Hawk
Cooper's Hawk
American Kestrel
11. Mourning Dove

Rock Pigeon
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
American Crow
16. Fish Crow
Common Raven
Blue Jay

A small amount of birding involves unsolved mysteries. Here's half a hawk Lynn saw this week. An immature Buteo? - I was going for young Red-tail, based on the rufous head, pale belly, dark back, vertical streaking. Who knows?...

American Robin
Hermit Thrush
21. Tree Swallow

European Starling
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Black-capped Chickadee
Song Sparrow
26. White-throated Sparrow
Chipping Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
Northern Cardinal
Brown-headed Cowbird
31. House Sparrow

Here's a beauty - the Blue-headed Vireo, Vireo solitarius, Lynn saw last week.

New Haven Bird Club's Feederwatch (link, or see below) started this week, and Lynn has begun keeping a tally of our feeder birds, as she has for the past two winters. So far, the usual visitors are a pair of Blue Jays, a few chickadees and sparrows, Mourning Doves, woodpeckers and a gray squirrel. This week a huge flock of juncos descended - sixty at the highest count!

NHBC 19th Annual Winter Feeder Survey November 1, 2011 through March 31, 2012 This is a yearly census to help determine the number and frequency of birds visiting feeders in the Greater New Haven area. You are invited to observe and record the activity at your feeder at least once a week for the entire time period. Contact-Peter Vitali: 203.288.0621,vitali_peter_e@sbcglobal.net

So, in last week's post I mentioned a taste of winter, with more to come. Saturday, October 29th the northeastern US was hit with a snowstorm - a nor'easter on a scale usually only seen in mid-winter. [hmm, interestingly, I took no photos] Parts of the state were without power for 7, 8, nine days, as heavy snow brought down trees which still had a full complement of leaves.

Read Scott Kruitbosch's well-written account of the storm - from the perspective of a birder. Local news media provided plenty of coverage of the storm's aftermath - from the perspective of disgruntled customers of the state's electric utilites. Now, close to two weeks after the storm, here's a link to a blog in which the writer posted power outage maps for October 31st.

Still an occasional migrant.

2011-10-28T15:09:00.008-04:00

Merlin, Falco columbarius, digiscoped photo by Tom Parlapiano. The Merlin put in a few appearances at the other end of campus this week - most dramatically when Tom was out with a group of schoolchildren studying trees and identifying leaves.

In late October we still see the occasional migrant - a raptor here, a swallow there, and a few songbirds lingering. Lynn's special find of the week was a Blue-headed Vireo (photo in next week's post!). We've seen this bird on campus during both spring and fall migrations, and it's always a treat to see again.

This week saw cooler temperatures with mostly sunny skies, and one rainy day that changed to snow overnight. I should amend that - it snowed in my corner of the state, but along the coast, no.

My car early this morning - pretty sure I'm not ready for winter yet - but I hear this was just a test run. More arriving soon, as in, tomorrow - Saturday.

Bird list for the week of October 24-28, 2011.

Wild Turkey
Canada Goose
Herring Gull
Ring-billed Gull
5. Turkey Vulture
Red-tailed Hawk
Red-shouldered Hawk
Cooper's Hawk
Sharp-shinned Hawk
10. American Kestrel

Mourning Dove
Rock Pigeon
Downy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
15. Eastern Phoebe
American Crow
Fish Crow
Blue Jay
Blue-headed Vireo
20. American Robin

Hermit Thrush
Northern Mockingbird
Tree Swallow
Golden-crowned Kinglet
25. European Starling
Northern Cardinal
Song Sparrow
Swamp Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
30. Savannah Sparrow

Chipping Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
American Goldfinch
House Finch
35. Red-winged Blackbird
Brown-headed Cowbird
Common Grackle
House Sparrow

yes, MORE images of the famous albino squirrel of West Campus

Late-day birds.

2011-10-21T15:10:00.009-04:00

Canada Geese, Branta canadensis, take over the parking lots after 5pm.

Hundreds of American Robins, Turdus migratorius, gather in the treetops to roost after 5pm.
Bird list for the week of October 17-21, 2011:

Wild Turkey
Canada Goose
Killdeer
Herring Gull
5. Ring-billed Gull

Killdeer, Charadrius vociferus, feeding in grassy strips in the parking lots - after 5pm.

Turkey Vulture
Osprey
Red-tailed Hawk
Red-shouldered Hawk
10. Broad-winged Hawk
Cooper's Hawk
Sharp-shinned Hawk
Falco sp.

Mourning Dove
15. Rock Pigeon
Downy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker

Eastern Phoebe
Common Raven
20. American Crow
Blue Jay
American Robin
Hermit Thrush
Gray Catbird
25. European Starling

The third Killdeer - we often see three together.

Black-capped Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
Brown Creeper
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
30. Palm Warbler
Blackpoll Warbler

Northern Cardinal
Eastern Towhee
Song Sparrow
35. Swamp Sparrow
Savannah Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco

House Finch
40. American Goldfinch
Brown-headed Cowbird
Red-winged Blackbird
Common Grackle
House Sparrow

Forty four bird species, and for mammals - sightings of Red Fox, Eastern Striped Chipmunk, Eastern Gray Squirrel and White-tailed Deer. Early Friday morning, Lynn and I stood quietly and watched two bucks engage each other in some head-butting and antler-wrestling. One was an eight-point and the other looked to be a six-point buck.

The resident curiosity, an albino squirrel.

Does anybody have a decent photo of the albino Gray Squirrel who has been haunting the western end of West Campus? It was pretty high up in a nut tree when I got this too-distant photo.

2011-10-14T13:35:00.006-04:00

Young Red-tailed Hawk, Buteo jamaicensis, in the Sycamore tree in our courtyard, photo: Lynn Jones
Bird list for the week of October 10 through 14, 2011:

Wild Turkey
Mute Swan
Canada Goose
Killdeer
5. Herring Gull
Ring-billed Gull

Turkey Vulture
Red-tailed Hawk
Red-shouldered Hawk
10. Cooper's Hawk
Sharp-shinned Hawk
Peregrine Falcon
American Kestrel
Osprey
15. Northern Harrier

Hairy Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Red-bellied Woodpecker
20. Mourning Dove
Rock Pigeon

Blue Jay, Cyanocitta cristata, in a spruce in our parking lot. The jays are so visible this time of year, as they search for food to cache for the winter. You'll see them fly in one direction, then return with an acorn or beech nut, then over again, and back with something more.

Eastern Phoebe
American Crow
Fish Crow
25. Blue Jay
European Starling
House Wren
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Golden-crowned Kinglet
30. Brown Creeper

American Robin
Swainson's Thrush
Northern Mockingbird
Palm Warbler
35. Common Yellowthroat

Northern Cardinal
Song Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Chipping Sparrow
40. Savannah Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco

Dark-eyed Junco, Junco hyemalis, in spruce forest in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. photo: Jorge de Leon.

House Finch
Brown-headed Cowbird
Common Grackle
45. House Sparrow

I keep meaning to explain my groupings. Sometimes I group by fives to make it easier to count, sometimes I group by species, according to accepted avian systematics. We'll get into avian systematics another time, perhaps - but not on a Friday afternoon...

Have a good weekend!
Sue

October migrants

2011-10-07T13:47:00.011-04:00

This is the approach path to "the leaf pile". Sparrows forage for grass seeds along the edge here, and many skulky bird species haunt the thickets down below the pile. We tend to name all of our birding hotspots on campus to simplify describing to each other where we saw something.

October migrants are definitely the sparrows!
Tuesday night October 4th, another storm system was pushed through by strong NW winds, bringing more migrants. This wave of birds was predominantly sparrows.

This week's birds, oh let's just start with the sparrows - all in the family Emberizidae which include juncos, towhees, new world sparrows and old world buntings.

Purple-colored species are those that just arrived this week:
White-throated Sparrow, Zonotrichia albicollis
White-crowned Sparrow, Zonotrichia leucophrys
Song Sparrow, Melospiza melodia
Swamp Sparrow, Melospiza georgiana
5. Lincoln's Sparrow, Melospiza lincolnii
Field Sparrow, Spizella pusilla
Savannah Sparrow, Passerculus sandwichensis
Dark-eyed Junco, Junco hyemalis
Sharptailed sparrow, Ammodramus sp.
10. Eastern Towhee, Pipilo erythrophthalmus

Monarch Butterflies are still in migration too - on their way to Mexico.

Okay, now back to my usual systematic listing:
Wild Turkey
Canada Goose
Great Blue Heron
Ring-billed Gull
15. Herring Gull
Turkey Vulture

raptors:
Red-tailed Hawk
Red-shouldered Hawk
Cooper's Hawk
20. Sharp-shinned Hawk
Osprey
Merlin
American Kestrel

and continuing along the non-passerine birds:
Rock Pigeon
25. Mourning Dove
Monk Parakeet
Downy Woodpecker
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Northern flicker
[NO hummingbirds this week]

Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Regulus calendula, Lynn's photo - beautiful - thanks!

and now to the passerines:
30. Common Raven
American Crow
Blue Jay
European Starling
Cedar Waxwing
35. Black-capped Chickadee
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
House Wren
Red-eyed Vireo
American Robin
40. Swainson's Thrush
Gray Catbird
Northern Mockingbird

Yellow-rumped [Myrtle] Warbler, Dendroica coronata coronata , a male, one of the photos showed a sliver of yellow on the crown, which only the male has. Another great photo Lynn - thanks!

Yellow-rumped Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
45. American Goldfinch
House Finch
Northern Cardinal
Common Grackle
Brown-headed Cowbird
50. House Sparrow

Looks like our species count has stayed pretty high this week, with a grand total of 50.

This week's casualties, picked up from various glass hazards around campus: Northern Parula (top), Red-eyed Vireo (left), Gray Catbird (right).

We write the collecting info for each bird on a scrap of paper and save it together with the little body in the freezer until we can prepare study skins to contribute to the Peabody Museum's research collection.

Study specimens that I prepared a few weeks ago from window-strike casualties. In front is an Ovenbird, in back a Red-eyed Vireo with a spread wing preparation for the same bird. The pins help keep the skin in position as it dries, and can be removed after a week or so. And now the specimens each have a Peabody Museum data tag which will be tied to the legs.

And I throw this photo in at the end as a little bonus for all of you rodent-lovers! Every day this week, in the mid-afternoon, Tom Parlapiano has seen this albino Gray Squirrel hanging out at the west end of campus.

September wrap-up, oh, and another new bird

2011-10-03T08:22:00.006-04:00

Common Raven in flight. Lynn's photo. We watched two of them during one lunch-hour, hanging out in their favorite spot - on top of C-32 at West Campus. At one point, one of the pair returned with a prey item, and we soon saw feathers floating from the rooftop. Bet there's all kinds of vertebrate remains up there!

For the final week of September our birding efforts were hampered by a few rainy days, but we managed to keep the species count high. Or rather, the birds kept on coming, and we were lucky to have lunchtimes available to get out for some birding.

Bird list for the week of September 26 - 30th, 2011.

Wild Turkey
Canada Goose
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
5. Killdeer

Lynn's photo, at some distance, and through glass, of this week's new bird:

Spotted Sandpiper, Actitis macularius name links to Cornell University's All About Birds page on this species - scroll down to images at the bottom of page and look for the bird in non-breeding plumage - that's who dropped by early Monday morning last week to pay us a visit!
This is the first member of family Scolopacidae for our West Campus birding list. Our resident Killdeer, although we group it with sandpipers in a general way, is a plover, family Charadriidae.

And a good push of migrating raptors came through on the post-rain windiness. Few in numbers but high in diversity:
Osprey
Red-tailed Hawk
Red-shouldered Hawk
10. Broad-winged Hawk
Cooper's Hawk
Sharp-shinned Hawk
Merlin
Kestrel
15. Turkey Vulture

Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Downy Woodpecker
Red-bellied Woodpecker
20. Northern Flicker
Ruby-throated Hummingbird

Yeah, here's one of our very own ravens!! such a nice ravenesque profile! Lynn's photo

Common Raven
American Crow
Fish Crow
25. Blue Jay

Eastern Phoebe
Cedar Waxwing
European Starling
Red-eyed Vireo
30. Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Black-capped Chickadee
House Wren

Palm Warbler
Black-throated Blue Warbler
35. Blackpoll Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Northern Waterthrush

Asters, goldenrod, mugwort, ragweed - fall greenery in every unmowed corner of campus.

American Robin
Gray Catbird
40. Northern Mockingbird

American Goldfinch
House Finch
Northern Cardinal
Indigo Bunting

45. Song Sparrow
Savannah Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow

Common Grackle
Brown-headed Cowbird
50. Red-winged Blackbird

House Sparrow

Fifty-one species. Yeah, another fantastic week of migration activity over our hilltop here at West Campus. After the first few weeks of October, most of the raptors and warblers will no longer make our list but the diversity of sparrow species will hopefully continue to climb. And then.... the winter finches!!

Where's our Purple Finch, and our Pine Siskin? our Red-breasted Nuthatch and our White-winged Crossbill. Okay - which of those four species have we NOT seen yet at West Campus?

ha! - we birders ALways have something good to look forward to!!

As the leaves thin out in September, we notice more and more nests around campus. This one has a pretty high percentage of plastic in the construction - we'll do some research and see if we can match to the species, but I know that Kingbirds and some other flycatchers will use plastic, as a substitute for a more traditional building material: snakeskin! [Lynn's photo]

TWO new species!! and an all-time high list

2011-09-26T10:04:00.016-04:00

Early fall color, Staghorn Sumac, Rhus typhina, family Anacardiaceae (comprising cashews and sumacs)

Bird list for the week of September 19-23, 2011:

Wild Turkey
Double-crested Cormorant
Canada Goose
Ring-billed Gull
5. Herring Gull

Great Black-backed Gull
Turkey Vulture
Osprey
Red-tailed Hawk
10. Sharp-shinned Hawk

Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Monk Parakeet - flock of twenty flew over
Downy Woodpecker
15. Hairy Woodpecker - one heard calling

Northern Flicker - many
Chimney Swift - a few still in migration
Ruby-throated Hummingbird - still high numbers, as many as six at one time
Eastern Kingbird - one
20. Eastern Phoebe - several
Eastern Wood-Pewee - one

All of the possible corvidae!!:
Common Raven
American Crow
Fish Crow
25. Blue Jay

Lynn and I were called to the scene of a panicked fledgling goldfinch in the grass. Grounds crewmember Jeff was mowing when this youngster fluttered down out of a pine and landed just in front of the mower. I scooped up the bird and returned it to a branch in the white pine (probably its natal tree) where it sat quietly as its parents called from a nearby tree.

Red-eyed Vireo - very common this week
Cedar Waxwing - flocks
European Starling
American Robin

All of the possible mimidae!!:
30. Northern Mockingbird
Gray Catbird
Brown Thrasher - seen on two separate days at the same spot!!

House Wren
Carolina Wren
35. Black-capped Chickadee
Palm Warbler - seen on two separate days at the same spot - oh did I already use that line?
Magnolia Warbler
Pine Warbler, Dendroica pinus - (click name) a new bird for West Campus!! - was feeding in a scotch pine mid-week, I had a brief view before it flew off
Yellow-rumped Warbler
40. Common Yellowthroat

Wilson's Warbler, Wilsonia pusilla - another new bird for our West Campus list!! - seen Wednesday late afternoon and twice on Thursday by Tom and Lynn - in the thickets in the "leaf pile" - I tried for it again in the rain on Friday morning, but had no luck

American Goldfinch
House Finch
Northern Cardinal
45. Indigo Bunting

Song Sparrow
Savannah Sparrow - first of the fall
White-throated Sparrow - first of the fall
Baltimore Oriole
50. Common Grackle

Brown-headed Cowbird
House Sparrow

Fifty two is an all-time high species count for a week at West Campus!

And if we had added one of the birds below, well, that would have made 53.

Black-throated Green Warbler and Ruby-throated Hummingbird found under the corridor of doom earlier in the week. photo from Lynn's phone

For every little corpse we find, hundreds more across the migratory flyways of North America have met a similar fate, colliding with windows or communications towers.

Second Annual "Lynn's Birthday Hawkwatch"

2011-09-16T15:58:00.005-04:00

The weather was perfect this morning for migrating birds - a cold front came through last night. The wind was out of the northwest all morning, shifting to west during the afternoon. Winds were generally light, from 5 to 10 mph, with gusts up to 15mph. The temperature rose from 55 degrees F at 9am to 65 at 3:30pm. Humidity was low, between 37 and 41%.

Our work table. Field guides, notebook, raptor chart, camera, ... and coffee.

A beautiful patch of sky. Hawks show up as black dots against the clouds, which makes them marginally easier to detect than against the blue. Clouds also serve as reference points, as in - to the right of the wispy edge, or below the long thin cloud.

Tom watching for kettles of Broad-winged Hawks and Lynn checking to see what other hawkwatchers are reporting.

Very tired now after 6 1/2 hours of hawk-watching - will fill in the list later :-)
Highlights were 1738 Broad-winged Hawks and 123 Chimney Swifts and two Bald Eagles.

Back again on Saturday morning - with the numbers from the hawkwatch and a bird list for the week. Most "real" hawk-watches count only truly migrating birds - for example the Osprey cruising high overhead in a southwesterly direction and not the Osprey flying over the treetops carrying a fish. Here we have included every bird that we saw, regardless of its residential status.

9:20am to 3:45pm Friday, September 16, 2011 - Yale West Campus, Orange, CT, USA. This is the list we submitted to e-bird, for a total of 34 species.

Turkey Vulture 4

Osprey 17

Bald Eagle 2

Sharp-shinned Hawk 33

Cooper's Hawk 6

Accipiter species 22

Red-shouldered Hawk 6

Broad-winged Hawk 1738

Red-tailed Hawk 7

Buteo species 26

American Kestrel 6

Merlin 1

Falco species 1

Ring-billed Gull 1

Herring Gull 6

Rock Pigeon 12

Mourning Dove 18

Chimney Swift 123

Ruby-thrtd Humbrd 5

Red-bellied Wdpkr 1

Northern Flicker 3

Eastern Wood-pewee 1

Empidonax sp. 1

Red-eyed Vireo 1

Blue Jay 20

American Crow 4

Tree Swallow 1

Barn Swallow 5

Blck-cap'd Chickadee 3

American Robin 3

Gray Catbird 2

European Starling 54

Cedar Waxwing 10

Magnolia Warbler 2

Red-winged Blckbrd 3

Common Grackle 3

House Finch 3

American Goldfinch 4

Ebird seems to not count those we listed as Genus sp., but I will include the Empidonax, since it was unique, bringing our day total to 35.

And now the additional species for the week - which includes the regulars, such as our Wild Turkeys and some migrating warblers!

Wild Turkey

Belted Kingfisher

Killdeer

Downy Woodpecker

Fish Crow

Northern Mockingbird

Carolina Wren

House Wren

Black-throated Blue Warbler

Northern Parula Warbler

Northern Cardinal

Song Sparrow

Brown-headed Cowbird

House Sparrow

The total week's list is forty nine species - a great week for Birding West Campus!

Tom - is there anything else you saw during the week that could bring our total to a nice round number - FIFTY!??

Nighthawks!

2011-09-12T09:36:00.006-04:00

Common Nighthawk, Cordeiles minor
I could have slipped this in to Friday's post, but since it was a new species for campus, opted for a dedicated post. The Common Nighthawk (link to images & calls) is a bird we see regularly this time of year, but always at dusk, after we've departed West Campus for the day. So, for the sake of a new species for our list I stayed late at work on Friday. High over the parking lot just before 5:30, as I watched yet another Osprey through the binoculars, one nighthawk, then another passed through my field of view.

I just searched the web for an image approximating my view, link here:

Our Common Nighthawk belongs to the family Caprimulgidae, Order Caprimulgiformes. The latin name means "goat sucker", which reflects old popular lore that the birds sucked milk - from goats.

Nighthawks gather in large flocks this time or year, towards dusk, with migratory flights known to number 1000 birds. The birds feed as they fly - catching insects on the wing, both at high and low altitudes. So, look skyward in the late afternoon towards dusk, for these slender-winged birds, with their strange floppy-looking wingbeat, hawking insects over a clearing or a watercourse.

Hawk-watch season

2011-09-09T13:06:00.008-04:00

Lynn and Sue out on a West Campus hawkwatch. All of today's photos from my camera (S. Hochgraf)

Four days of rain lends itself neither to bird activity nor birding activities, so we were very happy to get out for an hour at lunchtime today (Friday) to scan the clear skies for migrating raptors.

Our efforts yielded one American Kestrel, one Cooper's Hawk and one possible Northern Harrier, and both last and least, more than a half dozen Ruby-throated Hummingbirds. The local Red-tailed Hawks, Ospreys and Herring Gulls added to the oh-so-blue skies.

Weather reports earlier in the week indicated the winds today would be from the northwest, which helps push all migrants along - instead it was from the southwest, so, not much was moving.

The regular bird activity for the week of Sept. 6-9, 2011 - as much as we could see between raindrops:

Double-crested Cormorant
Herring Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Rock Pigeon
5. Mourning Dove
Northern Flicker
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Chimney Swift
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
10. American Crow
Blue Jay
European Starling
American Robin
Cedar Waxwing
15. Northern Cardinal
Song Sparrow
American Goldfinch
Common Grackle
House Sparrow

Hawkwatchers with charts of raptor silhouettes - even so, we still miss some identifications.

The raptor list:
20. Osprey
Red-tailed Hawk
Red-shouldered Hawk
Broad-winged Hawk
Cooper's Hawk
25. American Kestrel
Bald Eagle

Migration is an amazing fall spectacle to us birders, but for the birds, especially the small passerines, it's fraught with dangers - some of which we create right here on West Campus with our large expanses of glass.
A Chestnut-sided Warbler hit a window just this morning - one of those sad moments when we exclaim that we haven't yet seen this species alive here on campus.

Chestnut-sided Warbler, Dendroica pensylvanica, in fall plumage.

A neotropical migrant, this species leaves its eastern North American breeding grounds in August, passes over the Gulf of Mexico, and winters in Central America. The migratory flights take place at night and usually end by dawn, but there can be limited daytime movement after landing. This individual was probably exhausted after a night of flying, took refuge here on campus and during rest or foraging became disoriented or was disturbed and flew into the window.

Chestnut-sided Warbler, Dendroica pensylvanica, in fall plumage.

The dorsal plumage has an indescribably brilliant quality - somewhere between neon green and green-gold and emerald green - and contrasted with the clear white breast and belly, it's a spectacular little warbler.

More than just birds...

2011-09-02T15:19:00.023-04:00

Black Saddlebag, Tramea lacerata, in the skimmer family: Libellulidae, in the insect order Odonata (dragonflies and damselflies) - Lynn's photo.

The butterfly nets in the storage room called to us today, and asked to be taken outside. I was the trip photographer, and mostly caught the flowers that the insects were feeding upon.

Left, a little low legume. Right, bindweed.

Eventually I can get these flowers identified a little better, but just wanted to post them, for now.

Left, thistle gone to seed. Right, Solidago species (Goldenrod).

We collected over a dozen species of butterfly, several grasshopper species, a tree cricket, katydid, beetles - and probably more.

Left, a primrose. Right, a purple composite.

While out prowling the edges of West Campus for small flying things, we managed to see a few larger ones. A young Red-shouldered Hawk flew in and perched on a nearby tree, giving us great views of this striking raptor.

Left, oregano. Right, a salticid spider.

The oregano was very fragrant - and the little jumping spider had blue pedipalps and lots of iridescence on its body.

Left, a yellow hawkweed. Right, chickory.

Left, a bluet (damselfly species). Right, crown vetch.

Junonia coenia, Buckeye
This is the first Buckeye I've ever seen. Okay, the second. The first was just a few minutes before, on the other side of the chain-link fence.

And here's Lynn butterflying.

Now for the bird list for the week of August 29 - Sept 2, 2011.
It was a fairly birdy week. Not in numbers of individuals, but in species, so here we go:

Wild Turkey
Canada Goose
Double-crested Cormorant
Turkey Vulture
5. Bald Eagle
Osprey
Red-tailed Hawk
Red-shouldered Hawk
Ring-billed Gull
10. Herring Gull

Great Black-backed Gull
Killdeer
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
15. Downy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Chimney Swift
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Empidonax sp. (small flycatcher, difficult to distinguish one from another)
20. Eastern Kingbird

Common Raven
American Crow
Fish Crow
Blue Jay
25. European Starling
American Robin
Gray Catbird
Northern Mockingbird
Barn Swallow
30. Tree Swallow

House Wren
Black-capped Chickadee
Common Yellowthroat
American Redstart, male and female
35. Northern Cardinal
Song Sparrow
American Goldfinch
House Finch
Common Grackle
40. Red-winged Blackbird

Baltimore Oriole (a low fly-over)
House Sparrow

Hmm - I believe I said fairly birdy - I had no idea we had forty two species for the week. For us here at West Campus, that qualifies as a distinctly birdy week! And as more fall migrants move along the coast, or overland from the north, we'll pick up some interesting additions - hopefully!

Have a good long weekend. Labor Day in the US of A. Time to celebrate working people, and the rights earned for us through the struggles of generations of workers who came before us and through our labor unions who still fight for us. And for those interested in learning about our other Labor Day, read through this article.

Birding Hurricane Irene?

2011-08-26T10:57:00.006-04:00

Beautiful clear blue sky - waiting first for the clouds of Hurricane Irene, then for the southward movement of migrating raptors - coming soon.

I wasn't really thinking of going out birding on Sunday during the hurricane, but the following link to Nick Bonomo's Shorebirder blog gives all the information you could hope for about doing just that.

http://www.shorebirder.com/2011/08/birding-hurricane-irene.html

It's well researched and well written - better read it before Sunday when we're in a state of no electricity here in the state of Connecticut.

Bird list here at West Campus for the week of August 22 - 26, 2011:

Wild Turkey
Canada Goose
Red-tailed Hawk
Red-shouldered Hawk
5. Killdeer
Herring Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Mourning Dove
Rock Pigeon
10. Downy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Chimney Swift
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
American Crow
15. Blue Jay
European Starling
American Robin
Gray Catbird
Northern Mockingbird
20. Cedar Waxwing
Northern Cardinal
Song Sparrow
House Finch
American Goldfinch
25. Common Grackle
House Sparrow

Okay, stay safe in the expected high winds and heavy rains on Sunday - and Monday morning we'll see what birds came in with the storm.

Tamias striatus, Eastern Striped Chipmunk - passed between me and my camera this afternoon.

Dog days of summer

2011-08-19T15:40:00.007-04:00

Unusual angle on a dragonfly. (Lynn's photo)

The dog days of summer - but you probably already know...
In Roman times, the hot, languid days of summer were believed to be caused by the dawn rising of the Dog Star, Sirius. An appropriate sacrifice (a brown dog) was made to appease the angry Sirius in attempt to ease the heat wave.
From just a little bit of reading, I've found that we should see Sirius clearly in our winter sky, when it's overhead, and located not far from Orion's belt. I guess in the summer it's up during the day (logical, since it rises with the sun).

Okay, this Dog Days bit was prompted by Lynn's cellphone video of the chirring of a Dog Day Cicada. The cicada itself, she says, is just above the cluster of red leaves!
Link here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81bfLTKHB2A

Calvatia cyathiformis - Purple-spored Puffball, growing over near the blackberries. (Lynn's id)

Okay, I'll try to get a bird list squeezed in here, between photos.
Another two-week period, but with fall migration approaching, it may be time to get back to weekly listing and blogging.

Birders for the weeks of August 8-12 and 15-19, 2011:
Lynn, Sue, Tom

Birds for the two-week period:
Wild Turkey
Canada Goose
Killdeer
Herring Gull
5. Great Blue Heron
Turkey Vulture
Osprey
Red-tailed Hawk
Rock Pigeon
10. Mourning Dove
Northern Flicker
Blue Jay
Common Raven
American Robin
15. Northern Mockingbird
Gray Catbird
European Starling
Cedar Waxwing
Black-capped Chickadee
20. House Wren
Barn Swallow
Yellow Warbler
American Redstart - possible/likely
Northern Cardinal
25. Song Sparrow
American Goldfinch
House Finch
Common Grackle
House Sparrow

one of our paths is choked with poison ivy!

and our blackberries are ripening in the warmth of August

Another mid-summer bird list.

2011-08-08T08:30:00.007-04:00

Common Raven, Corvus corax, on a campus rooftop [photo Lynn Jones]

Contributing birders:
Lynn, Sue, Tom

Bird list for July 25- August 5:

Wild Turkey
Canada Goose - a little flock is back, feeding on campus
Double-crested Cormorant - fly-by
Herring Gull - the only gull around campus now
5. Killdeer
Great Blue Heron - fly-by
Osprey
Turkey Vulture
Rock Pigeon
10. Mourning Dove
Northern Flicker
Downy Woodpecker - not common, but find-able
Eastern Kingbird - first of the summer
Blue Jay
15. American Crow
Common Raven - two, possibly three on the roof of the C-buildings
Cedar Waxwing
European Starling
Barn Swallow
20. Tree Swallow - a good fly-by
Northern Rough-winged Swallow - another fly-by
House Wren
Black-capped Chickadee - not common, but always find-able
American Robin
25. Gray Catbird
Northern Mockingbird
Yellow Warbler - still a few around
Common Yellowthroat - a female
Northern Cardinal
30. Rose-breasted Grosbeak - a female
Song Sparrow
American Goldfinch
House Finch
Common Grackle
35. House Sparrow

Thirty five species is very respectable for mid-summer on our little patch of turf (the 135 acres which is West Campus).

Eastern Coyote, Canis latrans. One of this year's pups.
Photo by Brendan in Facilities.

2011-07-25T09:37:00.003-04:00

Meleagris gallopavo, Wild Turkey, juvenile, photo: Lynn Jones, 2011

Bird list for July 11 to 22, 2011:

Wild Turkey, a large youngster now hanging out with the three males - that's the little guy in Lynn's photo above
Double-crested Cormorant, solitary fly-over
Herring Gull, occasional fly-overs
Killdeer, a family group of three
5. Osprey, a pair - one with a fish

Red-tailed Hawk, our resident pair
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Downy Woodpecker
10. Northern Flicker

Colaptes auratus, Northern Flicker, female. photo: Lynn Jones, 2011

Common Raven, a good sighting by Lynn
American Crow
Blue Jay
Red-eyed Vireo
15. Cedar Waxwing, feeding fledglings now

European Starling
American Robin
Gray Catbird
Northern Mockingbird
20. House Wren

Black-capped Chickadee
Barn Swallow
Tree Swallow
Yellow Warbler
25. Northern Cardinal

Mystery bird. photo: Lynn Jones, 2011 - probably #28 on this week's list.

Song Sparrow
American Goldfinch
House Finch
Common Grackle
30. Brown-headed Cowbird
House Sparrow

Thirty one species recorded for a two-week period in the middle of July.

Quiet July

2011-07-08T14:51:00.006-04:00

Here are a couple of the Meleagris gang at noontime today, browsing the weedy edges at West Campus, hopefully finding delicious ticks and beetles for lunch. (three male Wild Turkeys)

July really is a dead zone for birders. By which I mean it's more difficult to find birds, by which I mean you have to work a lot harder to find them...
Yeah, we've been pretty busy with projects at work, and just haven't made the time to get out and find the birds.

So here's the cumulative list for the past two weeks, June 27 through today, July 8th:

Wild Turkey
Killdeer
Great Egret
Herring Gull
Ring-billed Gull

Red-tailed Hawk
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Downy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker

American Crow
Barn Swallow
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
Cedar Waxwing
Black-capped Chickadee

Red-eyed Vireo
Warbling Vireo
American Robin
Wood Thrush
Gray Catbird

Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
House Wren
American Goldfinch
House Finch

Yellow Warbler
Northern Cardinal
Song Sparrow
Common Grackle
Brown-headed Cowbird

House Sparrow

Looks like thirty-one species for our quiet two weeks.

Canada Thistle flowers, and...

Canada Thistle gone to seed - time for the goldfinches to be nesting!

Hope you're enjoying summer - the wonderful warm days of summer - my bones still hold the memory of the long cold winter now many months distant, so I'm loving these hot humid days!

June birds

2011-06-24T14:13:00.006-04:00

Common St. Johnswort, Hypericum perforatum - blooming along an unmowed slope - wonderful summer color, and very attractive to pollinating insects. photo by Lynn Jones

June birds are generally those that nest here - and this week there were lots of youngsters around. We see them either following parents, all the while begging to be fed, or we hear cheeping and peeping from within a nest box.

Mama Wild Turkey was sheltering a brood of chicks near our building, House Wren chicks make a very noticeable racket in or near their natal boxes, and young robins are abundant. A treat one noontime was watching a female Common Yellowthroat feed one of her youngsters.

Bumblebee, Bombus sp., on Crown Vetch, Coronilla varia, a species introduced for erosion control - and quite invasive. Photos by Lynn Jones

Bird list for the first week of SUMMER!!, June 20-24, 2011

Wild Turkey
Black-crowned Night-heron - another fly-over AND... Tom Parlapiano and a group of boy scouts surprised one feeding at the edge of the Oyster River in the nature preserve!!
Red-tailed Hawk
Herring Gull
5. Killdeer

Mourning Dove
Rock Pigeon
Northern Flicker
Chimney Swift
10. Willow Flycatcher

American Crow
Blue Jay
European Starling
Cedar Waxwing
15. Warbling Vireo

American Robin
Wood Thrush
Northern Mockingbird
Gray Catbird
20. Black-capped Chickadee

House Wren
Barn Swallow
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
Yellow Warbler
25. Common Yellowthroat

American Goldfinch
House Finch
Northern Cardinal
Song Sparrow
30. Indigo Bunting

Common Grackle
Brown-headed Cowbird
House Sparrow

Silhouette birds - any guesses?
Photo by Lynn Jones.
The upper is bird #10 on the week's list, the lower is bird #33.

April showers, May showers, June showers...

2011-06-17T09:24:00.010-04:00

Another mostly rainy week for Connecticut - but a few windows of sunshine sprinkled throughout. Notice the fireflies on warm evenings?

Abandoned nest of Blue Jay, Cyanocitta cristata. Last week Lynn heard young birds begging and saw the adults fly, very quietly, into the pine. Today we found the nest.

This is the time of year when the Connecticut Ornithological Association sends us birders out to survey the population of breeding birds in our state. Similar to National Audubon's annual Christmas Bird Count, it's a survey of what birds (and how many) are around during a specified time period and defined geographic area. Link to COA's summer bird count info here.

The summer count for the area that includes West Campus was last weekend, but Lynn and I were elsewhere, so WC birds were not added to the data. We plan to spend a morning next week thoroughly counting our resident birds in order to establish a baseline for next year's effort.

A pair of Mallards, Anas platyrhynchos, on the roof of the warehouse today, taking advantage of... puddles? warmth? a strange sight indeed.

Birds around West Campus this week, June 13-17, 2011:

Wild Turkey (the two toms that have been hanging together all spring)
Mallard - the above-mentioned pair
Herring Gull
Killdeer
Black-crowned Night-heron, Nycticorax nycticorax - bird number 120! - Lynn was lucky to see two flying overhead one morning. The link takes you to Dendroica, at natureinstruct.com, a good site for both voice recordings and photos - take a look!

Red-tailed Hawk - a pair nesting on campus
Osprey - seen flying over, with a huge fish
Turkey Vulture
Mourning Dove
Rock Pigeon
Northern Flicker

Willow Flycatcher
American Crow
Red-eyed Vireo
Cedar Waxwing
American Robin
Wood Thrush
Northern Mockingbird
Gray Catbird
European Starling

Barn Swallow
Rough-winged Swallow
House Wren
Carolina Wren
Indigo Bunting
Northern Cardinal
Song Sparrow
Yellow Warbler
American Goldfinch
House Finch
Brown-headed Cowbird
Common Grackle
House Sparrow

A big thirty-three species for the week - woo hoo!

Two young bucks, White-tailed Deer, browsing in the early morning haze.

Yes - you finally noticed I was watching you - guess those words could go either way!

This weekend I'll be counting birds for the Storrs area Summer Bird Count - it's perfect that my count territory includes my yard.
have a good weekend
Sue

Hot week! 80 to 92F, 27-33C

2011-06-08T13:46:00.013-04:00

One hot day this week, Lynn and I thought we could escape the heat by staying in the shade of the woods. All well and good, we were out of the sun, but there was no way to escape the mosquitoes that almost devoured us alive! We opted for the shade of parking lot trees instead, surrounded by sunshine and asphalt.

Mock Strawberry, Duchesnea indica, Rose family (Rosaceae)

In the woods, the Wood Thrush sang again, and the strawberry in the photo above caught our eye. I learned that it's not our native wild strawberry (Fragaria virginiana) but a flavorless invader from India!

Out in the open we found the Indigo Bunting singing again, and Red-eyed Vireos chasing each other from tree to tree - singing too. In the heat of summer, sometimes the vireos are the only birds singing.

Okay, on to our bird list for the week of June 6 to 10, 2011.

Wild Turkey
Killdeer - or a clever Mockingbird?
Since I mention clever Mockingbirds, I have to add that at one point we thought we heard a mockingbird imitating the sound of a weed-whacker starting up. It called three times, then nothing. Three times is very typical of mockingbirds. A few days later I returned with a recorder and captured the sound, this time it went on for a bit, and was more insect-like than bird-like. Click here to listen to the weed-whacker cicada. Oops, coming soon.

Red-tailed Hawk
Turkey Vulture
Mourning Dove
Rock Pigeon
Belted Kingfisher, Megaceryle halcyon
Lynn heard the kingfisher calling - we'll count it as bird number 119 for West Campus!
Northern Flicker
Downy Woodpecker

Willow Flycatcher
Red-eyed Vireo
Warbling Vireo
American Crow
Blue Jay
Wood Thrush
American Robin

Eggshell fragments of the American Robin, Turdus migratorius. The female carries the eggshell away from the nest and either drops it or consumes it.

Gray Catbird
Northern Mockingbird
Cedar Waxwing
Barn Swallow
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
European Starling

Yellow Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Black-capped Chickadee
House Wren
Carolina Wren

Indigo Bunting
American Goldfinch
House Finch
Northern Cardinal
Song Sparrow

Baltimore Oriole
Red-winged Blackbird
Common Grackle
Brown-headed Cowbird
House Sparrow

Thirty-seven species for the week - that's summer for you -we birders are too hot and lazy to put out much effort, and the birds are busy feeding young and not singing as much.

Hey, have a good weekend - and steer clear of tornadoes!
ciao - Sue

Birding Lite

2011-06-03T16:06:00.004-04:00

We didn't try very hard this week - busy with work and all... hence the title, birding lite.

but here's a photo to keep things interesting!!
Dog Vomit Slime Mold, Fuligo septica - ID by Lynn, our resident Slime Mold expert
found in a landscaped area here at W.C.

and now on to the bird list for the week of May 30 to June 3, 2011

Wild Turkey
Red-tailed Hawk
Killdeer
Mourning Dove
Northern Flicker
Chimney Swift

Willow Flycatcher - back in the same place as last year - the grassy slope between A-21 and A-42
Red-eyed Vireo
Warbling Vireo
American Crow
Blue Jay

Barn Swallow
Black-capped Chickadee
House Wren
Cedar Waxwing - suddenly reappeared in numbers, nesting activity beginning
American Robin

Northern Mockingbird
Gray Catbird
European Starling
Yellow Warbler
Common Yellowthroat

Indigo Bunting, Passerina cyanea - new to WC!! - a male singing away from exposed perches near a clearing
Song Sparrow
Chipping Sparrow
Red-winged Blackbird
Common Grackle

Baltimore Oriole
Brown-headed Cowbird
House Finch
American Goldfinch
House Sparrow

31 species for the week

And - for those of you who never get to the top of a Tulip Tree, Liriodendron tulipifera, here's what the flowers look like! These were actually at eye level, but usually they're too high to see. This is one of the fabulous specimen trees bordering the parking lot here in building A-21.

experimenting with rss feed

2011-05-28T14:04:00.001-04:00

la la la

Friday List and a second new bird!

2011-05-27T08:25:00.007-04:00

Birds at West Campus for the week of May 23 to 27, 2011:

Wild Turkey
Canada Goose
Double-crested Cormorant
Herring Gull
Killdeer
Red-tailed Hawk
Mourning Dove
Rock Pigeon
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Northern Flicker

Eastern Wood Pewee, Contopus virens
Just this morning I was looking over our West Campus bird list and wondering what obvious species we had missed. This was one of them!! Out in the A-21 parking lot, I heard the classic "pee-o-wee?" and was delighted to find this phoebe-sized bird flycatching in the mid-day warmth.

list continues:
American Crow
Blue Jay
Warbling Vireo
Red-eyed Vireo
American Robin
Wood Thrush
Northern Mockingbird
Grey Catbird
House Wren
Barn Swallow
Black-capped Chickadee
European Starling

and a warbler sub-section:
Yellow Warbler
Black-throated Blue Warbler
Magnolia Warbler
American Redstart
Common Yellowthroat
Canada Warbler, Wilsonia canadensis

Northern Cardinal
Song Sparrow
Chipping Sparrow
American Goldfinch
Baltimore Oriole
Brown-headed Cowbird
Common Grackle
Red-winged Blackbird
House Sparrow

Only 38 species for the week, with many omissions - but I'm not complaining - two new ones for the list. I definitely missed Lynn's pair of eyes. I'm pretty sure there was another Rose-breasted Grosbeak, another Scarlet Tanager, a Great-crested Flycatcher and in all likelihood a Blackpoll Warbler. But all I heard were snippets of song, and I saw nothing. Maybe next week.

The warm weather we've been having is perfect for flycatchers, such as the Eastern Kingbird, the above-mentioned Great-crested, the Willow and maybe even a few more new to W.C.!

Drive-by Birding and a new Warbler

2011-05-23T13:43:00.008-04:00

So Monday, another day of rain... at least we had a decent weekend for a change!

Since I had to run a quick off-campus errand at lunchtime, and it was raining, I filled in the hour with some on-campus drive-by birding-by-ear.
Here's my list, with annotations:

American Robin, many, singing, carrying food
Grey Catbird, skulking under ornamental bushes

catbird photo from Tuesday, when it was sunny out

Blue Jay, seen flying
Herring Gull, fly-over
House Sparrow, flew from nest box
Rock Pigeon, occupying the top of a utility pole
Northern Flicker, peering from nest cavity in Maple tree
House Wren, singing near nest boxes
Yellow Warbler, singing from brushy edges
Barn Swallows, flying to nest at E-29
American Goldfinch, singing only
Red-eyed Vireo, singing over near SW perimeter fence
Wild Turkey, two males, near fence
Warbling Vireo, singing near Ray's corner (where he set up the big malaise trap last summer)
Baltimore Oriole, singing in woods behind Vireo place
Mourning Dove, flew in to perch in dead standing tree
Song Sparrow, singing from "sparrow nook"
Black-capped Chickadees, both in sumac near their nest box
European Starling, flew over
Canada Goose, a half dozen, near facilities building

twenty species for a little drive-through birding tour - a fun way to spend twenty five minutes at lunchtime

TUESDAY
I decided not to create a new post for Tuesday - just stuck it on to the end of Monday...

Wow - what a change. From yesterday's gray chill to today's tropical humidity!
Birds to add after another noontime outing at West Campus:

Killdeer, hadn't heard or seen these guys in a while
Common Grackle, might be nesting nearby
Brown-headed Cowbird, around....
Double-crested Cormorant, small flock overhead
Northern Mockingbird, singing, and foraging in the A-21 parking lot
Magnolia Warbler, in the A-21 parking lot - never pass up a unfamiliar little chip- chip
Chipping Sparrow, same place, trilling not chipping ;-)
Black-throated Blue Warbler, heard him calling, and he came right in to my pishing - I tried a photo, not worth sharing, but here it is anyway!

Black-throated Blue Warbler, Dendroica caerulescens, at the farthest optical zoom of my little Canon point-and-shoot - and then assisted a bit more with Photoshop.

Red-bellied Woodpecker, calling from tall trees
Common Yellowthroat, a female came and perched on the chain-link fence to have a look at the two-legged pisher
American Redstart, heard quite nearby, but never saw
Wood Thrush, wow, nice to hear this guy calling again
Red-winged Blackbird, seen calling high in the treetops
Canada Warbler, Wilsonia canadensis (link to some great photos of this beauty)

The "Canada" was another example of Never pass up an unfamiliar song. I heard the song - no idea what it was, and searched the nearby bushes and had the briefest glimpse of the bird. Good thing I had seen one at home earlier in the spring - I knew the field marks. Bright yellow throat and breast, dark gray back and head, a bright white eyering, and a cool black necklace. Unique!

Another 14 species for a total of 34 in the first two days of the week - this glut of songbirds will not last, so we birders really get out to enjoy it while it does.

Bird list for May 16-20

2011-05-20T13:50:00.010-04:00

Deep in the Connecticut rainforest at West Campus - complete with moss and lianas.

Bird list for the week:
Lynn is away on vacation in coastal California - so the list is shorter for the lack of her usual prolific observations! However Tom contributed many sightings from his outings with school groups this week.

1. Canada Goose
2. Wild Turkey
3. Red-tailed Hawk
4. Osprey
5. Double-crested Cormorant - skein of over sixty
6. Herring Gull
7. Mourning Dove
8. Rock Pigeon
9. Ruby-throated Hummingbird
10. Downy Woodpecker
11. Northern Flicker
12. American Crow
13. Blue Jay
14. American Robin
15. Grey Catbird
16. European Starling
17. Barn Swallow
18. Red-eyed Vireo
19. Warbling Vireo
20. Yellow-throated Vireo, Vireo flavifrons - new for West Campus! I saw two of these, in the woods along the SW perimeter fence, but quite far from each other. One was definitely a female carrying nesting material!
22. Black-capped Chickadee
23. Tufted Titmouse
24. Carolina Wren
25. House Wren
26. Yellow Warbler
27. Northern Parula
28. Common Yellowthroat
29. Ovenbird
30. Northern Cardinal
31. Song Sparrow
32. American Goldfinch
33. House Finch
34. Rose-breasted Grosbeak
35. Common Grackle
36. Brown-headed Cowbird
37. Baltimore Oriole
38. Scarlet Tanager
39. House Sparrow
40. and Chipping Sparrow

Seemed like the sun was out just for me at noon. The wet leaves dripped and sparkled, the ground was soft and damp underfoot, and apparently I surprised a few of our larger mammals.

Coyote parent with three pups. One is visible here. Two were blonde like the one in the photo, and the third was quite a dark brindled gray.

In addition to the coyotes, other mammals on my quiet lunchtime walk were a white-tailed deer who bounded off from quite nearby and several chipmunks and squirrels who scolded me from the safety of their hidey-holes.

This large mole was abandoned by something - maybe the coyote family?

Looks like my photo isn't good enough for a positive ID, but I'm going with Star-nosed mole, Condylura cristata, on the basis of the rather long tail. The other options for moles in Connecticut are Eastern mole, Scalopus aquaticus, with a very short tail, and Hairy-tailed mole, Parascalops breweri, with a hairy tail shorter than this guy's.

Wow, you can really see my bird bias. Can't identify a mole when there are only three to choose from.
Hey - have a great weekend - maybe we'll get a little more sunshine.

Mid-May Nest Box Update

2011-05-16T15:06:00.011-04:00

This week we have taken a full survey of the occupants of our fourteen nest boxes. In most cases the birds have been seen to enter the boxes, in some cases we haven't had time to wait, and are making a guess based on behavior of a nearby bird.

This was a common sight throughout the state this week, as fruit trees lost their petals - in this case, all at once in a quiet way, just below the tree in our parking lot.

Nest Box Survey for May 16-20:

Nest Box 1 - for House Wren - occupied by rodents
Nest Box 2 - for House Wren - occupied by House Wrens
Nest Box 3 - for House Wren - stick nest, looks like House Wren
Nest Box 4 - for House Wren - House Wren singing nearby
Nest Box 5 - for Bluebird or Tree Swallow - occupied by House Sparrows
Nest Box 6 - for House Wren - empty
Nest Box 7 - for Bluebird or Tree Swallow - occupied by House Sparrows
Nest Box 8 - for House Wren - occupied by House Wrens
Nest Box 9 - for House Wren - occupied by Black-capped Chickadees
Nest Box 10 - for Black-capped Chickadee - occupied by House Wrens

Nest Box 11 - for Tree Swallow or Bluebird - Tree Swallow nesting attempt failed (dead adult found in box)
Nest Box 12 - for House Wren - occupied by rodents
Nest Box 13 - for American Kestrel - empty
Nest Box 14 - for House Wren - just installed this week

Reflections in a quiet pool of the Oyster River, in the Nature Preserve on West Campus.

New to W.C. - Flying Squirrel Boxes

2011-05-12T11:24:00.005-04:00

Tom preparing for a nest box installation in the Nature Preserve Wednesday at lunchtime.

While the spring warblers sang from the treetops overhead, West Campus Education Coordinator, Tom Parlapiano and I endeavored to anchor three more nest boxes on campus. This time in the hardwood bottomlands of the Oyster River, and this time, built for flying squirrels.

Flying squirrels are cavity nesters, choosing deserted woodpecker holes or other hollowed tree cavities. They are surprisingly common in suburban settings, and will also nest in buildings and bird boxes.

Connecticut has two species of flying squirrel, the northern (Glaucomys sabrinus), and southern, (Glaucomys volans). The southern flying squirrel prefers a habitat of mixed woodlands, particularly hardwoods, such as the hickories, beeches and maples along our Oyster River. The northern prefers coniferous or mixed deciduous-coniferous woodlands.

The entrance hole is sited to avoid prevailing winds, and you'll notice it's on the side of the box - since the squirrel will not land on the box itself, but on the opposite side of the tree then scamper around to the box. This is likely a maneuver for avoiding predators that may have detected them during the glide.

The newest "Curator's Choice" exhibit at the Peabody is all about gliding mammals - it's located in the main entry lobby of the museum. In addition to information about the structures and mechanics of gliding, there are several specimens on display, representing the diversity of mammals which have developed the ability to glide.

Migration rolls on - two more new species!

2011-05-11T09:39:00.006-04:00

Indeed, by Tuesday lunchtime, we had seen two more new species for West Campus. Monday we found a Wood Thrush singing in the woods along the southeast perimeter fence, and Tuesday we found a female Rose-breasted Grosbeak feeding in the autumn olive and rose brambles bordering the nature preserve.

Crabapple blossom petals snowing down in a strong wind - a 15-second video I took Tuesday morning.

Bird list for the week of May 9 to 13, 2011:

Wild Turkey
Double-crested Cormorant - red is for arriving migrants
Canada Goose
Herring Gull
Turkey Vulture
Red-tailed Hawk - thanks, Tom!
Osprey - and thanks, Tom, for this one too

Red-bellied Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Mourning Dove
Rock Pigeon
Chimney Swift

American Crow
Blue Jay
American Robin
Wood Thrush, Hylocichla mustelina
Grey Catbird
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling

Black-capped Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
House Wren
Blue-grey Gnatcatcher
Barn Swallow - nesting again!
Northern Rough-winged Swallow - nesting again!
Red-eyed Vireo
Warbling Vireo

Yellow Warbler
Black-throated Blue Warbler
Magnolia Warbler
Black-and-white Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
American Redstart
Northern Parula
Northern Waterthrush

Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Pheucticus ludovicianus
Northern Cardinal
White-throated Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Chipping Sparrow
House Finch
American Goldfinch
Red-winged Blackbird
Common Grackle
Brown-headed Cowbird
Baltimore Oriole
House Sparrow

Wow. This may be an all-time high weekly species count. Forty seven as of Wednesday.

Notice it's predominated by those species in red - our spring and summer ONLY birds. And, notice there are no more species in blue (our winter only birds). It seems we've seen the last of our Dark-eyed Juncos.

Tennessee Warbler and Orchard Oriole!

2011-05-06T14:41:00.006-04:00

Yes, both.
Two fantastic new birds for West Campus today at lunchtime.
F-a-n-t-a-s-t-i-c new birds.
Especially the warbler!

The Tennessee Warbler (Oreothlypis peregrina) is a little green, gray and white beauty, with a delicate pale eyeline and thin pointy bill. It is pretty uncommon in Connecticut, so Lynn and I were REALLY excited to find it, and have good views at that.
I did a quick google image search and found one photo to share. It's on Jan Axel's blog - Jan is a birder in Panama - he doesn't say whether the image is his or not, but please take a minute to follow the link, the third bird down the page.
Reading other people's descriptions of this bird, I notice the word drab a lot - the bird we saw was anything but drab. So, I searched images carefully to find one that showed the plumage in the way we observed it.

Now the Orchard Oriole (Icterus spurius), the smaller and less-conspicuous cousin of our common Baltimore Oriole. This bird surprised me last year, because I didn't know that the adult male takes two years to reach its ultimate breeding plumage of rich chestnut and black. The first year male is yellow, with a black face and bib.
The bird Lynn and I saw today was one of these first-year males, and I recognized it only because I had such a difficult time puzzling it out when I first saw it last year.

one of many ornamental flowering crab-apple trees on campus

Many of these neotropical migrants are feeding in the flowering trees right now. They love the apple blossoms - I think they're plucking the stamens right out and eating them whole. I understand pollen is a pretty good source of protein.

Okay, guess I have to stop gushing and get around to posting the week's list:
May 2-6, 2011

Double-crested Cormorant, fly-over
Wild Turkey
Canada Goose
Common Merganser, fly-over
Killdeer
Herring Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Red-tailed Hawk
Northern Flicker
Red-bellied Woodpecker

Mourning Dove
Rock Pigeon
American Crow
Blue Jay
American Robin
Grey Catbird
European Starling
Barn Swallow
Tree Swallow
Red-eyed Vireo

Warbling Vireo
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Black-capped Chickadee
House Wren
Tennessee Warbler, Oreothlypis peregrina
Blue-winged Warbler
Yellow Warbler
Black-throated Green Warbler
Northern Parula
American Redstart

Common Yellowthroat
Northern Cardinal
White-throated Sparrow
Song Sparrow
House Finch
American Goldfinch
Brown-headed Cowbird
Red-winged Blackbird
Common Grackle
Baltimore Oriole

Orchard Oriole, Icterus spurius
House Sparrow

Forty two species for the week, with some regulars missing (no chipping sparrow, no downy woodpecker, no fish crow)
But, hey, did I tell you? We saw a TENNESSEE WARBLER today!!!

Our own Freedom Lawn

2011-05-04T09:13:00.010-04:00

Freedom lawn in the courtyard of A-21. We had been enjoying the violets and dandelions for over a week when I finally went out to photograph the scene. As it turned out, I got there just two hours before the grounds crew came through with the mower.

Freedom lawn is a term coined by faculty at our own Yale School of Forestry nearly two decades ago. In their 1993 book, Redesigning the American Lawn: a search for environmental harmony, Herbert Bormann, Diana Balmori and Gordon Geballe proposed the concept of the freedom lawn. Their basic idea was to promote cultivation of lawns to allow natural and unrestricted growth of grasses, clover, wild flowers and other broad-leafed plants often regarded as weeds. This in turn reduces the need for application of chemical treatments.

Towns throughout Connecticut have picked up the idea of the freedom lawn and encourage residents through friendly competitions to establish their own. The highest priority is the effort to protect water supplies from ground-water pollutants common in lawn and garden run-off. Other environmental considerations are a reduction in air and noise pollution from excessive mowing, and finally for the homeowners themselves, a practical cost-savings in time and money.

The 1993 first edition of Redesigning the American Lawn has been supplanted by a 2001 second edition. Now, ten years later, when you look around at our suburban landscape, what do you see?

I'm afraid I still see an awful lot of truturfchemgreenlawn trucks. But I always cheer for the violets, dandelions and sorrel - and hey, you know what - those three all make great additions to a spring salad! Make sure there has been no pesticide use before you harvest...

Nest Box City

2011-05-03T10:26:00.009-04:00

Here at West Campus we have a variety of nest boxes scattered throughout the landscape. You've recently read about our new Kestrel box - but sadly, we did not see the Kestrels this week at all - maybe next year.

Lynn checking nest box #6

For the small boxes, we've set up a monitoring route. Lynn and I cover one end of campus, Tom checks the boxes at the other end. Our thirteen boxes include those with specifications for Eastern Bluebird, House Wren, Black-capped Chickadee, Tree Swallow, and the big Kestrel box.

nest box #7 - stuffed full of House Sparrow nesting material

Many years ago Tree Swallows nested here, and the nestlings were banded by Connecticut Audubon volunteers. We haven't yet seen bluebirds on campus, so it would would be very exciting to find them this spring. House Wrens actively used a few of the next boxes last year, and we're hoping to attract a few chickadees also.

Bird list for the week of April 25 to 29:

Wild Turkey
Canada Goose
Turkey Vulture
Red-tailed Hawk
Great Blue Heron - flyover
Killdeer
Herring Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Mourning Dove
Rock Pigeon

Downy Woodpecker
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
Northern Flicker
American Crow
Fish Crow
Blue Jay
Black-capped Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
Red-breasted Nuthatch - should be heading north before too long

American Robin
Grey Catbird - returning to nest here
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
House Wren - returning to nest here
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher - likely to nest here
Black-and-White Warbler - likely to nest here
Black-throated Green Warbler, Dendroica virens - is this a gorgeous bird, or what?!? - new for West Campus
Yellow Warbler - common nester here
Northern Parula - not sure whether this species will stay to nest

Blue-winged Warbler, Vermivora cyanoptera - Tom saw this one while out with a group of first graders, and I just realized it's the first time we've recorded it here at West Campus
Eastern Towhee - could nest here
Northern Cardinal
Song Sparrow
Savannah Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Chipping Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco - should be heading north before too long
American Goldfinch
House Finch

Red-winged Blackbird
Common Grackle
Brown-headed Cowbird
House Sparrow

A big 44 species for the week - we love spring migration!

Important Bird Areas and more

2011-04-27T08:41:00.011-04:00

The ever-so-fleeting greens of early spring along a property boundary at West Campus.

This time of year, we used to say "our breeding birds are coming back"... our birds. Now we call them neotropical migrants, an acknowledgement that warblers, tanagers, orioles, birds of prey, shorebirds and many others are of course, not our birds, but denizens of the greater planet.
Removing personal ownership from the picture, however intangible it was, opens up new and improved ways of thinking about wildlife conservation. In the Americas, habitat preservation efforts now exist from the Arctic Circle to Tierra del Fuego.

From Alaska's Attu Island at the tip of the Aleutian chain to Nova Scotia's Cape Breton Highlands National Park to Brazil's protected coastal areas in its eastern state of Pernambuco and south to Argentina's Parque Nacional Tierra del Fuego, the entire American continent, east to west, north to south, is dotted with IBA's. Important Bird Areas.

To quote directly from BirdLife International's web page: "IBAs are priority areas for the conservation of globally threatened, range restricted and congregatory birds." In addition to this worldwide scope, there are numerous local programs which raise awareness of the shared nature of habitat protection along migratory routes.

Rio de Rapaces (River of Raptors) in Veracruz Mexico is now celebrating 25 years of raptor study. Shorebird Sister Schools, a program developed by educators throughout the Americas in conjunction with the US Fish and Wildlife Service, is another longstanding organization dedicated to migratory bird awareness. Also read Connecticut Audubon's recent blog post about one individual shorebird, Hope, a Whimbrel.

The Smithsonian Institution's Migratory Bird Center, among many others, has raised awareness of the importance of protecting tropical habitats through its championing of shade-grown coffee plantations.

And now back to Connecticut. Thanks to scientists and citizens throughout the state, we can boast twenty seven of our own Important Bird Areas - protected for very specific reasons, as per IBA protocol. Frequently cited are the following: Connecticut endangered and threatened species; rare, unique or representative habitat; exceptional concentrations of migratory landbirds.

The nearest one is right here in West Haven, at Sandy Point. It's a tiny piece of land that somebody cared about because it was important habitat for a few rare birds. I don't know about you, but I think that's what it's all about - thinking globally and acting locally.
Now, the fishermen who go for blues in New Haven harbor rub shoulders with the birders who go for Piping Plovers and Least Terns.
Yeah, that's what it's all about.

New bird on campus!!

2011-04-25T09:33:00.009-04:00

This is our enterprising Song Sparrow, who, when finding the feeder empty, eats from the suet cake above.

West Campus bird list for the week of April 18 to 21:

Double-crested Cormorant (red is returning migrants) This one was a fly-over
Wild Turkey
Canada Goose
Turkey Vulture
Red-tailed Hawk
Northern Harrier - a fly-over
American Kestrel - a female alone Monday through Wednesday, then a male joined her on Thursday, and they've been hanging out in the vicinity of the nest box - How cool is THAT??!! - we'll keep our fingers crossed

Ring-billed Gull
Killdeer
Mourning Dove
Rock Pigeon
Downy Woodpecker
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Northern Flicker - investigating last years' nest cavity

American Crow
Fish Crow
Blue Jay
American Robin - gathering nesting material
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
Barn Swallow
Tree Swallow
Rough-winged Swallow
Black-capped Chickadee
Northern Cardinal
Dark-eyed Junco (blue is departing migrants)

Song Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Savannah Sparrow
Chipping Sparrow
American Tree Sparrow
American Goldfinch
House Finch
Red-winged Blackbird
Rusty Blackbird, Euphagus carolinus - a new species for West Campus!! Lynn found it in a mixed group of blackbirds and starlings - follow the link to read all about this not-so-common species of blackbird

Common Grackle
Brown-headed Cowbird
House Sparrow

So, as you can see, we came crashing through the 30-species goal this week, with a total of 38.

Returning Sparrows!

2011-04-18T09:52:00.008-04:00

Assorted flowering trees - in the foreground is Pussy Willow, and the red haze in the background is Red Maple, with roots down-slope in the floodplain of our little Oyster River.

The bird list still hasn't broken 30 species, but this is the time of year when we get both winter and summer species, so the list should begin to grow soon.

Wild Turkey
Canada Goose
Killdeer
Herring Gull
Ring-billed Gull

Red-tailed Hawk
Sharp-shinned Hawk
Cooper's Hawk
Downy Woodpecker
Red-bellied Woodpecker

Northern Flicker
Mourning Dove
Rock Pigeon
American Crow
Blue Jay

Cedar Waxwing
American Robin
European Starling
Black-capped Chickadee
Northern Cardinal

White-throated Sparrow - link to song
Song Sparrow - link to song, highly variable in this species
Savannah Sparrow - new this week - not singing here at W.C., not sure if this sparrow breeds here
Chipping Sparrow - new this week - link to song (similar to below, but "mechanical")
Dark-eyed Junco - lingering winter visitor - link to song (very similar to above, but "musical")

American Goldfinch
House Finch
Brown-headed Cowbird
House Sparrow

A little of this, a little of that

2011-04-06T15:30:00.014-04:00

Flowers of the Red Maple in front of our building - spring marches on!!

Extracurricular activity of the week:
Lynn and Nate completed construction of a nest box for American Kestrel, Falco sparverius, and installed the box in a Pin Oak near the place we've observed Kestrels in past years.

Brand new Kestrel box on campus - Nate had to climb the tree - no assistance from a bucket truck here, just a small ladder to reach the lower branches.

Lynn will blog in more detail about this later - I'll be sure to include the link to her blog when she does. In the meantime, to read more about providing nest boxes for Kestrels you can follow this link to the Northeast Connecticut Kestrel Project. Here's Lynn's page on Kestrels!

Bird list for the week of April 4 - 8, 2011:

Wild Turkey
Canada Goose
Turkey Vulture
Red-tailed Hawk
Sharp-shinned Hawk

Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
Mourning Dove
Rock Pigeon
Downy Woodpecker

Red-bellied Woodpecker
Eastern Phoebe
American Crow
Blue Jay
Northern Mockingbird

American Robin
European Starling
Black-capped Chickadee
Northern Cardinal
Dark-eyed Junco

Song Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
American Goldfinch
House Finch
Brown-headed Cowbird

House Sparrow

26 species for campus, plus...

Sue and Karen (my sister) birding at the West Haven shore

Lunchtime coastal birding
Wednesday we popped over to the coast to see what we could see:

Horned Grebe, Podiceps auritus - this bird spends the whole winter off our coasts, in a simple black and white color scheme, but now they've acquired fresh plumage for the breeding season, (the bird's name is a link to Cornell's Birds of North America online where you can see some images - I have to change the color scheme for links, they're barely visible)
Canada Goose, Branta canadensis
Mallard, Anas platyrhynchos
Black Duck, Anas rubripes
American Wigeon, Anas americana - in beautiful breeding plumage

Herring Gull, Larus argentatus
Great Black-backed Gull, Larus marinus
Ring-billed Gull, Larus delawarensis
Bonaparte's Gull, Chroicocephalus philadelphia - their molt still in transition from winter's drab "basic plumage" to summer's black-headed "alternate plumage" - link to Cornell's images for this bird - though you can usually find better images in a google search
Rock Pigeon, Columba livia

Blue Jay, Cyanocitta cristata
American Crow, Corvus brachyrhynchos
Fish Crow, Corvus ossifragus - the voice of this crow may help you distinguish it from the American Crow - listen to this recording from Xeno-canto
American Robin, Turdus migratorius
European Starling, Sturnus vulgaris

Northern Cardinal, Cardinalis cardinalis
Common Grackle, Quiscalus quiscula
House Sparrow, Passer domesticus

April Fool's Day

2011-04-01T13:38:00.010-04:00

So...
what...
we were fools to think that spring was coming??? is that it??? is that it???
This morning before driving to work I scraped an inch of snow and ice off my car windows. Oh my, this IS getting tiresome.

Pussy Willow, Salix discolor

Anyway, in addition to a great list of birds at West Campus this week, I'll include some photos I just took - of course they could only be - glimpses of springtime.

Red Maple, Acer rubrum

Star Magnolia, Magnolia stellata
(or maybe it's the regular kind, I'm no botanist - next week we'll know which)
This is an early-blooming ornamental, which likely benefits from its proximity to the building, gaining a wind break and a little warmth.

Birds seen this week, March 28th through April 1st:

Wild Turkey
Canada Goose
Red-tailed Hawk
Sharp-shinned Hawk
Osprey - FOY (First Of the Year)
Herring Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Mourning Dove
Rock Pigeon
Downy Woodpecker
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Northern Flicker

the list continues below...

Wild Turkey, Meleagris gallopavo
Looks like they've paired up - notice how brilliant are the bronzy green and gold feathers in the male - a big change from his winter plumage! Also the bare skin on the head and neck are really bright now.

Chickadee house, recently constructed by a local cub scout troop at the West Campus Community Education Center - and installed in the woods along the Oyster River.

Eastern Phoebe - FOY
American Crow
Fish Crow
Blue Jay
Cedar Waxwing
American Robin
European Starling
Black-capped Chickadee
American Goldfinch
House Finch
Northern Cardinal
White-throated Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Red-winged Blackbird
Common Grackle

That's twenty nine species for the week - I like it - the numbers are increasing steadily.

Some kind of volunteer ground cover, making its own patch of snow.

Spring is creeping in...

2011-03-18T13:37:00.004-04:00

It's wonderful how a little warm air and some sunshine lifts the spirits. Today at lunchtime, Lynn and I took a quick trip to the coast to check out the annual gathering of Bonaparte's Gulls at the mouth of our Oyster River.

Lots of folks were out walking, enjoying temps in the 70's!, and every single one of them had a big smile and a cheery hi. Strangers all, but it feels like we survived a really tough winter together, and have finally come out the other side.

Lynn's photo of Ken, Tom, Sue, Dorie

So, musings aside, we've had a decent week of birding here at West Campus. Five of us met on Tuesday, when it was actually still rather chilly, and checked for bird activity around "the leaf pile". The best find was the immature Cooper's Hawk Ken noticed, perched quietly in a nearby tree.

This weeks' birders: Lynn, Sue, Tom Parlapiano, Ken Keuster, Dorie Petrochko
This weeks' birds:

Wild Turkey
Canada Goose
Killdeer
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull

Turkey Vulture
Red-tailed Hawk
Cooper's Hawk
Downy Woodpecker
Red-bellied Woodpecker

Mourning Dove
Rock Pigeon
American Crow
Blue Jay
Cedar Waxwing

Black-capped Chickadee
European Starling
American Robin
Northern Mockingbird
American Goldfinch

House Finch
Northern Cardinal
White-throated Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco

Red-winged Blackbird
Brown-headed Cowbird
House Sparrow

BIRDING THE MOUTH OF THE RIVER
Scanning Long Island Sound with only binoculars, we wished we'd come with a telescope, then noticed another birder also watching the gulls. We met Nick Bonomo and enjoyed good looks at a Green-winged Teal and Bonaparte's Gulls through his telescope. The Shorebirder blog that I follow is his - so it was good to meet another fellow birder and blogger.

Birds we saw at the coast and nearby marshes today:
Canada Goose
Mallard
Black Duck
Green-winged Teal
Scaup species too far out
Herring, Ring-billed and Great Black-backed Gulls and
Bonaparte's Gull - a big feeding flock
American Crow
Fish Crow
Great Egret
Carolina Wren
Common Grackle

2011-03-14T09:31:00.002-04:00

Bird list for the first two weeks of March:

Wild Turkey
Canada Goose
Mallard
Herring Gull
Ring-billed Gull

Great Black-backed Gull
Killdeer
Turkey Vulture
Red-tailed Hawk
Cooper's Hawk

Sharp-shinned Hawk
Mourning Dove
Rock Pigeon
Downy Woodpecker
Red-bellied Woodpecker

Northern Flicker
American Crow
Blue Jay
European Starling
American Robin

Black-capped Chickadee
House Finch
American Goldfinch
Northern Cardinal
White-throated Sparrow

Song Sparrow
Red-winged Blackbird
House Sparrow

Typical March

2011-03-04T17:24:00.004-05:00

Cold and windy, warm and windy, gray, sunny - take your pick - it's March!

The same scene pictured in last week's posting - just add rain and a little warmth!

Heavy rain on Monday had the Oyster River roaring, by Wednesday when I took this photo, it had calmed down quite a bit.

A good find!

2011-02-25T08:01:00.005-05:00

Monday, with a week left in the month, I had a good birding find...

Still too snowy down the stairway towards the river

As I explored the possibility of walking into the Nature Preserve along the Oyster River I saw a large dark bird fly into the treetops. My brain first registered raven - dark bird, larger than a crow. Now perched, through binoculars I could see raptor bill - no raven that.
Then, distinct black and white bands materialized on the tail. Not an immature red-tail either. Wait, it's a new species for West Campus -
a Red-shouldered Hawk, Buteo lineatus.

Oyster River running through campus

The first paragraph of Cornell University's introduction to this species indicates that it favors exactly the type of habitat that we have here at West Campus. We'll have to keep an eye out for this bird as the weeks progress into March, when breeding behavior is usually observed. West Campus may be too small to support two pairs of breeding buteos - we already have a resident pair of Red-tailed Hawks...

On another bird note - as I leaned over the stone wall to photograph the river, I saw a smallish brown bird flitting in riverside bushes. With our nearly year-old mantra in my head (never say "it's just a...") I raised binoculars again - a Hermit Thrush! Two months ago Lynn and Lourdes had seen three on the Christmas bird count. First-year birds of this species often over-winter here in southern New England, so I wasn't terribly surprised, but it was a great bird find even so.

Take a look at the range map - you'll see a sliver of green (year-round) along coastal Connecticut.
Hmm - I've also seen them in northeastern CT during the winter...

Bird list for the week of February 21-25:
Wild Turkey
Canada Goose
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
Red-tailed Hawk

Red-shouldered Hawk, Buteo lineatus
Downy Woodpecker
Mourning Dove
Rock Pigeon
American Crow

European Starling
American Robin
Hermit Thrush
Black-capped Chickadee
Northern Cardinal

White-throated Sparrow
Song Sparrow

That's just seventeen species for the week - probably because Lynn headed south to Florida and she has often been the primary birder here at West Campus. I hope you're enjoying the birds down there Lynn!!!
I'll be keeping an eye out for Common Redpoll or another Pine Siskin - they're around in good numbers in some parts of the state. Blackbirds are also returning these days - and we still don't have a Rusty Blackbird for our WC list.
This month is usually a real transition time, some northern birds still pushing south in the search for a good food supply, and some early returns pushing north with the melting of the snowcover. Fun times!

A week of warm days

2011-02-22T08:06:00.007-05:00

With at least three days of temperatures over 40F (5C), sights like this became more common around campus. And with the increase of grassy patches, there were increases in certain bird species. The goose flock was noticeably larger, spread out in several groups, and totalling more than 100 birds.

American Robins, which have been around recently in smallish groups, were more numerous, and flocked with European Starlings, which had been conspicuously absent the previous week. Another nice surprise came late in the week. As I was leaving on Friday afternoon I saw two Killdeer, back in their old haunts, the parking lot near the A-21 loading dock.

It won't be long before snow is a distant memory here in coastal Connecticut, so I had fun framing this shot. Reminds me of snow-capped Himalayas in northeastern India this past December - the view outside the door of my tent for a week.

The West Campus bird list for the week of February 14 - 18, 2011.

Wild Turkey
Red-tailed Hawk
Sharp-shinned Hawk
Canada Goose
Killdeer

Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
Mourning Dove
Rock Pigeon
Downy Woodpecker

Red-bellied Woodpecker
American Crow
Blue Jay
Black-capped Chickadee
American Robin

European Starling
Northern Cardinal
White-throated Sparrow
Song Sparrow
American Goldfinch
House Sparrow

Twenty-one species for the week. Have to say it's respectable, considering all we really do is just keep our eyes open as we pass through our buildings and around campus. If the snow continues to disappear, maybe this week we'll actually be able to get out into the woods a bit.

Blue Sky???

2011-02-14T13:23:00.007-05:00

Wow - there's a perfect color.
Seems like it's been three months since we've had a pleasant sunny day. Blue sky, okay, yes we've had that, but it was over 40 degrees today!

I actually took my binoculars out for a spin around campus after lunch today. My fifteen-minute walk yielded two gulls, forty-one geese and two crows. But hey, it wasn't about the birds anyway. It was about the sunshine!
Activity at the feeders in the courtyard remains steady, with the occasional cardinal, regular woodpeckers, a gaggle of chickadees, handful of sparrows and our turkey.

fat flower buds on a maple this afternoon

The official West Campus bird list for last week, February 4 - 11:

Wild Turkey
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
Red-tailed Hawk
Mourning Dove

Rock Pigeon
Downy Woodpecker
Red-bellied Woodpecker
American Robin
Black-capped Chickadee

American Crow
Northern Cardinal
White-throated Sparrow
House Finch
American Goldfinch

typical Connecticut scene this afternoon

Very encouraging today to see rivulets running away from every pile of dirty snow. Daytime temps are above freezing - means the sap is running in the maples - do I smell pancakes on the griddle? I make my own maple syrup every year, and the advantage to this, besides the obvious, is the feeling of actually looking forward to this wet, gray season. If not for the anticipation of maple syrup, this icy- crusty- old-snow time of year would be pure torture!
There, I've said enough.
ciao
Sue

January Snows

2011-01-28T08:47:00.006-05:00

Okay, well, by all accounts this January has been the snowiest month in Connecticut since record-keeping began, in 1905.

snow in the doorway to the courtyard

The National Weather Service says that after last week's storm (January 26th to 27th), the monthly snowfall reached 54.9 inches - recorded at Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks. The previous record for one month was 45.3 inches, in December 1945.

Deep snow is really hard on wildlife, making foraging on the ground all but impossible. Every morning we find one of our new feeder birds waiting for us to come out and fill the feeders - but not because he uses them directly.

Tom Turkey, Meleagris gallopavo, grateful for spilled sunflower seeds.

Chickadees, sparrows and woodpeckers are more typical to our feeder list, but this year we've added this turkey and several species of raptor. There's no question the hawks are attracted to the small-bird activity.

short video clip of our turkey in the courtyard

Bird list for the last week of January, 2011

Wild Turkey
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove

Downy Woodpecker
Red-bellied Woodpecker
American Crow
Black-capped Chickadee
American Goldfinch

House Finch
White-throated Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
Northern Cardinal

European Starling
House Sparrow

2010 West Campus Christmas Bird Count

2010-12-30T16:14:00.001-05:00

American Robin

Once again this year the plan was set to have a Christmas Bird Count modelled after the National Audubon Societies annual bird survey that is now in it's 111th year. This year only two brave birders gathered in the early morning light to search over the 136 acres of West Campus on Wednesday. The snow storm that hit the state on Sunday and Monday left over 15 inches of snow on the ground with drifts up to 30 inches. All the snow limited the off road searches limiting the total time from 7am to 12 noon.

Lourdes by the stream

Lynn and Lourdes were able to pull in a respectable 27 species found throughout the day. A few easy species were missing but a couple of good birds did make an appearance. A few things that we missed but should have found include Tufted Titmouse, Northern Mockingbird, and White-breasted Nuthatch. One of the not looked for species was the Mute Swan, two flew over campus fairly low as we were working along the edge of a parking lot. That's a new species for West Campus, number 105!

The Oyster River

Here's the list with numbers:

Canada Goose-71

Mute Swan- 2
Wild Turkey- 4
Red-tailed Hawk- 2
Sharp-shinned Hawk- 1
Merlin- 1
Ring-billed Gull-11
Herring Gull- 6
Greater Black-backed Gull- 2

Flicker- 2

Red-bellied Woodpecker- 1

Hairy Woodpecker- 1

Downy Woodpecker- 3

Mourning Dove- 13

Rock Pigeon- 15

Hairy Woodpecker

American Crow- 108

Blue Jay- 4

Black-capped Chickadee- 16

European Starling- 75

American Robin- 22
White-throated Sparrow- 40
Song Sparrow- 1
Northern Cardinal- 19

Carolina Wren- 1

House Finch- 1
American Goldfinch- 10

Hermit Thrush- 3

Snowy Walk

The surprise of the day was the three Hermit Thrushes that were popping around by the leaf pile when I stopped on the way out.

Christmas Bird Count Forecast

2010-12-20T13:11:00.001-05:00

The window has opened for the 2010 Christmas Bird Count organized by the National Audubon Society. Count areas all over the state have begun to survey their respective regions; others are making game plans. The official bird count is only a 24-hour period in which species within a defined geographical area can be recorded. Although, with so many rare species making stop bys there is also another category which is the count week and includes the three days prior to and after the actual count day.

This past weekend was the New Haven Bird Count with an estimated 100 or more birders scouring the areas around New Haven for birds. I participated in one region of the count where we tallied 62 species. As you can read in last years blog of about this same time, West Campus technically falls within the New Haven regions count. Since Sue and I have both done counts in other areas for many years, West Campus doesn't get counted. So, for the next two days I will be keeping my eyes out for any species that may not have made their list already.

Rusty Blackbird (on the wish list)- http://blog.cleveland.com/neobirding_impact/2008/11/blackbird.jpg

We still want to ensure that we have a survey of the species that are using West Campus as a winter home. To do that, we will be having our own mini Christmas bird count over the winter break. A small group has been formed that will go out and survey the 136-acre campus! When the tally is made we can use that information and the results from last years count to see what has been going on on campus. Having already done two counts I can already make some predictions about what we will find - especially adding in the last two weeks of bird watching around campus.

Fall started of with a quick cold snap before warming back up and keeping a lot of migrants around longer than they would normally have hung on. Up until a couple of weeks ago, we had species numbers close to 30 with very little effort put into the actual search. Now the temperatures have dropped and the species have reflected that temperature; most of the species still lingering are our 'winter birds'. Luckily, we have some very vibrant winter birds to keep birding entertaining. I expect Blue Jay and Northern Cardinal numbers to be up this year!

Northern Cardinal- http://gallery.photo.net/photo/8652485-lg.jpg

If we look back way in the spring, temperatures were cooler than usual, which led to many food sources ripening later. The late fruits have now been picked fairly clean by normal migrants and some of our lingering summer birds. Species like American Robin, Gray Catbirds, and Brown Thrasher are likely to have pulled out and headed south. One species that has used the late warm weather to advantage is the Carolina Wren that spends the summer months devouring all matters of insects. A very healthy population should be prevalent and numbers should be up.

Carolina Wren- http://thundafunda.com/33/animals-pictures-nature/carolina-wren-pictures.jpg

One species I am hoping for to show up on the count this year is the Red-shouldered Hawk. We have Red-tailed Hawks on campus every day but there is a chance for it's slightly smaller cousin to be hunting down near our stream. Other species that could be added to the one day count list would be Pine Siskin and White-winged Crossbill. We have had Pine Siskin on campus only once but there are a greater number in the area this year than last, increasing our chances of seeing one next week. White-winged Crossbill would be a great bird, a northern species with a few over shooting the normal range and coming into Connecticut. A few have recently been spotted in the state, so we will keep a vigilant eye.

Red-shouldered Hawk- http://sdakotabirds.com/species/photos/red_shouldered_hawk.jpg

The past few weeks of Campus Birding have yielded around 20 species, snow on Christmas may add an interesting twist to what may be predicted now. As always, we will keep our eyes and ears cued in on our feathered friends.

White-winged Crossbill- http://www.glancesatnature.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/white-winged_crossbill_11.jpg

The Lonely Birder

2010-12-03T15:23:00.004-05:00

Blue Jay over by the highway

The first thing that you may notice from this post is that you have a new author. Sue the normal writer of Birding West Campus decided that the birds here in West Haven/Orange just weren't exciting enough and so for the month she will be off viewing exotic birds. I'll let her fill you in on her trip if she so chooses on her return.

In the meanwhile, I will be trying to self-motivate in an effort to keep track on the birds visiting here at West Campus. It seems only right that the birds, in an effort to help, should come in droves and keep the excitement levels up. Instead this was one of the quietest weeks we have had since last winter. It may indeed be a sign of what's to come in the following months. I'll just hope that the birds are taking a break and will be back on Monday.

Red-tailed Hawk watching the Morgan Lane gate

I went out a couple of times at lunch this week and had the most luck today as far as diversity goes. The other times I've gone out it has been pretty paltry. Here's the quick list of what's been seen.

1. American Crow- Covrus brachyrhynchos
2. Fish Crow- Corvus ossifragus
3. Blue Jay- Cyanocitta cristata
4. Red-tailed Hawk- Buteo jamaicensis
5. Sharp-shinned Hawk- Accipiter striatus
6. Ring-billed Gull- Larus delewarensis
7. Herring Gull- Larus argentatus
8. Turkey Vulture- Cathartes aura
9. Black-capped Chickadee- Poecile atricapillus
10. Downy Woodpecker- Picoides pubescens
11. Red-bellied Woodpecker- Melanerpes carolinus
12. American Goldfinch- Carduelis tristis
13. Dark-eyed Junco- Junco hyemalis
14. American Turkey- Meleagris gallopavo
15. Rock Pigeon- Columba livia
16. European Starling- Sturnus vulgaris
17. American Robin- Turdus migratorius
18. Canada Goose- Branta canadensis

19. White-throated Sparrow- Zonotrichia albicollis

20. Northern Cardinal- Cardinalis cardinalis

21. Mourning Dove- Zenaida macroura
22. House Finch- Carpodacus mexicanus

A total of 22 species isn't too shabby.

Black-capped Chickadee checking me out

It is definitely a good time to keep our eyes open for some rare birds. Recently around CT there have been a number of birds from the West Coast, South America, and Europe all stopping in to visit. There's always a chance one could make a rest stop here as well.

Mice moved into one of the bird houses

If you feel a hankering to go take a walk around campus at lunch time to see some birds, I'd be more than willing to have some company.
by Lynn Jones

Turkeys at West Campus

2010-11-29T15:57:00.002-05:00

With our flock of Wild Turkeys being familiar to most of the human inhabitants of West Campus, I just want you all to know that I'll be taking a head count.
The week before Thanksgiving I had a high count of 19 birds - three of which were big tom turkeys... if anybody's missing, well, let's just say I hope it was the work of the coyotes, and not destined for the dinner table!
Hope you all had a good Thanksgiving holiday, and maybe even a break from work or school.
Ciao,
Sue

#104 added this week!

2010-11-19T08:29:00.012-05:00

Black-capped Chickadee, taken with my little Canon point-and-shoot, and cropped in Photoshop.

The New Haven Bird Club's winter feeder survey is once again underway - which means we keep a weekly tally of individuals seen in the courtyard. Food sources include our three feeding stations, fruiting trees and shrubs, ornamental grasses, and despite the best efforts of the groundskeepers - weeds! Sparrows love weed seeds.

If chickadees become habituated to your feeding stations, and your movements, you may be able - with MUCH patience - to get them to take seed from your hand.

I'm not implying I had any success in that department - at least not here at West Campus. After all, I don't get paid to habituate chickadees!

This week's birds:
Wild Turkey
Canada Goose
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
Great Black-backed Gull, Larus marinus - #104
Merlin
Red-tailed Hawk
Cooper's Hawk
Northern Harrier

Wednesday was a wild day, with gusty winds from the south, and we kept an eye to the sky for wind-blown birds. The result was our first Great Black-backed Gull for West Campus - common on the coast a mile away, but the first time we've recorded it in our airspace!

Then today (Friday) was also windy - and we had a pretty good batch of raptors - Cooper's and Red-tailed Hawks, a Merlin and a Northern Harrier.

Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Northern Flicker
Downy Woodpecker
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Blue Jay
American Crow
American Robin
European Starling
Northern Mockingbird
Black-capped Chickadee
Carolina Wren
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Warbler sp. either Pine or Blackpoll

Either one would have been a great bird - the Pine new for West Campus, and the Blackpoll a new bird for me - but sadly I had only a fleeting look, and for me these birds are pretty similar-looking... more yellow, less yellow, more streaky, less streaky, yellowish eye-ring, whiteish eye-ring... just too many important details that I missed

Northern Cardinal
White-throated Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
American Goldfinch
House Finch
Purple Finch
Brown-headed Cowbird
House Sparrow

Thirty-one species for the week - still quite respectable for early morning, late afternoon and a little lunchtime birding.

my November birding gear

Info on feeder survey, taken from NHBC's website:
NHBC 18th Annual Winter Feeder Survey
November 1, 2010 through March 31, 2011
This is a yearly census to help determine the number and frequency of birds visiting feeders in the Greater New Haven area. You are invited to observe and record the activity at your feeder at least once a week for the entire time period.
Contact-Peter Vitali: 203.288.0621,vitali_peter_e@sbcglobal.net

Still finding new birds!!!

2010-11-09T20:39:00.011-05:00

These photos illustrate two phenomena which started off our week... The snow is one, but the other is that I had to use the flash at 4:45 in the afternoon to make a decent photo - we've gone back to standard time.

Pretty horrible photos, but the snow was almost gone by the time I got my camera out at the end of the day - and I tried to include a little autumn color as well

So the new bird for the week - very exciting to have another of those infrequent "winter finches" on campus. A couple of Purple Finches made an appearance yesterday afternoon (Thursday) while Lynn was out at lunchtime. We like to think it's serendipity - she was out... they appeared.

When you think about it, 136 acres, one person out birding, it's almost needle-in-a-haystack - except that we increase our chances by looking in the right habitat. Lynn was watching a little flock of House Finches in the brambles along our building and noticed a different-sounding and more richly-colored male fly overhead.

She immediately thought - purple finch? I'll have to listen to the calls when I'm back at the computer... well, a few minutes later she found a group of easily recognized females. That clinched it - species number 102 for West Campus.

Birds for the week!
Wild Turkey
Canada Goose
Herring Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Red-tailed Hawk
Cooper's Hawk
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Downy Woodpecker
Monk Parakeet

Blue Jay
American Crow
European Starling
American Robin
Cedar Waxwing
Northern Mockingbird
Black-capped Chickadee
Brown Creeper
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Song Sparrow

White-throated Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
American Goldfinch
House Finch
Purple Finch - Carpodacus purpureus
Common Grackle
House Sparrow

Twenty seven species for the week - not too shabby considering we were on the other campus half of the week.

Breaking news! - this just in! - a fourth grade class was out on campus Friday afternoon, for a Peabody Museum educational program - and while out on a Hawk Watch saw seven raptors, comprising four species. They added two new species to this week's list:

Sharp-shinned Hawk, Accipiter striatus
Peregrine Falcon, Falco peregrinus

Taking a quick look at our West Campus list - I see that we have another new species for campus! - the Peregrine Falcon seen by the students and their leader Tom. Lynn and I haven't seen it definitively yet - so it goes on our short list of "seen by Tom but not by Sue and Lynn"!

This brief video illustrates why it's difficult to hear bird calls in certain parts of West Campus...

November - gray and rainy - but...

2010-11-05T13:16:00.009-04:00

Yeah - tough to keep your spirits up when the day looks like this...
gray, rainy, cold. But then, you scan a flock of two hundred starlings for an interesting blackbird.

And you find - a Pine Siskin? really? We've been hoping for one, and they've been reported from towns all around us. The bird is not actually in the photo above - it had flown away already.

A Pine Siskin - Carduelis pinus - close relative of our ever-present American Goldfinch, they often feed together at feeding stations - as well as in the wild of course (same food supply). So, we'll wait for it to discover the thistle sock or the black-oil sunflower seeds that our other finches enjoy.

Suddenly the gray day isn't quite so gray. A Pine Siskin, imagine! - and fallen leaves of the Japanese Maple.

A beautiful little Pine Siskin, wow! and droplets of rain hanging from every branch of the Rosa multiflora.

- and actually appearing in this photo is another great bird for the week, go ahead, try to find it

It's a Fox Sparrow, Passerella iliaca - a large, bright rufous sparrow which usually passes through Connecticut in the "shoulder seasons" during March and November.

- this time a little more concealed, but the overall rufous coloring, gray on the cheeks and crown, and bright white belly visible

Great way to end the week!
Birds for the first week of November, 2010:

Wild Turkey
Canada Goose
Herring Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Turkey Vulture
American Kestrel
Red-tailed Hawk
Accipiter sp. - really large Cooper's or a Goshawk?
Mourning Dove
Downy Woodpecker

Northern Flicker
Blue Jay
American Crow
American Robin
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
Cedar Waxwing
Black-capped Chickadee
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Northern Cardinal

Song Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Fox Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
Brown-headed Cowbird
American Goldfinch
Pine Siskin - Carduelis pinus
species number 101 for West Campus
House Finch
House Sparrow

Still pulling nearly thirty species - say - did anyone see a pigeon this week? that would bring the list from 29 to 30.

Birding W-C presentation

2010-10-29T14:05:00.003-04:00

Wednesday, Lynn and I were in the spotlight for a West Campus Brown Bag Lunch Presentation. "A Bird in the Hand is worth Two in the Bush - Why Bird Conservation at West Campus Matters"

Sue and Lynn with specimens from the collection, displayed for our audience.

We set up a slide show, narrating the photos as we progressed from Past, through Present, to Future. The historical overview of conservation and education efforts by Bayer employees from 2000 to 2006 was pretty enlightening to our small audience. I'll have to fill you in on this another time.

The core of our presentation took us through a full year of birding on the campus, spanning the seasons, habitats, food sources, nesting, migration and species surveys. We ended with some hopes for future conservation efforts, in the direction of providing nest boxes for two of the state's "species of special concern" - the American Kestrel and the Purple Martin.

After the presentation, Sue T. and Maureen explore the display of mounted specimens, study skins, field notebooks and equipment (while munching on sugar cookies - hummingbirds and owls).

So, we DID get some birding done this week, between bouts of preparing for our presentation.

Birds for the final week of October:
Wild Turkey
Canada Goose
Red-tailed Hawk
Cooper's Hawk
Turkey Vulture
Herring Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Northern Flicker

Downy Woodpecker
Blue Jay
Common Raven
American Crow
Hermit Thrush
American Robin
European Starling
Gray Catbird
Black-capped Chickadee
Ruby-crowned Kinglet

Golden-crowned Kinglet
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Northern Cardinal
Song Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow
Chipping Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
American Goldfinch
House Sparrow

Okay, that's thirty species for the week - with some pretty nice birds in the list. Fun to have good looks at both species of kinglets, ravens and the immature White-crowned Sparrow - unfortunately though, I also picked up one of the latter, dead.

Halloween is almost upon us and cooler weather is pushing in again. We certainly enjoyed this week's respite - with spring-like temperatures in the 70's! Next week - NOVEMBER!!!!!!!

Sparrow season.

2010-10-22T13:21:00.009-04:00

Immature White-crowned Sparrow, Zonotrichia leucophrys
http://www.pbase.com/paulasullivan/white_crowned_sparrows

Hmm, Sparrow Season, that sounds a bit too much like duck season or deer season. Most of the neotropical migrants have already passed through on their way back to the tropics, and now is the time when we notice sparrows. They're seed-eaters, and we typically find them scratching under shrubs, skulking in dense tangles and searching the edges of gardens.

The sparrows we've seen at West Campus this week are typical for this time of year. Our year-round Song Sparrows, our winter White-throated Sparrows and Dark-eyed Juncos and our migratory Savannah and White-crowned Sparrows all made the checklist this week.

Many of our migrating birds head to warmer climes because their food supply (insects) is gone. But many of our familiar summer birds instead switch from a diet of invertebrates to a fruit-based diet. This conversion has been widely studied - with respect to nutrition, digestion, pre-migration fattening and food source availability.

The classic example from West Campus would be the American Robin - worms and insects in summer, berries and crab apples in winter. I've added a few reference articles at the end of this post.

Science in our back yard...

How about the week's bird list?
Wild Turkey
Canada Goose
Herring Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Turkey Vulture
Red-tailed Hawk
Sharp-shinned Hawk
American Kestrel
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove

Monk Parakeet
Downy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
-- no Phoebes!! --
Bluejay
American Crow
American Robin
European Starling
Northern Mockingbird
Gray Catbird
Black-capped Chickadee

White-breasted Nuthatch
Brown Creeper
Golden-crowned Kinglet
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Northern Cardinal
Song Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow - immature
Savannah Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco

American Goldfinch
House Finch
House Sparrow

Thirty-three species for the week. Not bad, still holding on to our decent numbers, but the days of a high count of twelve species for the week are ahead of us... o frabjous day! callooh! callay!
ciao, have a great weekend!
--Sue

There are so many articles on the subject of diet in birds, I chose one which was relevant to dietary shifts and pre-migratory fattening.
okay, and another one about sugar-rich vs lipid-rich fruit choice in the American Robin
there's so much more - I didn't even scratch the surface!

the Ides of October

2010-10-15T13:55:00.006-04:00

Milkweed, Asclepias syriaca

Another week deeper into fall weather. We've had cold fronts push through, with temps just under 40 degrees at night, followed by sunny but blustery days. Our feeder birds have chosen their favorite feeding stations -- sunflower seeds in a tube, thistle seeds in a "sock", suet cakes, or sunflower in a shallow tray.

At the feeders this week we've seen:
1. Downy Woodpecker
2. American Goldfinch
3. House Finch
4. Black-capped Chickadee
5. House Sparrow

Under the feeders - the clean-up crew:
6. Mourning Dove
7. Song Sparrow

Other birds seen in the courtyard this week include:
8. American Robin
9. Eastern Phoebe

In the shrubs and tangles around building A-21 we've also seen:
10. White-throated Sparrow
11. Chipping Sparrow
12. Dark-eyed Junco
13. Northern Mockingbird

Virginia Creeper, Parthenocissus quinquefolia, with fruit and twigs of Rosa multiflora

Campus-fly-overs this week include:
14. Osprey
15. Red-tailed Hawk
16. Sharp-shinned Hawk - pursuing juncos
17. Herring Gull
18. Ring-billed Gull
19. Monk Parakeet
20. Red-winged Blackbird

And the ever-present:
21. Rock Dove
22. Canada Goose
23. European Starling

And saving the best for last:
24. Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, seen by Lynn on Thursday
and
25. Brown Creeper, reported by Tom, also on Thursday

This is under the pines - what is it Lynn??
Looks like a young Amanita muscaria var guessowii or formosa, depending on which authority is recognized.

Raven!!

2010-10-12T14:28:00.009-04:00

http://www.msjnha.org/

Late Friday afternoon, while guiding a group of Cub Scouts on a birding field trip at the Education Center, Tom Parlapiano caught sight of a larger than usual crow. Another second of observation, and he realized he had a raven.

Northern Raven, Corvus corax

The scouts had a chance to try out their binoculars on the raven - while Tom tried to impress upon them how special the bird really was.

Other birds Tom reported from the outing with the cub scouts, which are additions to my list from last week:
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Golden-crowned Kinglet
Osprey
Turkey Vulture
Red-tailed Hawk
Gray Catbird
Carolina wren

So, the week's list grew from my paltry 27 to an impressive 35, with the help of many extra pairs of eyes!

Bioblitz - Stratford, Connecticut

2010-10-11T21:44:00.022-04:00

A few photos to share from the Peabody Museum - Beardsley Zoo - Connecticut Audubon Bioblitz last weekend. More photos can be found at the Peabody's Bioblitz facebook page.

FRIDAY AFTERNOON, OCTOBER 8th

Stratford Point, Bioblitz HQ

Karen and Sue, one team of several, recording birds for the Blitz

Black-bellied Plover, Pluvialis squatarola, feeding in the mudflats at low tide

several Northern Mockingbirds, Mimus polyglottos, were singing from any high perch

Garter Snake, Thamnophis sirtalis - even fresh roadkill counts in the Bioblitz

Cottontail rabbit, Sylvilagus sp., seen at dusk on Stratford Point

in the interest of full disclosure, this is the cottontail photo before photoshopping

lights of Short Beach at after sunset

SATURDAY MORNING, OCTOBER 9th

Stratford Point Encampment at dawn

Raccoon tracks, Procyon lotor, in sandy flats near Short Beach

immature Yellow-crowned Night-heron, Nyctanassa violacea, near Short Beach

Great Egret, Ardea alba, near Short Beach

Double-crested Cormorant, Phalacrocorax auritus, near Short Beach

SATURDAY AFTERNOON

Harley, Terry and Lynn of the Connecticut Valley Mycological Society identify and label fungi at Blitz headquarters

saltmarsh at Stewart B. McKinney National Seashore

high tide floods the path to the observation platform

Karen 'scoping the saltmarsh

So, our two-woman team had 60 species during the twenty-four hour period - and the total for the whole Blitz was 122 species. We had only one totally unique bird - the Black-throated Green Warbler, but several unique species were seen in "our territory" by others as well.
the White-tailed Kite, of course
the American Pipits, right on the sandy shore of Stratford Point
the American Bittern, in the saltmarsh pictured above
and the Common Nighthawk, which did a late-evening fly-over of the Point, witnessed by several astonished onlookers.
Hooray for lots of people being out birding - that's what I think.

Friday Wrap then off to Blitz!

2010-10-08T13:49:00.001-04:00

Just a quick listing today, then I'm off to help count birds for the Bioblitz!

Wild Turkey
Canada Goose
American Kestrel
Merlin
Cooper's Hawk
Double-crested Cormorant
Herring Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Northern Flicker
Mourning Dove

Rock Pigeon
Eastern Phoebe
American Robin
European Starling
American Crow
Blue Jay
Black-capped Chickadee
Northern Cardinal
Song Sparrow
Savannah Sparrow

White-throated Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
Palm Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Brown-headed Cowbird
American Goldfinch
House Sparrow

Twenty seven species - yeah, I didn't work too hard at it this week, but I'm looking forward to the next twenty four hours of "blitzing" in Stratford.
ciao
Sue

October already?!

2010-10-01T11:11:00.005-04:00

South winds and a fair amount of rain made for not a great week to be out birding. Still, there are 35 species on the list - with some of our winter birds putting in a repeat showing (from last week) - guess they're here to stay!

New England Aster, Symphyotrichum novae-angliae, photo S.Hochgraf

Wild Turkey
Canada Goose
Double-crested Cormorant - eight flew overhead
Turkey Vulture
Osprey - 3, thanks Tom!
Red-tailed Hawk - Tom's effort too
Cooper's Hawk - another from Tom
Merlin - and another
American Kestrel - spectacular male (slaty-blue and russet-orange) perched in the courtyard
Ring-billed Gull

Herring Gull - the gulls were feeding on a swarm of emerging crane flies?
Killdeer - still up to three hanging out in the parking lot between A-21 and B-25
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Downy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Eastern Phoebe
Blue Jay
American Crow
American Robin - flocking and feeding on Russian Olive fruit

European Starling
Tree Swallow - two, over the Education Center
Gray Catbird - also consuming fruit from various shrubs
House Wren
Carolina Wren
Black-capped Chickadee - seen at the feeder, and elsewhere
Palm Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Northern Cardinal
Song Sparrow

White-throated Sparrow - here for the winter
Dark-eyed Junco - also here for the winter
American Goldfinch - a few coming to the feeders
Common Grackle - big flock down at Tom's building
House Sparrow

Unfortunately the House Sparrows heard that we were filling the feeders again, and emptied them in short order.
'til next week
Sue

How many times...

2010-09-24T15:04:00.010-04:00

and how many ways can I say how much I've enjoyed this migration season.

It was quite a week. Started out with a bang - see my earlier post - then just kept up a steady trickle of migrating birds.

I encountered the three tom turkeys every time I went out, so they start the list. A few weeks back a report came in from the grounds crew that a turkey had met its demise against the four-story glass bridge at the other end of campus. The current group of three was four all summer long - and sadly, they have lost a cohort.

Wild Turkey
Canada Goose
Turkey Vulture
Red-tailed Hawk
Cooper's Hawk
American Kestrel

American Kestrel, Falco sparverius, photo from: http://www.billhubick.com/index.php

I've listed four species of raptor, but there were maybe eight individuals total - nothing like last week, with the kettles of soaring hawks. Audubon Greenwich has officially ended their Quaker Ridge fall hawk watch, but New Haven's big migration festival is Sunday Sept 26th. Also this weekend, is the Great Stratford Bird Festival, at Stratford Point.

Herring Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Killdeer
Mourning Dove
Rock Pigeon
Monk Parakeet - a large squawking flock flew overhead,
(witnessed by Nate, Jess and Jess)
Downy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Ruby-throated Hummingbird

The flickers are around in LARGE numbers in the open woods and grassy edges at the south end of campus. And I made good on my promise to set up the nectar feeder, because the migrating hummers are still around.

Eastern Phoebe, Sayornis phoebe, same photo I used in last year's post

Eastern Phoebe - yup they're baaaack
American Crow
Blue Jay
Red-eyed Vireo
Cedar Waxwing
European Starling
Gray Catbird
Northern Mockingbird
American Robin

Flocks of robins, starlings and flickers were feeding together, foraging in the grass for insects.

Black-capped Chickadee
Golden-crowned Kinglet
Carolina Wren
House Wren
Red-breasted Nuthatch, Sitta canadensis

See Wednesday's post to read about the nuthatch!

Northern Cardinal
Song Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Lincoln's Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco

Lincoln's Sparrow, Melospiza lincolnii, (also a photo from last years post)

The last three all showed up with the high pressure system Tuesday morning, but only the White-throat was a repeat find later in the week. Happily, I had two viewings of the Lincoln's Sparrow - one at noon in the junipers near A-21 and the second at the end of the day, away down south along a grassy edge near one of the numerous parking lots.

Common Yellowthroat - still quite common
Magnolia Warbler
American Redstart
Yellow-rumped Warbler - a late-season migrant - three found today

Good to see the warblers are still around - I'm hoping for a few new species - like the Pine Warbler, another late migrant, which may yet pass through our green hilltop.

Common Grackle
American Goldfinch

I think the nest may have been abandoned, as I saw no activity nearby. When Lynn returns from vacation, we'll carry the stepladder out and check inside.
So, forty species for the week - another excellent week of birding West Campus!

Too exciting to wait!

2010-09-22T09:18:00.003-04:00

Monday night a fairly strong northerly front moved through, making for some pretty fun birding on Tuesday!

At lunchtime I had a plan to walk straight to the nature preserve on campus, to see what I could see, but barely got beyond the back door. A chunky sparrow flushed from the juniper -- the first White-throated Sparrow of the year. A little sparrow lurked deep within the juniper, curious, but very quiet -- a beautiful Lincoln's Sparrow.

A flitting of dark and light I almost dismissed as another chickadee became something very exciting -- a Red-breasted Nuthatch. And feeding with the nuthatch in the same group of pines were several returning Golden-crowned Kinglets.

Red-breasted Nuthatch, Sitta canadensis, photo Jorge de Leon

Red-breasted Nuthatch, Sitta canadensis, photo J. de Leon

There went my lunch hour, just a few steps from the building!
Returning through the courtyard, an unfamiliar high call came from somewhere - and a Dark-eyed Junco flew off. I'll keep my eyes open in the coming days for more sparrows!

Hooray for migration - but with the thrill of September birding comes the certainty of what's next...
ciao,
Sue

Week's Wrap-up

2010-09-17T14:34:00.006-04:00

This week was both eventful and uneventful.

The un-event is a real reason for celebration. During a week of peak migration we had ZERO casualties on our deadly glass corridor in the A-21 courtyard (the one I papered last Friday!). Now having written this, I have to qualify it by saying we did have a strike against a more obscure window.

Wednesday morning we picked up remnants of a Common Nighthawk, which we must have overlooked some days before. All that remained was the wings and a few body feathers - a mammal had likely consumed the rest, since the bones and all soft tissue were gone. This is a species we have not yet recorded in life on campus. Nighthawks usually fly and feed during the last light of the evening - a time when we aren't around to observe them. I saw two at home yesterday just at dusk.

Sue prepping wing, photo by Lynn.

The best I could do for the dead nighthawk was prepare a spread wing for the collection. I'll attach a specimen tag with relevant information, such as date, place and manner of death.

In other events, Mama Goldfinch is still incubating.

Several Ruby-throated Hummingbirds moved through on Tuesday - we counted five in the short time we were able to be outside observing. Observations of this species during migration find the birds most numerous during strong northwest winds (yes, we had that on Tues and Weds!), and that most of these birds are seen during midday, which may indicate they refuel earlier in the day. The Ruby-throated Hummingbird overwinters in Central America and along the US Gulf Coast.

We had a lot of fun watching for raptors all week - see Wednesday's post to read more about hawk-watching.

Now for the list!

Raptors:

Bald Eagle, Haliaeetus leucocephalus - NEW!!!

Turkey Vulture
Black Vulture (2nd sighting for 2010)
Osprey
Northern Harrier - in a big mixed-species kettle up high
Red-tailed Hawk
Broad-winged Hawk, Buteo platypterus - NEW!! - in a big mixed-species kettle up high*
Cooper's Hawk
Sharp-shinned Hawk (thanks Tom!)
Merlin
Kestrel (2nd sighting for 2010)

Other non-passerines:
Wild Turkey
Canada Goose
Herring Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Killdeer
Mourning Dove
Rock Pigeon
Downy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Chimney Swift
Ruby-throated Hummingbird

Resident passerine species:
Blue Jay
Common Crow
Fish Crow
Cedar Waxwing
European Starling
American Robin
Northern Mockingbird
Gray Catbird
Black-capped Chickadee
Northern Cardinal
Song Sparrow
American Goldfinch
House Finch
Brown-headed Cowbird
Common Grackle
Red-winged Blackbird

Migrating passerine species:
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Polioptila caerulea - NEW!!
Common Yellowthroat (but it nested here too)
Palm Warbler

Wow - that's 41 species for the week. This news just in - in an email from the far southeastern end of West Campus, Tom Parlapiano mentioned he saw the first Dark-eyed Junco of the year, outside the Education Center. Make that forty two species for the week!

* Here's an excerpt from Cornell's All About Birds site, concerning the migration of Broad-winged Hawks:

The Broad-winged Hawk completely leaves its breeding grounds in the fall and winter. Huge numbers of migrating broad-wings can be seen at hawk watches across the East. It usually migrates in large flocks or "kettles" that can range from a couple of individuals to thousands.
A recent study attached satellite transmitters to the backs of four Broad-winged Hawks and followed them as they migrated south in the fall. The hawks migrated an average of 7,000 km (4,350 mi) to northern South America, and traveled an average of 111 km (69 mi) each day. Once at the wintering grounds, the hawks did not move around much, staying on average within 2.6 square km (1 square mi).

First Annual September 15th Lynn's Birthday Hawk Watch at West Campus

2010-09-15T16:12:00.002-04:00

Sue and Lynn hawk-watching at West Campus

What a fantastic day we had - for what we dubbed our First Annual Lynn's Birthday Hawk Watch.
So, Happy Birthday Lynn from all of the raptors that flew overhead today!
Which were...

Bald Eagle, Haliaeetus leucocephalus
Turkey Vulture
Black Vulture
Osprey
Red-tailed Hawk
Cooper's Hawk
Merlin
American Kestrel

and four or five Buteo sp. - which probably were our still uncertain Broad-winged Hawk
and a few Accipiter sp. - which means probably a Sharp-shinned Hawk

Mid-September is the peak of hawk migration, and hawk watches spring up at strategic locations all along the favored flyways.
Lighthouse Point Hawk Watch (New Haven Bird Club) and Migration Festival (City of New Haven Parks Dept. - Sunday September 26th)
Quaker Ridge Hawk Watch (at Audubon Greenwich)

So, get out with your binoculars under a big patch of sky and watch for tiny black dots against the blue and white of a September afternoon. Tiny black dots - that's why we list Buteo sp and not the actual species - cause we can't tell what it is!

How do you recycle your YDN?

2010-09-10T15:23:00.003-04:00

Sooo... how DO you recycle your Yale Daily News?


I plastered the windows of our worst window-strike hallway.

We've had a number of migrating birds die of windowstrikes against this very hallway. In the last few weeks we found one Ovenbird, one Mourning Dove, one Catbird, one Robin and sadly, three Northern Waterthrushes. Since the hallway is in an unoccupied section of our building I took action that would normally not fly in your average workplace.

Northern Waterthrush, Seiurus noveboracensis, windowkill from A-21 courtyard, photo L. Jones

detail, Northern Waterthrush.

As I taped up the pages of the Yale Daily News I chuckled over the notice at the bottom of one page. I'll bet nobody has ever recycled their YDN in quite this way before. Let's just hope it works to keep the birds safe.

Be sure to check my earlier posting of today - two new warblers and an updated list.

New Birds Today!

2010-09-10T14:05:00.004-04:00

I've been having a lot of fun getting to the coast in the past week for migratory shorebirds, but today I opted to do some serious birding on campus ...looking for migrants here too...
A disclaimer - today's photos are neither mine nor Lynn's.

Common Yellowthroat, Geothlypis trichas

http://naturetales.blogspot.com/2007_08_01_archive.html

Lynn and I walked the fence line at the southeast corner of campus and pursued separate pockets of bird noise. Down by the creek I had a new warbler, and in the thickets along the path Lynn had a new one also.
So our total list of warblers during lunchtime today:

Common Yellowthroat - two
Magnolia Warbler
American Redstart
Black-and-white Warbler - new!
Northern Parula - new!

For me it's fun to have to work at identifying these warblers; they're in fall plumage right now, and it's not immediately obvious what species they are. So, I turn to the bird book and look for the field marks I just memorized - gray above, yellow below, two thin white wing bars, bright green lower back, faint vertical lines on sides, white around the eyes, white patches under the tail. Flip the through the pages a few times, and it becomes a young Magnolia Warbler. Very satisfying.

Our list for the past two weeks follows:

Canada Goose
Red-tailed Hawk
Wild Turkey
Killdeer
Herring Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Northern Flicker
Downy Woodpecker

Northern Parula, Parula americana

http://www.stevenanz.com/Main_Directory/Recent%20Photos/2008/080531_Brooklyn/source/northern_parula_0960.htm

Willow Flycatcher
American Crow
Blue Jay
Tree Swallow
Black-capped Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
Carolina Wren
American Robin
Gray Catbird
European Starling

Magnolia Warbler, Dendroica magnolia

http://www.outdooralabama.com/watchable-wildlife/what/Birds/wwt/mw.cfm

Cedar Waxwing

Northern Parula, Parula americana

Yellow Warbler
Magnolia Warbler

Black-and-white Warbler, Mniotilta varia

American Redstart
Common Yellowthroat
Northern Cardinal
Song Sparrow
Common Grackle

American Goldfinch
House Sparrow

Black-and-white Warbler, Mniotilta varia

http://sdakotabirds.com/species/black_and_white_warbler_info.htm

Thirty two species. Not bad for our workday birding efforts.

And we probably had a White-breasted Nuthatch and a Broad-winged Hawk today, but won't list them 'til the uncertainty is gone.

An early September gift

2010-09-03T15:51:00.003-04:00

photos: S. Hochgraf

American Goldfinch nest

Earlier this week I startled a pair of American Goldfinches from their nest in a White Pine. This very common little songbird has pretty interesting habits.

They tend to nest late in the summer - when thistle down (or similar plant fiber) is available for nesting material. They also are one of the few songbirds to feed primarily seeds to the nestlings.

The female constructs the nest entirely on her own in a spot which is protected overhead from the weather, open on one side for quick escape to nearby cover - and - often visible from below - which was definitely true of this construction.

One egg is laid each morning until the clutch is complete. This late in the season a clutch will be smaller than an early-season clutch. I must have discovered the nest on day two of egg-laying (Tuesday), and to avoid disturbing the birds, I won't return until next week.

The female alone will incubate the eggs, taking only very short breaks. The male will bring partially digested thistle (and other plant) seeds, and feed her on the nest. Incubation may take up to two weeks, and the chicks will usually pip within a day of each other.

After two weeks of feeding by both parents, they'll be fully fledged and ready to leave the nest - within hours of one another. The young will depend on the adults for food for an additional three weeks. Have you been adding this up?? We're looking at the third week of October before the kids are on their own!

I've condensed all of this information from wonderful research compiled from countless hours of field work by many ornithologists - and presented in user-friendly format by the good people at Cornell's Laboratory of Ornithology.
http://bna.birds.cornell.edu/bna/species/080/articles/introduction
The photos are my own.
enjoy...
Sue

mid-August birding

2010-08-18T10:42:00.001-04:00

Last week I mentioned that shorebirds were in the middle of their southward migration. Other post-breeding season movements are being noticed these days too. Blackbirds are beginning to gather in flocks. Common Nighthawks are being reported in the evening skies and hummingbirds have been seen more frequently at feeders.

I dismantled our nectar feeder a few weeks ago since we had no sign of the hummers, but it looks like it's time to hang it out again. Last fall, when we first began birding here at West Campus, we had two hummingbird sightings - it would be great to see them again!

We've been watching the comings and goings of birds on campus for about eleven months now - and I'm curious to see what sort of repeat activity there will be come September. For example: What about those Phoebes? They were ubiquitous last fall - September through November. I assumed they had nested here - but there have been zero sightings of Eastern Phoebes since they departed in November!

I think there were eleven Killdeer on the roof, seeking shade or a puddle!

Alright then, on to the bird list - accumulated since the last posting:
Wild Turkey
Canada Goose
Killdeer
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
Osprey
Red-tailed Hawk
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Downy Woodpecker

Northern Flicker
Chimney Swift
Blue Jay
American Crow
European Starling
Barn Swallow
Gray Catbird
American Robin
Black-capped Chickadee
Northern Cardinal

Song Sparrow
Chipping Sparrow
American Goldfinch
House Sparrow

Twenty four species - and as I mentioned, blackbirds are in the vicinity - just a matter of time before we add a new bird to our species list... Boat-tailed Grackle maybe? Rusty Blackbird maybe?

August already?!

2010-08-09T10:05:00.001-04:00

No, I wasn't away for a summer vacation, but the bird activity on campus has been pretty low, and I was uninspired to blog. Recent birdy news:

- the Canada Geese have returned to campus after a spring-early summer hiatus
- the Willow Flycatcher was seen perched in the volleyball net in the courtyard
- the young Red-tailed Hawk reported on earlier became a casualty

And, here's the bird list, as best we could reconstruct it, for the past two or three weeks:

Wild Turkey
Canada Goose
Red-tailed Hawk
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
Mourning Dove
Rock Pigeon
Willow Flycatcher
Blue Jay
American Crow

European Starling
Barn Swallow
American Robin
House Wren
Gray Catbird
Yellow Warbler
Northern Cardinal
Song Sparrow
American Goldfinch
House Finch
House Sparrow

And in case you haven't heard, there has been a White-tailed Kite visiting our area for the past week or so - a first record for the state of Connecticut, and only the second time this bird has been seen in New England in ONE HUNDRED years. It's hanging out in a fairly restricted range between Milford Point and Stratford Point. Go to Connecticut Audubon's blog to read all about it and see some fantastic photos of this beautiful bird of prey.

Southward migration of shorebirds is underway along the coast, but it would be difficult to add those birds to our list at West Campus unless we're outside watching for strays at all hours of the night and day. Between mid-July and early October sandpipers and plovers leave their breeding grounds in arctic Canada and head for South America.

The Semi-palmated Sandpipers I watched at Stratford Point last week will continue to fatten up on invertebrates then take off over the water, not stopping until they reach landfall on the easternmost Caribbean islands or the coasts of Guiana, Suriname and French Guyana. The earliest arrivals are known to refuel then continue south to the coast of Maranhao, Brazil. The later arrivals may overwinter in the Guianas.

And one final note - the blackberry vines have been producing enough fruit for the avian residents to eat their fill and human transients to do plenty of blackberry-based cuisine.
I have made blackberry ice cream, blackberry pie, blackberry cream pie, blackberry cheesecake tarts and put many blackberries in yogurt and vanilla icecream.
Many noon-time walkers pick hand-fulls to nosh on while walking and the entomologists have set their insect traps nearby, so they come back inside with purple stains and scratches on their arms from those "labors"!

Okay, NOW I'm inspired to go out birding at lunchtime this week - not to say I didn't have my binoculars with me every time I went out berry picking!!
ciao
Sue

Nesting activity

2010-07-16T14:00:00.006-04:00

Left American Robin nest (Turdus migratorius) photo S. Hochgraf, right Mourning Dove on nest (Zenaida macroura), photo L. Jones

Back in May I mentioned seeing young robins and doves out of the nest, and now, halfway through July, we are clearly into round two for some of the species. Earlier this week Lynn photographed a few of the more visible nests, and of course there are many concealed nests we'd love to find!

Left (or upper), Cedar Waxwing nest, right (or lower), young waxwing, which was first seen July 9th, still in the nest. (Bombycilla cedrorum) July 12th, photos L. Jones

For example - all of those goldfinches - where are they nesting? And today, for the first time, I saw not one, but two Willow Flycatchers - do they have a nest full of young? It's easiest to locate a nest when the parents are constantly back and forth bringing food, however the adult birds have a routine to deceive you (the perceived predator). Quiet patience is the key.

Left, thistles growing on a slope under White Pines, right, close-up of what is probably Canada Thistle. photos S. Hochgraf

Goldfinches usually begin nesting when the thistle flowers go to seed - the birds use the silky plant fibers for nest lining material and feed regurgitated thistle seeds to the nestlings. They are one of the few passerine birds to feed a largely plant-based diet to the young.

On a more somber note, there has been a rash of window strikes lately. Since last Friday, we've picked up four young birds below the glass corridors. Three of them dead - dove, robin and flicker, and one is on its way to a rehab center - a young Red-tailed Hawk. This morning the adult hawks were low over the parking lot, calling. We'll see how the little guy fares...

Okay, to wrap up this week of birding west campus:
How about a color code for nesting activity?
green = evidence of breeding: either adults bringing food or young birds out and about
purple = probably nesting, but we haven't seen the evidence yet

Wild Turkey, Meleagris gallopavo

Killdeer, Charadrius vociferus

Red-tailed Hawk, Buteo jamaicensis

Sharp-shinned Hawk, Accipiter striatus
Double-crested Cormorant, Phalacrocorax auritus
Rock Pigeon, Columba livia

Mourning Dove, Zenaida macroura

Downy Woodpecker, Picoides pubescens

Northern Flicker, Colaptes auratus

Chimney Swift, Chaetura pelagica

A rather yellow Cabbage White (Pieris rapae) on Canada Thistle (Cirsium arvense), photo S. Hochgraf

Willow Flycatcher, Empidonax traillii

American Crow, Corvus brachyrhynchos

Cedar Waxwing, Bombycilla cedrorum

American Robin, Turdus migratorius

Northern Mockingbird, Mimus polyglottos

Gray Catbird, Dumetella carolinensis

Carolina Wren, Thryothorus ludovicianus

House Wren, Troglodytes aedon

Barn Swallow, Hirundo rustica

Northern Rough-winged Swallow, Stelgidopteryx serripennis

European Starling, Sturnus vulgaris

Yellow Warbler, Dendroica petechia

Song Sparrow, Melospiza melodia

Chipping Sparrow, Spizella passerina

Common Grackle, Quiscalus quiscula

Northern Cardinal, Cardinalis cardinalis

American Goldfinch, Carduelis tristis

House Finch, Carpodacus mexicanus

House Sparrow, Passer domesticus

Twenty nine species for the week.

And below, I checked out the blackberry patch Monday afternoon and found a few ripe berries - and many already gone. Wednesday I checked again and found some of our turkeys reaching up to pluck the ripened fruit. I myself ate only three!

There is no blackberry pie in my future.

Water Drip

2010-07-09T09:10:00.001-04:00

I usually appreciate a good project, and if it involves recycled materials - even better.
So, during these hot days I noticed that the birds around our parking lot were panting. With a little scrounging I pulled together materials to make a water drip for the thirsty birds.

Here's the finished project - juice jug hung by scrap of rope from plant hanger with food storage container below.

I placed the planter stand out of the way of the lawnmowers, but let's face it, the grass ain't exactly leaping out of the ground when it's this dry!

Puncture the bottom of jug with a sharp object - the hole should be pretty small!

Tie rope around neck of the bottle in a secure fashion.

I filled the jug with water from our dehumidifier - now there's recycling.

Jug hanging from planter with container below to catch the drips and hold a small quantity of water.

With the cap screwed on tightly, no water will drip. Loosen the cap incrementally until an occasional drip falls to the pan below.

Perfect! It's the motion of the splashing water that attracts the birds.

Clumps of sod left by the landscapers were useful to push up against the tub, and an additional rock makes a stable perch to enable smaller birds to reach the water. Ideally, a larger, shallower pan, with perhaps a rock island would have been best, but as I said, these were all materials at hand!

I hung this device Wednesday lunchtime. By the end of the work day all of the water had dripped from the jug (too rapid a flow). This morning (Friday) I observed a robin drinking from the tub - couldn't get my camera out in time to capture it. But then the robin stayed around, and was clearly pulling worms from the soil around the tub - the overflow of water had dampened the soil enough to encourage underground activity!

Quiet days of summer

2010-07-02T11:29:00.010-04:00

The birds have been pretty quiet these days, but truth be told, we haven't been out birding much - just one long walk through the nature preserve then back to work. When the birds aren't about, though, we tend to notice other animals.

This green and golden spider was tending a web in the Rhododendron shrub near our building.

I'll have to find an arachnologist to help with the identification, since I know very little about arthropods. In class Arachnida there are eleven orders, if this is an 'orb weaver spider' then it's in the order Araneae, which comprises three suborders, and I should probably stop here, since I'm really showing my ignorance.

Okay, I think it's time for a bird list here.

Wild Turkey
Killdeer
Red-tailed Hawk
Northern Flicker
Mourning Dove
Rock Pigeon
Willow Flycatcher
Blue Jay
American Crow
Cedar Waxwing

European Starling
American Robin
Northern Mockingbird
Gray Catbird
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
Barn Swallow
Black-capped Chickadee
House Wren
Yellow Warbler
Northern Cardinal

American Goldfinch
House Finch
Song Sparrow
Chipping Sparrow
Common Grackle
House Sparrow

Eastern Kingbird - Lynn saw it as she was leaving work Friday afternoon.

That's it - twenty seven species for the week.

Orange Daylily, Hemerocallis fulva, in front of A-21

Daylilies are blooming in many a garden now. The petals are edible, a sweet and succulent addition to a salad - try one! But please make sure you don't pick a Tiger Lily - it's not the same plant.

And, it's been quite a while since I mentioned the World Cup - but I've been following all of the games. Brazil just LOST to the Netherlands. Uruguay plays Ghana later this afternoon. Tomorrow's games - Argentina vs Germany and Spain vs Paraguay promise to be just as tough as the one just played. By next Friday afternoon, I'll be reporting who has made the final - but it likely won't be news to anyone!

ciao, and have a great weekend - here in Connecticut it's supposed to be a beautiful one - high summer, with dry air and temperatures in the 80's to low 90's.
Sue

Summer!

2010-06-25T14:34:00.006-04:00

Footbridge reflected in Oyster River, photo S. Hochgraf

So, yes - summer has arrived with a bang! Hot weather, afternoon thunderstorms - and even a tornado. Yesterday afternoon a fast-moving storm blew through the northeast, causing severe damage in Bridgeport, fifteen miles from West Campus. The rain came down in such a torrent that looking out from our building you couldn't see the other side of the parking lot 30 meters away.

Bee balm (Monarda) and Shasta daisies (Leucanthemum) in the Butterfly Garden established by Bayer employees many years ago

Bee balm with bumblebee, both photos S. Hochgraf

Birds tend to be pretty quiet in the heat of the day, with a few notable exceptions - the Song Sparrows and House Wrens never stop singing. Our Yellow Warblers have been so quiet that instead of seeing them pop up everywhere, we now have to go looking for them. Raptors float lazily overhead, using warm thermal currents and the turkeys head for the shade.

Wild Turkey, Meleagris gallopavo. These boys were checking out their reflections in the glass when I disturbed them for a photo.

Birds for the week:

Wild Turkey
Red-tailed Hawk
Osprey
Great Egret
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Northern Flicker
Eastern Kingbird
Willow Flycatcher
European Starling

Still no hummingbirds, but I moved the feeder to another location

Cedar Waxwing
Barn Swallow
Rough-winged Swallow
Tree Swallow
American Crow
Blue Jay
Northern Mockingbird
Gray Catbird
Carolina Wren
House Wren

American Robin
Black-capped Chickadee
Yellow Warbler
Common Yellowthroat - feeding nestlings!
American Goldfinch
House Finch
Northern Cardinal
Song Sparrow
Chipping Sparrow
Common Grackle

Brown-headed Cowbird
House Sparrow

Thirty-two species for the week.

Blackberries ripening along a sunny edge - I'll have to remember to revisit these in a few weeks!

Willow Flycatcher still around

2010-06-23T13:09:00.003-04:00

In the last two days, we've seen our Willow Flycatcher again. This time calling just quietly, with an occasional zhree-ew, rather than the typical, and oft-repeated, fitz bew call. The photo below is from the Friends of Sherwood Island web page which has an annotated gallery of excellent bird photos by A. J. Hand

Willow Flycatcher, Empidonax traillii, photo by A. J. Hand

2010-06-21T09:28:00.003-04:00

It was a straight-forward week of birding here at West Campus as we approach the end of June.
I think we had nothing new last week, just our usual breeding birds and passers-by. We haven't made the time to get out for a long walk in quite a while, but end up listing what we see while passing through campus, or enjoying lunch outside.

Wild Turkey
Turkey Vulture
Osprey
Red-tailed Hawk
Ring-billed Gull
Killdeer
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Northern Flicker
Downy Woodpecker

Chimney Swift
Eastern Kingbird
Blue Jay
American Crow
Barn Swallow
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
Black-capped Chickadee
House Wren
Cedar Waxwing
American Robin

European Starling
Northern Mockingbird
Gray Catbird
Yellow Warbler
Song Sparrow
Chipping Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
American Goldfinch
House Finch
Brown-headed Cowbird

Common Grackle
House Sparrow

Thirty two species for the week.

The color for today's blog is a drawing I just finished for a juried show of songbirds of the northeast. It's a Blue-winged Warbler, done in colored pencil. I haven't done any artwork in a very long time, so it was fun to work on this drawing, even though my skills felt so rusty!

In other birding news, I spent this past weekend participating in my local club's annual breeding bird survey. This works exactly like a Christmas Count, but over 48-hour period instead of 24. We targeted four protected areas within our section of the count circle - two were town parks and two were state wildlife management areas.

Given a choice of three count areas, we chose the one which included our house - and happily counted birds in our own yard while enjoying an afternoon cookout with friends! Species total was 54 - including Ruffed Grouse, American Woodcock, Eastern Wood Pewee and first of the year Prairie Warblers.

June - sun and rain

2010-06-11T13:56:00.008-04:00

This was a perfectly perfect June week - bright sun, breezy, cloudy, showery - all with very pleasant temperatures. And... we had two new birds at West Campus - both perhaps attracted to our new grassland habitat.

Seems like the groundskeepers have decided to let the grass grow on the slopes near our building - which is wonderful, because this is where we've always seen sparrows, and even the Meadowlark last fall. Clearly it's a tricky area to mow, so it's now growing free, with many grasses, flowering legumes and composites, in purples, yellows and whites. This has attracted insects and the birds who feed on them, which leads us to both of our new birds for the week.

Eastern Kingbird, Tyrannus tyrannus, photo: S. Hochgraf

After a stormy Tuesday night, Wednesday morning was overcast and gray, but the air was warm and still. Lynn and Nate saw the Eastern Kingbird and called me over to have a look, and shortly after, I was distracted by another calling flycatcher. Fitz bew -- fitz bew -- fitz bew -- over and over again, so I knew it wasn't the local Mockingbird.

The Willow Flycatcher is more easily identified by this call than by other field marks. At lunchtime Lynn managed to get a photo, which when enlarged indeed showed a little Empidonax flycatcher. Both birds have been around for several days now.

Birds for the week of June 7-11:

Wild Turkey
Mallard
Turkey Vulture
Osprey
Red-tailed Hawk
American Egret
Killdeer
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Northern Flicker

Wild Turkey, Meleagris gallopavo, photo S. Hochgraf

Downy Woodpecker
Eastern Kingbird, Tyrannus tyrannus
Willow Flycatcher, Empidonax traillii
Blue Jay
American Crow
Tree Swallow
Rough-winged Swallow
Barn Swallow
House Wren
Cedar Waxwing

European Starling
American Robin
Black-capped Chickadee
Northern Mockingbird
Gray Catbird
Northern Cardinal
Song Sparrow
Chipping Sparrow
Yellow Warbler
Common Yellowthroat

Red-winged Blackbird
Common Grackle
Brown-headed Cowbird
American Goldfinch
House Finch
House Sparrow

Thirty six species for the week. And here's a short video clip of our grasses waving in the June breezes.

Game two of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa is about to begin - Uruguay vs France. Mexico and South Africa played to a 1-1 draw this morning. A full month of "the beautiful game" is ahead, until the championship game, July 11th. You can cheer for team USA against England on Saturday June 12th at 2:30pm EST. Watch it online ESPN-3 or on cable TV.

First week of June

2010-06-04T15:36:00.005-04:00

We have had a stretch of beautiful warm sunny weather - punctuated by scattered showers and thunderstorms. Dragonflies are out in force, insect-eating birds are busy feeding youngsters and our local mammals have been noticeable too.

Eastern Striped Skunk, Mephitis mephitis, photo: T. Parlapiano

The many robin babies are in evidence - out of the nest, fluttering around after the parents and begging for earthworms. House Wrens, Yellow Warblers, Song Sparrows and more can be heard singing on their territories.

One lunchtime I heard a distant vireo singing, pursued it and was quite puzzled by the song. Occasionally it threw in thrush-like notes and catbird-like notes but always with the clear strong voice of a vireo. Finally I got the binoculars on it, a Red-eyed Vireo - not new, but still a great bird to see - especially after I worked so hard to find it.

Glad to report this week that Tom sighted Tree Swallows, and hopefully they're investigating one of the many nest boxes. So that's a new bird for campus - yippee.

Bird wrap-up for the week:
with contributions by Tom, Nate, Maureen, Vinny, Debby and me

Wild Turkey
Red-tailed Hawk
Osprey
Ring-billed Gull
Killdeer
Mourning Dove
Downy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Blue Jay
American Crow

Tree Swallow, Tachycineta bicolor
Barn Swallow
Red-eyed Vireo
House Wren
Carolina Wren
Tufted Titmouse
American Robin
Gray Catbird
Cedar Waxwing
European Starling

Northern Cardinal
House Finch
American Goldfinch
Song Sparrow
Yellow Warbler
Brown-headed Cowbird
Common Grackle
Red-winged Blackbird
House Sparrow

Twenty nine species for this week.

I'll leave you with this little movie I made one lunchtime, as I crossed the Oyster River on stepping-stones. Turn up your volume, the sound of the running water is better than the quality of the video image!

Have a great weekend.
Ciao,
Sue

Two new birds last week!

2010-06-01T08:35:00.004-04:00

Again I'm getting last week's list posted a bit late - and especially since we had Monday off, so here goes. We seem to be settling into a bit of sameness, but then again we're still getting new species.

Wild Turkey
Ring-billed Gull
Killdeer
Osprey
Red-tailed Hawk
Mourning Dove
Rock Pigeon
Northern Flicker
Great-crested Flycatcher, Myiarchus crinitus
Warbling Vireo, Vireo gilvus

Click on the new birds above - and play the voice recording on the linked page. Both are birds you'll hear before you see, so it's good to be familiar with the songs. Vireos especially, are a challenge to find as they quietly hunt for insects at the ends of leafy branches. Warblers are more active feeders so are easier to spot, but those vireos are a secretive group - except that they're quite vocal.

Blue Jay
American Crow
Cedar Waxwing
Carolina Wren
House Wren
Gray Catbird
Northern Mockingbird
American Robin
Barn Swallow
European Starling

Northern Cardinal
Song Sparrow
Chipping Sparrow
Yellow Warbler
American Goldfinch
House Finch
Brown-headed Cowbird
Common Grackle
Red-winged Blackbird

What I need now is to just get out more! Back in April I thought some of our first returning migrants would be the Eastern Phoebe and the Tree Swallow - and believe it or not we still haven't seen either of these birds. I know it's just a matter of "time in the field", so if I eat lunch faster I can add 50% more birding time - we're talking an increase from 30 to 45 minutes. Hey, every little bit helps!

A Warm Week!

2010-05-28T08:35:00.004-04:00

Rosa multiflora, photo S.Hochgraf

With the warm weather this week, the Multiflora Rose burst into bloom all over the state. An unwelcome invasive in many places, it's a fantastic food source for both insects and birds at West Campus. While photographing the shrubs I was surrounded by the scent of the blossoms, maybe overwhelmed is a better word!

Melospiza melodia, digibinned photo: S. Hochgraf

As long as I had the camera out I tried to capture an image of this territorial Song Sparrow, through my binoculars. He's probably nesting in the rose brambles, along with Yellow Warblers and perhaps Catbirds as well.