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!
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| 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.
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| Bobolink |
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| 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.
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| 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!
