Birds and Vegetables

After reading a post on the CT bird listserv I headed over to the Stratford Community Garden to look for a bird that I had never seen before.  A Dickcissel is a House Sparrow-sized bird that breeds throughout the Midwest and winters in Central America.  Every now and then a few birds get turned around and head east instead.  A local Stratford birder had reported two at the community garden and I was lucky enough to find one!  A life bird!

Dickcissel

Another great bird that was stopping by the garden was two Bobolinks.  Bobolinks are normal migrants through our area but they aren't as often seen as heard.  That's why I was excited to see these two.

Bobolink

Bobolink- notice the sharp tail feathers

One last little surprise was a Marsh Wren who was pretty elusive.  I heard a few short chip call notes and saw it hop up and down on some fencing but it never really came out into good view.  This was the best shot I got.... pretty sad.

Marsh Wren

I had another great day today in the birding world.  I joined the Sunrise Birding group led by Luke Tiller on a warbler walk and we were successful!  The best part of this trip was the first fifteen minutes when we found a little group of warblers, two of which were life birds for me!  Both a Prairie Warbler and a Blackpoll Warbler were part of the group!  Not that they are unusual or even uncommon warblers, it just shows how much time I haven't put in to birding during migration.  No pictures this time but I'm sure now that I have seen them, they will show up everywhere.  Case in point, first great looks at a Wilson's Warbler (not a super common bird) was this week at work, my first CT sighting in fact and today we had two Wilson's Warblers in full view on our walk.  Oh Birds!