Scaup Anyone?
Here are justttttt a few Scaup, mostly Greater with some Lesser, on the move while feeding on their way back to the north. Waterfowl are getting busy now, whether it is migration or courting, as our shores and waters are finally melting here in the Northeast. March means “move!” if you are a waterbird. Did you count them?
Read MoreBrown Pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis)
The Brown Pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis) is probably the most rare bird that my Shetland Sheepdog has on his actually seen Connecticut life list as one drifted over our heads, to his amazement, a few days after Superstorm Sandy at Stratford Point in Stratford, Connecticut in 2012. He has been around some cool rarities but this is a bird he really saw as he locked his eyes on the low and massive glider circling over us, flying back to the southwest and out of sight. This particular pelican was photographed in Florida, a place they would much rather be…especially now! Scott Kruitbosch...
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 MoreNorthern Gannet (Morus bassanus) record shot between gulls
Normally I crop the photos that I take and show to everyone here on RTPI’s website and social media, but in this case I liked the framing of the raw photograph. Can you see that dot in the middle? Even if this record shot were cropped you would not be able to see much more of the Northern Gannet (Morus bassanus) flying out over Long Island Sound from last weekend’s Christmas Bird Count in Stratford, Connecticut. These Ring-billed Gulls happened to be in flight all around me as the rare but increasingly recorded bird passed by offshore. It was one of two Gannets we saw while...
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...
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