White Ibis (Eudocimus albus)
As we remain stuck in the heart of this constant winter weather, with more record lows on the way, we nevertheless are looking towards spring despite the current conditions. Florida’s western shore, specifically Bradenton, reflects a nonstop warm season that is still to come for the rest of us in 2015. Twan took a lot of sensational shots of birds there last week, and we will share them with you now to begin to get us in the mood for March and the inevitable (even if it doesn’t feel like it!) warm-up. Here are some gorgeous White Ibis (Eudocimus albus) photos, a long-legged wader...
Read MoreShare Connecticut eBird Checklists!
Do you live in Connecticut or have you visited the Nutmeg state to bird thus far in 2015? If you entered your sightings into eBird and they included ANY shorebirds, terns, or long-legged waders like this Snowy Egret please share your eBird checklists with us at the Audubon Alliance for Coastal Waterbirds using the eBird share function and our email address: ctwaterbirds@gmail.com. This will allow us to learn more about our various target species in multiple ways including habitat and site selection, abundance, distribution, migratory, wintering, and breeding ecology and more. These...
Read MoreSnowy Egret Handouts?
Someone please tell this Snowy Egret that it is not a gull nor a pelican…no handouts! If you are going to spend the winter in New England I suppose you have to get creative when it comes to finding easy meals. Yes, I am kidding, it was not begging or being fed…but I do think it was thinking about it as vehicles drove up and a frenzy of gulls went after some snacks. Scott Kruitbosch Conservation & Outreach Coordinator
Read MoreSnowy Egret in December
I photographed this Snowy Egret last weekend in Stratford, Connecticut, as part of a Christmas Bird Count. It is one of only several recorded anywhere in the state in the last few decades during a CBC period. Climate change certainly has helped many new species pop up on these late autumn/early winter December days when they would normally be long gone to our south. I cannot blame the climate fully when accounting for this long-legged wader because while it appears to be perched at the edge of a coastal river or stream any waterbird would love, the water here is actually the outflow from a...
Read MoreGreat Egret roost
What is this, November in Florida? Nope, I assure you it is New England. Here we have a distant shot featuring four of six Great Egrets that were present in a roost on a sunny November day in Connecticut. I did not want to disturb or flush them from this quiet, isolated area and stayed far away in cover. Waterbirds like this can tough it out in Connecticut thanks to our changing climate. As you can see quite literally it is not simply an aberrant bird or two. Scott Kruitbosch Conservation & Outreach Coordinator
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