On a recent Saturday morning a team of 4 Peabody folks headed out for a day of birding to participate in the New Haven Bird Club's Mega Bowl of Birding Connecticut. This one day friendly competition pits teams against each other to see who can find the most species. Species are awarded points based on how rare they are and this equates to a donation to a conservation based organization of your choice.
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| Lynn, Greg, Jake, and Kristof, 2nd stop! |
This is the 2nd year the Peabody team: Mighty Marshers has participated, with our area incorporating a 5-mile radius around Yale's West Campus. We started our day with a quick walk around the West Campus Farm before heading out to cover more territory. Cool, windy, and gray conditions made for a slow start to the morning with only 9 species tallied for West Campus.
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| Sandy Point scoping |
The best bird of the day, according to the point system, was American Pipit, two were seen at Long Wharf in New Haven at our most western portion of the count circle. The birdiest stop of the day was Sandy Point in West Haven where our team had an additional competition going on with another Yale Team. A total of 22 species were seen (3 more than seen by the other team) and although we didn't get the Barrow's Goldeneye and out of range bird, we did spot many coastal species. Included among those coastal birds were, Greater Scaup, Brant, Common Goldeneye, Bufflehead, Common Loon, and Horned Grebe. Horned Lark was also a nice find at Sandy Point, these grassland specialists form wintering flocks where they search barren patches for seeds and other food.
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| Hermit crab remains |
In all, the Mighty Marshers accumulated 64 species for the day, with a small monetary donation going to a local organization with a history of funding New Haven community garden projects, including a pollinator program. We are looking forward to getting out there again next year!
