Birds? What birds?

Tree felled by the storm.

Another week of busy-ness out here at West Campus and just some odd schedules.  The months ahead will be interesting as Sue might not be contributing to the WC blog but may have to do a post or two about things downtown.  I had an unplanned short birding session due to a fire alarm but it was chilly and started to snow so birds were scarce.  We did have a decent movement of raptors heading south earlier in the week but over all the week ended quiet.  The bird feeders are up and running (except for a stolen one), all our data is being recorded and added to the New Haven Bird Clubs winter feeder survey. 

Male sachem skipper- a new late date for the state of CT

OK So here are the birds... let's organize them by color this week. 

Grayish
Black-capped Chickadee
Rock Pigeon
Dark-eyed Junco
Blue-headed Vireo
White-breasted Nuthatch
Cooper's Hawk
Sharp-shinned Hawk

Blackish
Downy Woodpecker (ok they're black and white)
American Crow
Fish Crow
Brown-headed Cowbird
Common Grackle

Iridescent
Mourning Dove
European Starling
Wild Turkey

White or Yellow
American Goldfinch
Herring Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Cedar Waxwing
Eastern Phoebe

Reddish-brown or Brown with red
Song Sparrow
House Finch
American Robin
Red-tailed Hawk
Hermit Thrush
Red-shouldered Hawk
Purple Finch

Brown
White-throated Sparrow
House Sparrow
Canada Goose
Chipping Sparrow

Blue
Blue Jay

Cedar Waxwing- where is our Bohemian?

Of course these color categories are pretty arbitrary.  Most people might think of the Accipiters (Cooper's and Sharp-shinned Hawks) as brown and they are as young birds but at this point in migration the juveniles have mostly all moved through and the adults with grayish-blue backs are predominant.  Purple and House Finch females are really just brown and white.  Birds like Cedar Waxwings are filled with gradations and splashes of waxy colors.  Now that species are limited, it's time to pick out the little details.  Especially since by looking at the details we might find something really exciting.