Grasshopper Sparrow
Here’s another winter treat from earlier this week – a Grasshopper Sparrow! This bird should have been spending its holidays wintering in the southern U.S. or Central America. However, our friend Paul Fusco spotted this little one feeding in open grass along a trail. This was before the major snowfall on Thursday, and conditions have only worsened. We put some seed out for it that the bird was enjoying at the time. Hopefully it kept moving south before the latest storm and found refuge in other locations like this. Grasshopper Sparrows are another grasslands species with a...
Read MoreInjured Rusty Blackbird
I am a huge fan of the Rusty Blackbird (Euphagus carolinus), something you may have learned by reading my posts over the last few years here at RTPI. Beyond fandom I am also a member of the International Rusty Blackbird Working Group and help to coordinate spring migration blitzes to record the species with birders and the public to learn more about vital aspects of their biology in an attempt to save one of the fastest declining birds on the continent. October is a great time to spot them heading south for the winter in wooded wetlands, marshes, ponds and agricultural areas. They may be...
Read MoreGrassland Migrants
Yesterday I was able to enjoy and photograph a couple of uncommon grassland birds for us in the Northeast – the Dickcissel (Spiza americana) and the Grasshopper Sparrow (Ammodramus savannarum). Both of these species had been spotted at Stratford Point where they are almost annual visitors, with Dickcissels typically stopping over in the fall and Grasshopper Sparrows being seen sometimes in both spring and autumn. I decided to take a walk around the site with my friend and great birder Tom Murray as we were giving the sparrows some space in hopes the unseen Grasshopper would pop back...
Read MoreYellow Warbler
One benefit from the scorching and inclement weather of the past week was the slow passage of a weak cold front (ha ha, “cold”) that brought us some actually conducive avian migratory conditions. Think about it…when was the last time before this recent August turbulence that we in the Northeast had any winds out of the north? We have had endless southerly or westerly-influenced flows bringing heat, humidity and then thunderstorms and heavy rain, all the opposite of what the birds are looking for to migrate south in this time of year. We are now in mid-August and any time...
Read MoreNoble Proctor BioBlitz Challenge at Hammonasset Tomorrow
Noble Proctor BioBlitz Challenge at Hammonasset on May 14, 2016 Please join family, friends, colleagues and students for a celebration of Noble Proctor’s life in the form of a BioBlitz Challenge at Hammonasset Beach State Park in Madison, Connecticut on Saturday, May 14, 2016 from 8AM to sunset. Our headquarters for the BioBlitz will be at the pavilion near Willard’s Island. A BioBlitz is a race to find every species of life possible – birds, mammals, plants, insects, and more. We will form teams to search the park and record all the species we can discover. At 1:00 PM, we will come together...
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