My World: Birds Are Everywhwere

Green Heron on the Airline Trail 6-29-09

Colchester, CT

In My World Birds are Everywhere and I am always counting them. It's a strange hobby for a person who has always hated math and numbers to be so obsessed with counting birds, but I have always loved birds. From my earliest memories I was aware of birds. Robins, blue jays and Baltimore Orioles are part of my childhood memories. I can remember looking up bird species in my grandfather's bird guide or in the pages of our family encyclopedia.

Gambel's Quail chicks 6-15-09 Sycamore Canyon

On the morning before I left for Connecticut this family of newly hatched Gambel's quail scurried into my yard. They had to be the smallest babies I had ever seen for they were little bigger than the pea gravel they scampered over and they seem more interested in sitting down and taking a nap than trying to feed with their parents. To me they looked like marbles with legs, or living popcorn. There were so many of them that I could barely keep track of them but my best guess is that there were at least 14 of them!

Chipping Sparrow 6-17-09 Lake Hayward, CT

One of the first birds I saw upon awakening in Connecticut was this cute little chipping sparrow beneath the feeder at my brother's cottage in the woods around Lake Hayward.

Blue jay at feeder 6-17-09

I think he was eating the spillage from this greedy guy!

Worm Eating Warbler 6-17-09 Lake Hayward, CT

A walk towards the lake revealed a worm eating warbler, my first for CT and my second since first seeing one in West Virginia at the New River Birding Festival earlier this year.

Downy Woodpecker 6-17-09

Down along the beach I found this cute little Downy clinging to a weathered fence.

Barn Swallow 6-17-09 Bacon Academy fields.

I also watched birds while my siblings and nephew practiced for the Adams Road Race on the track at Bacon Academy in Colchester. I counted 16 species of birds in and around the fields there, because Birds Are Everywhere.

Female Towhee with nesting material in Inwood Hill Park,

New York, NY 6-21-09.

Even in New York City there are birds. Central park is now well known for the many species of birds that pass through during migration or live there year round, but at the far north end of the city lies a little known place called Inwood Hill Park. Though the day was mostly gray with showers, we were able to find this female Eastern towhee building a nest near the ground at the edge of a clearing.

Geese and Garbage in the Hudson River 6-21-09

Down by the Hudson River at the Dyckman St. Pier we watched a family of Canada geese swimming with tires, the refuse from our human lives. Geese get a bad rap for the droppings they leave behind that can pollute our lakes and beaches but what about the pollution they have to live with every day? I suspect their dropping will be gone long before this tire is.

An Ovenbird throwing its voice at the sky 6-22-09

Back in Colchester I found this little ovenbird sitting on the wires outside my sister's house. It sang for all it was worth and I enjoyed its song.

Great Blue heron 6-24-09 Lion's Pond, Colchester, CT

The morning after the Adams Road Race I was up early counting birds again. I drove up to the Lion's Pond on Hall's Hill Road. This area has always been a successful place for me to count birds. When I was young we called it Steg's pond and we ice skated here in the winter. When I showed these pictures to my mother she told me that my Grandfather was in the Lion's Club and he was part of the group that developed this pond as a park for the town. He probably never imagined I would be here so many years later watching birds. Neither did I for that matter, but here I am, because Birds are Everywhere.

Song sparrow 6-24-09 Lake Hayward

I left the Lion's Pond and stopped by Dunkin Donuts for some hazelnut coffee and donuts to go. From there I drove out to Lake Hayward and stopped at the boat launch to drink my coffee, eat my donuts, and watch birds. (I quickly discovered that it's awfully hard to focus your binoculars when you have coffe of a donut in hand!) Here I found another blue heron, some woodpeckers, blue jays and song sparrows. I hoped to find something new and wonderful but I saw the same old birds I had already seen, but I didn't mind, because I love the birds. Though much of the lake is private, I believe the boat launch is a public place and you can watch birds here. There is a porta-pottie, should the need arise.

From the boat launch I continued around the lake stopping at all three beaches. Since my brother owns a cottage out here, my mother has a parking pass, which I used. This cardinal mother and chick barely even noticed me as she fed her young on a wire by the beach.

Double-crested cormorant 6-24-09 Lake Hayward

While out on the water this cormorant tried to dry its wings. With a steady drizzle falling, I did not give it much hope of that happening!

Cedar Waxwings 6-22-09 Colchester, CT

It seems that everywhere I went this year there were cedar waxwings. I counted them in the center of town. I counted them at Bacon Academy. I counted them at Lake Hayward and at my sister's house. Just about every bird count I submitted to eBird on this trip had cedar waxwings on it. I counted them at the rest area in New Hampshire and at various locations in Maine. It will be interesting to see if this is part of an irruption, for I have seen more cedar waxwings in these two weeks than I have ever seen in my whole life!

Birds in Maine

Hairy Woodpecker at Mantle Lake Park, Presque Isle, ME 6-26-09

Yellow warbler at Bicentennial Park along the Presque Isle Stream

6-26-09

Herring Gull at Falmouth Town Landing 6-29-09

Black duck on driftwood, Mackworth Island Causeway 6-29-09

Scarlett Tanager Windham Rd, Colchester, CT 6-30-09

On the next to my last day in Colchester I drove up a country road I know and stopped by yet another pond I used to ice skate on. It was privately owned then and it is privately owned now. We knew it as Gregory's pond, though that owner is long since gone. Here in the thick woods I found a few species of birds I had not seen anywhere else, including a scarlet tanager, and 5 American Redstarts. I thought these were the final icing on my Connecticut list for this year until the next day when I was sitting on the veranda at my mother's house. I kept hearing this funny sounding crow outside. I had heard it the day before and in other locations. I finally decided to investigate the sound and after researching it on the All About Birds web page I discovered I was listening to a fish crow! The only way to tell the difference between an American crow and a fish crow is by voice, so, with its ID confirmed, I added my final bird to my Connecticut list for the year. And, since birds are everywhere, I counted birds all along the highway while my mother drove me to the airport for a late afternoon flight. It was after 10 PM when I finally arrived home in Sycamore Canyon and Gus and I fell right into bed exhausted. So much had happened so fast that I felt like it was all a dream, especially when I opened the shutters the next morning to discover...

Gambel's Quail chicks 7-2-09!

(Did I really ever leave?)

All photos click to enlarge. Please be sure to visit MY World Tuesday's website to visit other parts of this wonderful world and who knows, you might even find some other birds, because....

Birds Are Everywhere!

In the end I counted 62 species of birds in Connecticut this year, 49 species in Maine and 29 species in New York. The constant rain put a severe damper on bird watching and bird photography but I was able to get a few decent shots.