Birdy Corner = Great Bird

On Wednesday while driving onto campus I was running a little later than usual and was planning on just heading straight up to my building without taking my usual diversion around grounds.  One corner of one of the parking lots is an edge habitat and lawn, we refer to it as the "Sparrow Nook".  I noticed some decent activity, a migrating flock of American Robins, congregating Brown-headed Cowbirds with European Starlings mixed in, and a few Blue Jays poking around as well.  The activity was too much to just drive by.

I noticed something sparrowy and once I had binoculars out was fairly perplexed...  yes it was a sparrow but one that I hadn't seen before.  With no camera and no field guide, I tried to pick out all the features I could and headed up to my building to do some quick internet research.  I couldn't quite pin down the species before my coworker came in and I tried giving her details that maybe she could ID.  Finally, I just dragged us both out there with a point and shoot camera with a 20x optical zoom. 

We had come up with a tentative ID of Lark Sparrow and with some more internet research it was confirmed.  Sue (my coworker) will probably blog some info about the species on our work blog HERE.  The quick story is that Lark Sparrows are vagrants in Connecticut and only a couple show up in CT every year if that.  Oh and it was a LIFE BIRD for me.  Enjoy the grainy photos!

A Little Off Course

Emails came over the listservs all day of an American Avocet in Stratford, CT near the Birdseye Boat Ramp.  In need of some species for my state challenge and in need of some gym time, I did a quick workout after work and with plenty of light left, I made my way to the boat ramp.  The last email came in at 5:50pm that the bird was still sitting on a jetty near the boat ramp. 

Tough looking into the sun but the Avocet is way in the back.

Yup, a DIGIBINNED CELL PHONE picture.

I managed to find the bird right away, sitting on the jetty just as stated.  An Avocet had been first sighted on Monday, I'm guessing this is the same bird.  No surprise it was far out, easy to quickly pick up with binoculars, not so great to photograph with a cell phone.  American Avocets breed throughout much of the west and can be found year round on the West Coast.  They winter in Florida and according to The Sibley guide can be found up through North Carolina during migration.  This one got a little off track. 

'record shot'- zoom from the cell phone.

Species Spotlight: White-breasted Nuthatch

Squirrel waiting his turn

Today I made the decision to every now and then post on a specific species with a few little bits of info.  It seems only fitting that I start with a member of the group that I am proud to say, I have seen every species that occurs in the U.S.  There are 4 nuthatch species in the U.S. and I have seen them all.  Since 50% of them (aka. 2 species) occur in Connecticut I guess it makes for a good start.  There is one other species in the Southeast (the Brown-headed Nuthatch) that is associated with Pitch Pine forests and one on the West Coast, the Pygmy Nuthatch. 

W-b Nuthatch showing off by walking down the tree.

The White-breasted Nuthatch is the more common species found in Connecticut and will readily come in to bird feeders.  In the field, they are most easily identified by their behavior of clinging to tree trunks and are the only bird species that will 'climb' down a tree trunk head-first. 

White-breasted Nuthatch

They are cavity nesters and have one brood per year with 5 to 9 eggs.  For more information see the All About Birds page on this species.  I consider this species one of the three... The White-breasted Nuthatch along with Black-capped  Chickadees and Tufted Titmouse are known to stick together in foraging packs especially during the winter.  It's always a good idea to look at tree trunks when you have a group of the other species in a small flock. 

White-breasted Nuthatch with seed.

A Little Movement

A little cheating post here since I don't have time or inclination to go find any pictures...  Ok maybe I'll put one in.  Anyway, I promise I'll get a few pics up from my trip although over all it was pretty unbirdy.  BUT it's the start of Hawk Watch season here in CT and I am super excited.  I went out to my secret lunch spot today, binoculars at the ready, and had our first nice little push of raptors.  In about 10 minutes there were around 3 Red-tailed Hawks (besides our 2 resident birds also out), at least 1 Red-shouldered Hawk, 3 Osprey, and 1 Sharp-shinned Hawk.  It got pretty quiet after that, more Red-tailed action but probably just our local two. 

Speaking of our local birds.... they could use a good molt.  Both birds are missing numerous feathers and look pretty ratty. 

Here's an old picture of an Osprey.

Nothing New

Just getting excited to get over to France and start birding.  This picture on Wiki by Martin Mecnarowski was just way too cute to pass up.  Hopefully this is one species I'll have a chance of seeing, the Bearded Reedling.  It looks like a Tit but is apparently more closely related to larks. 

Here's my book!  Organized a bit differently than the standard US field guides so I added some quick tabs to easily get to the group I am looking for.  22 Tabs.... that's not a lot or anything. *eyeroll*  There's also my quick eBird list for Brittany aka. Bretagne!

Relapse

Before heading to Europe I realized that I have been slacking on keeping my CT year list up to date!  In case you forgot (or dont read my blog all the time), I'm challenging my friend Heather in Oregon to a birding challenge.  Who will get the most species in there respective state for the year. 

My list, over there on the right had been hanging out at 60 species even though I have been out, I swear!  Well, before I get carried away with all the European birds I'm about to see and hopefully blog about, I wanted to update my CT bird list!!!  yup I'm up to about 160 species.  That's probably about 100 species under what's been seen in the state so far.  I'll have to start chasing harder when I get back to CT. 

France 2012 Prep



Chartes Cathedral- wiki photo



In a few days I will be setting foot in France for the first time in my life.  A small group of friends and myself have decided to go see the Olympics in London this year and a stop in France at a friends family house will take up the first week of our trip.  After a quick stop in Chartres to see the Tour de France, we will head further west out to Brittany.  The exact town we are staying in is still beyond my knowledge but the general area will be near Quimper. 

We have no set plans for our time in Bretagne (Brittany) and I plan on doing some birding!  and maybe some blogging.  This is my first time going to Europe with a pair of binoculars and the time set aside to do some birding.  My Christmas present this year was a copy of the Birds of Europe and after a few months of lazy studying I put the book down.  Now with days to go I am kicking myself for not putting in more effort but here illustrates my true nature of being a bird watcher/ observer as opposed to a true tick-er. 

To maximize my study time ( I still have packing to do of course), I have turned to eBird for some help.  The birding observations in this area of France are very limited, from what I can poke through it looks like there are maybe 5 checklists in total for the 50 mile radius of Quimper.  At least one of those is an older checklist from 1980 and the others seem to be quick lists.  Still it's enough to use the "Explore Data" feature and churn out the following bar chart for the months of July and August. 

My plan is to use this condensed list of 135 species to cram in the next few days and on the 6-hour flight.  With any luck, I will come home with LOTS of pictures, a few interesting stories, and some more data to feed into eBird.  More data will not only give some more info as to what is actually in the area but may be a baseline for future species expansions and declines.  At the very least it will give someone else making a trip to the area a better idea of what birds they may encounter on their trip.  Wish me luck!