Connecticut Audubon Bird Finder for December 27: Long-tailed Duck

Long-tailed Duck
Clangula hyemalis

Where to find it: Look in shallow, sandy bottomed, salt water areas of Long Island Sound, at the mouths of rivers and occasionally inland on larger rivers and lakes. Specific likely locations for finding Long-tailed Ducks include Greenwich Point Park, Calf Pasture Beach in Norwalk, Penfield Reef in Fairfield, and Stratford Point. Further east, the parking lot at Dock & Dine Restaurant in Old Saybrook is a fairly reliable location; also check Harkness Memorial State Park in Waterford, and Avery Point and Bluff Point State Park in Groton.

To read the full post, click here.

Photo by Andrew Griswold/Connecticut Audubon Society

Connecticut Audubon Society Bird Finder for December 20: Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 
Sphyrapicus varius 

Where to find it: Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers can be found throughout the state in winter. In spring and summer these woodpeckers can more commonly be found nesting in the northwest corner of the state although they are becoming increasingly more common in the northeast corner. Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers are most often associated with a mix of conifer and maple forests. They drill shallow, horizontal holes in a circular pattern around the trunks of trees.

Read the rest of this week's Bird Finder here.

Photo by Dominic Sharony.

The Ipswich Savannah Sparrow
Passerculus sandwichensis princeps

Where to find it: An Ipswich Sparrow has appeared at our Stratford Point Coastal Grassland Conservation Area this winter.  It has been seen a handful of times on the outer bluffside trail, and is typically spotted by walking the trail until you note a very pale colored sparrow that may pop up onto one of the bluff boulders. We expect one or more individuals to remain with us at Stratford Point throughout the winter.

To read the entire Bird Finder post, click here.

Photo by Andrew Griswold.

Snowy Winter, Continued

“There has been an unbelievable push of birds heading to the south and concentrated in the Great Lakes to Northeast and the Atlantic Coast and continuing south by the day. Two years ago we had a similar burst of Snowy Owls pour down into the U.S. but it was more uniformly spread across the upper half of the country. Many Central and Northwest areas had sizable numbers of birds while the Northeast and Atlantic Coast had fewer. Why is there such a difference in geography? We don’t know, at least not yet …”

Thus wrote Scott Kruitbosch, our former Connecticut Audubon Society colleague who left last summer to work for another former colleague, Twan Leenders, at the Roger Tory Peterson Institute, in Jamestown, N.Y.

If you’re interested in a close look at the Snowy Owl numbers this year, read Scott’s post on the RTPI blog, here.

The photo above was taken by Anthony Zemba/Copyright Connecticut Audubon Society

Connecticut Audubon Bird Finder for December 6, 2013: Snow Bunting

Snow Bunting
Plectrophenax nivalis

Where to find them:
Snow Buntings are commonly found in large flocks during fall migration at open coastal fields and parking lots, and in agricultural fields inland. The Connecticut Audubon Society’s Coastal Center at Milford Point is a good starting point, as is our Stratford Point coastal restoration site, across the Housatonic River.

Click here for more.

Snowy Winter

It's official: We've declared 2013 to be a terrific year for Snowy Owls in Connecticut. We wanted you all to be among the first to know. Click here.

The Snowy pictured here distracted our director of conservation services, Anthony Zemba, who abandoned his desk to take this terrific shot at Stratford Point.