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Posts Tagged "sand"

Snow Buntings

Posted on Nov 18, 2015

Snow Buntings

It is early enough in the avian wintering season that both the earth and the birds – in this case, Snow Buntings (Plectrophenax nivalis) – are brown. We do not have a solid snow cover yet, and it is amazing how well this plumage is designed to help them blend in to the ground. The Snow Bunting camouflage looks like brown grass and, somehow, a rocky, sandy and rough earth, with their wings showing off the darker pattern of what the tundra and short grasslands look like now. Notice how well these birds keep themselves just off the surface even while engaged in feeding, hiding their...

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Long Beach Down, Sandy/Morse Up

Posted on Aug 17, 2015

Long Beach Down, Sandy/Morse Up

Here are a few more photos of the string fencing and signage removal effort last week by us at the Audubon Alliance for Coastal Waterbirds and the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. Thank you to those of you who joined us! We really need more assistance this Thursday, August 20th at 10:00AM at Sandy/Morse Points in West Haven. Any and all volunteers are greatly appreciated! It is one of the best sites in the entire state for birds in August, and you can expect to see a lot of wonderful shorebirds, terns and other migrants while we are there. Assisting not only...

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Walking Long Beach

Posted on Aug 15, 2015

Walking Long Beach

Here are four quick iPhone photos that I took yesterday while walking the length of Stratford’s Long Beach all the way to Bridgeport’s Pleasure Beach during string fencing and signage removal operations with the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection and Audubon Connecticut, our partners in the Audubon Alliance for Coastal Waterbirds. I did not haul my camera gear a half mile plus down the beach because we were doing physical labor, pulling up wooden stakes and then carrying them back to the parking lot. While walking all the way out I saw a Gatorade bottle...

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Banded American Oystercatcher Discovered

Posted on Feb 27, 2015

Banded American Oystercatcher Discovered

Roger Tory Peterson Institute of Natural History President Twan Leenders recently returned from Bradenton, Florida where he was attending RTPI board meetings. In between sessions he made sure to find an hour or two for some bird surveys, especially targeting species relevant to active RTPI conservation projects. Our work as a partner in the Audubon Alliance for Coastal Waterbirds has us focused on the terns, long-legged waders and threatened shorebirds like the American Oystercatcher seen here. Did you happen to notice the silver federal band on the bird’s right leg? This would be very...

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Birds Blending In

Posted on Feb 16, 2015

Birds Blending In

Here we have the backs of two different bird species – can you identify them? I have posted them both recently as opportunistic winter birds, and this Horned Lark in a roadway and Savannah Sparrow in grasses have another thing in common here with wonderful camouflage working in two very different situations. It cracked me up how well the Lark blended in to the snow, dirt, salt and sand in the road, even in the bright sunlight. While that is not evolution it certainly worked out well. Scott Kruitbosch Conservation & Outreach Coordinator

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