Cemetery Pond is Really Good, Too!

Black-crowned Night-Heron adult

from www.commons.wikimedia.org

Black-crowned Night Heron immature

from http://www.commons.wikimedia.org/

Wood Duck photo by Paul Fusco

from http://www.paulfuscowildlifephotography.com/

Lesser Yellowlegs photo from

http://www.commons.wikimedia.org/

Greater Yellowlegs photo by Paul Fusco

from http://www.paulfuscowildlifephotography.com/

The last two postings raved about Little Pond and all of the birds that we've seen out there in the past 10 days. However, Cemetery Pond can be very productive, too, especially from mid-July through late October. Throughout most of this time Wood Ducks are very numerous. This is a very important place for hens to bring their broods of young in July and August to feed on an abundance of zooplankton, and for adults to molt to their feathers from late July through early September. It is also a very important place for migrants to stop and feed. The highlights there this week, along with the Wood Ducks (39 last evening), were an adult and immature Black-crowned Night-Heron found by Mike Doyle on Saturday, 7/31, and seen again by Fran Zygmont and myself last evening, and as many as 8 Green Herons there last evening. These can all be seen fairly well with binoculars. The shorebirds are most often seen feeding in the mud on the north side of the pond where the Phragmites has been exterminated. They really like this open expanse. Last evening we saw 3 Greater Yellowlegs, 7 Lesser Yellowlegs, and 4 Killdeer feeding in this patch. Some of the other birds seen last evening were a Great Blue Heron, a Hairy Woodpecker, a Willow Flycatcher with 2 fledglings, 6 adult and 5 fledgling Eastern Kingbirds, 90 Barn Swallows heading in to roost in the Cattails around the Pond, 5 Marsh Wrens singing from these Cattails, 120 American Robins heading in to roost in the Woods north of the Pond, and 16 Cedar Waxwings. These birds, along with all of the usual common species, made for a list of 37 species seen and/or heard at this "hot spot" from 7:20 until 8:40 p.m. yesterday. And for those readers who don't know where Cemetery Pond is, it is located at the intersection of White's Woods Rd. and Constitution Way in Litchfield. Both streets afford a fair amount of safe parking, but one does need to be on the lookout for speeding traffic at all times while walking or standing along the sides of these streets. This pond is also across the street (White's Woods Rd.) from St. Anthony's Cemetery, which is another good birding spot, and is one of our Cerceris Wasp monitoring locations.