Harlequin Duck
Come on, this is getting ridiculous – Harley, our drake Harlequin Duck at Stratford Point, looks absolutely stupendous with his nearly completed beautiful blue plumage. The blue water really brings out his tones even more. Please stay with us for the winter, Harley! We think he will be off to find a hen, or at least some other members of his own species, once his molt is complete, but we have our fingers crossed that he has enjoyed his time with us and may consider sticking around. In all seriousness a bird like this is an inspirational one in that it brings in all sorts of non-birders...
Read MoreParasitic Jaeger
Here are a couple greats photos of a Parasitic Jaeger (Stercorarius parasiticus) via our friend, superb birder and expert naturalist Frank Mantlik as seen from Stratford Point a couple of weeks ago. Long Island Sound has been alive with everything from humpback whale sightings to various uncommon or rare fish, turtles and birds. This Parasitic Jaeger looks like an intermediate morph juvenile, and you can see it chasing a juvenile Laughing Gull in one of the photos. We observed this behavior from at least a few individual Parasitic Jaegers over several days during feeding frenzies involving...
Read MoreHarley the Duck
We use the name “Harley” for this continuing drake Harlequin Duck at Stratford Point, and here is a daily progress shot of Harley’s plumage from several hours ago. He’s matching the blue waves more and more!
Read MoreDrake Harlequin Duck Swimming
Here is our pal the drake Harlequin Duck (Histrionicus histrionicus) making steady progress molting into his beautiful blue plumage. The species loves rocky, surf-battered coastal shores like ours here at Stratford Point in Stratford, Connecticut, and you can see it eagerly and adeptly riding the waves right at the tip of the point in between feeding. Growing in so many new feathers takes a lot of energy. It also means that a lot of maintenance has to be done, and he preens almost endlessly when he is not feeding or swimming. This growth reduces his flight skill and stamina, and migrating...
Read MoreStratford Point in September
Here is the end of summer at Stratford Point, looking west towards the lighthouse and out into Long Island Sound near sunset. It was a hot, dry and extremely busy season, and a very successful one for some of our waterbirds including the Piping Plover and American Oystercatcher as the former may have neared the all-time record for fledged birds that we set only last year at 116! Our work in the Audubon Alliance for Coastal Waterbirds undoubtedly did help an all-time record number of Piping Plover pairs attempt to nest in 2015. We will have more information on the results of our spectacularly...
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