Lighthouse Lightning
We really are saying goodbye to the summertime now and hello again to some more dry conditions (unfortunately) in the Northeast. Stratford Point had a good run of thunderstorms for a week or so in mid-August, but even these photos show a storm that is over Long Island Sound and ended up providing a very light shower for literally a minute or two. Nevertheless, the pink explosions against the blue clouds all lit by the setting sun provided a pretty scene. I was also able to capture one of the few cloud to ground lightning strikes on the Sound to the east of the Stratford Point Light. Parts of...
Read MoreYellow Warbler
One benefit from the scorching and inclement weather of the past week was the slow passage of a weak cold front (ha ha, “cold”) that brought us some actually conducive avian migratory conditions. Think about it…when was the last time before this recent August turbulence that we in the Northeast had any winds out of the north? We have had endless southerly or westerly-influenced flows bringing heat, humidity and then thunderstorms and heavy rain, all the opposite of what the birds are looking for to migrate south in this time of year. We are now in mid-August and any time...
Read MoreSevere Thunderstorms
I spent most of yesterday at Stratford Point, arriving at the tail end of the Connecticut Ornithological Association Shorebird Identification Seminar as the group wrapped up a walk and moved indoors. It was a dangerously hot day with an excessive heat warning and unbelievable tropical-feeling dew points. We decided to bring the Bridgeport WildLife Guards to the office instead of the beach, and that is how the rest of my day went. I left in the late afternoon but had to return in the evening as well-timed and positioned thunderstorms exploded to our west. I hopped in my Jeep for the office...
Read MoreSpicebush Swallowtail (Papilio troilus)
I took these Spicebush Swallowtail (Papilio troilus) photos last Friday evening after the opening of Stratford Point’s new water garden while the butterfly was being battered by gusty winds off the water. It was appropriately trying to feed in the garden itself but the seabreeze pushed it around to the other side of the building and some of the other gardens a little more out of the wind. Catching a drink while you’re being tossed about by those big sails is not easy, and it ended up fluttering to keep itself steady in the wind at times. The species is a daily sighting now among...
Read MoreRough-legged Hawk
This Rough-legged Hawk put on a brief but thrilling show for me today, facing into the wind to help it hover while scanning the land below for any small mammal prey. The wind was particularly strong thanks to the major storm currently impacting the Northeast region. Whichever one of the hawk’s eyes that was being battered by the wind the most was often covered by its nictitating membrane. This third eyelid is almost like wearing a pair of sunglasses for the raptor in that it can still see while the eye is more protected than it would be otherwise. It was also keeping the eye moist with...
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