July Sunset
Here are a couple sunset photos from last night at Stratford Point as we were on duty providing some fireworks coverage here in Stratford, Milford and West Haven for the Audubon Alliance for Coastal Waterbirds. You can see the reef balls in the distance along our dune and spartina growth in the intertidal zone. We had a couple Black-crowned Night-Heron visitors appropriately join us just after darkness fell on the site. Scott Kruitbosch Conservation & Outreach Coordinator
Read MoreSnowy Squinting
Hey, if you were staring into the sun, you would be squinting your eyes, right? It’s no different for a Snowy Owl with those big yellow eyes. No, this bird was not trying to nap, it was just doing what comes naturally. This is the same individual as Monday’s posting and was from the same day, too. This bird has been all over the coast of Stratford and Milford, Connecticut, being very active and enjoying the varied and favorable pockets of habitat. Long Island Sound has a lot of appeal to the species, and I wonder what it is doing at night with all of the ducks we have pouring...
Read MoreSnowy Owl
A Snowy Owl joined us at Stratford Point today after showing up in neighboring Milford, Connecticut yesterday. The species is annual at Stratford Point with the coastal grasslands property, the mouth of the Houstatonic River, the Stewart B. McKinney National Wildlife Refuge and the mile-long Long Beach and Pleasure Beach offering various nearby feeding and resting areas. It is a very attractive section of the Atlantic Coast for Snowys on the move or looking for a place to spend a chunk of their winter. Hoping to keep it around all day (and we were successful!) I kept the picture-taking to a...
Read MoreSnowy Owl in Flight
Let’s be honest – this winter has been absolutely brutal! Whether we want to blame this continuous weather pattern on climate change or not, this is not what the climate is supposed to feel like in mid to late February. As the sun keeps rising temperatures keep plummeting with record low minimums at night and record low maximums during the day. The snow keeps coming, and more will be coming this weekend. However, the Snowy Owls have been a bit tougher to find this year than last. Nevertheless, there are many individuals spending their season here in our neighborhoods, which look...
Read MoreAmerican Tree Sparrow
The American Tree Sparrow is one of those birds that were named differently than they probably should have been. You will most often find them outside of a tree, whether it is on the ground in open areas such as short grasses, dunes, trails, and beaches or in shrubbery and other smaller ground vegetation. This individual is from a beach long before snow and ice covered it this winter. Do you have any visiting your bird feeders this year?
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