RED-NECKED PHALAROPES at Bantam Lake

Red-necked Phalarope photo from www.fssbirding.org.uk

After a nearly a week of absolutely awful weather a major improvement occurred for a short while yesterday, 5/20. The day began mostly sunny and stayed nice until late afternoon, when thunderstorms rolled in. Migrant birds, which had been stalled since last Sunday by the combination of rain, drizzle, fog, and northeasterly winds staged a significant movement during the brief interlude of nice weather. I'll try to do a blog post next week about the other birds that poured through northwest Connecticut this day, but this posting is about the absolute best bird that we found. That is the Red-necked Phalarope. It is such a rare bird in Connecticut that I've only seen the species once before in my 42 years of birding. Amazingly, the first one was only a few miles away from White Memorial and only 3 days off from this sighting. That bird was at a pond at Anderson's Farm on Anderson Rd. in Morris on 5/23/2000. The weather pattern was very similar to that which occurred this week. I think that the shifting winds from northeast to southeast, coupled with rapidly deteriorating weather conditions over the Atlantic Ocean, drove (or blew) these birds inland. Three additional Red-necked Phalaropes were reported yesterday from Mansfield Hollow Reservoir in Windham. Our sighting consisted of 4 birds that I spotted from the tip of Pt. Folly as they flew up the length of Bantam Lake. Having only binoculars since I had left my spotting scope home under the assumption that this day's weather was also going to turn out to be awful, I initially had a hard time deciding what these birds were. They were too small to be terns or gulls, but too large to be swallows. Besides, they flew erratically like shorebirds often do. With a Spotted and a Solitary Sandpiper right in front of me for comparison I decided that these had to be shorebirds. Fortunately, they kept flying toward me. I yelled for Jim Kandefer, who was birding the Point with me, but had followed a wave of warblers up into the woods. He came down to the tip of the Point just as I got a good enough side view of these birds to decide that they were phalaropes. Even though Red and Wilson's Phalaropes are less likely to show up in southern New England in the spring than Red-necked, they still can't be ruled out. Since I had already gotten John Marshall heading up to Pt. Folly with my earlier report of a Bonaparte's Gull and 13 Blackpoll Warblers, I got him to speed our way even faster with my next call to him reporting phalaropes. Fortunately for us, he had his really nice Swarovski spotting scope with him. He arrived a few minutes later as the birds settled onto the water about 400' out from us. I put the scope on them, and we got excellent views which left no doubt that they were Red-necked. We also double checked oursleves with our field guides. One bird was an adult male in full breeding plumage. The other 3 appeared to be in various stages of molt from basic to alternate plumage, so we couldn't be sure if they were males or females. Oddly, it is the female phalaropes that are more colorful than the males. It is also the males that incubate the eggs and tend the young on their Arctic nesting grounds. As we watched these birds they flitted back and forth, flew around, spun around in circles on the water as this group of birds characteristically does when they are feeding, and sat and preened. After 20 minutes of enjoying the antics of these very rare birds a thunderstorm rolled in and chased us back to our vehicles. We then set-about the task of trying to notify as many birders as possible to the presence of these birds, both via the ctbirds listserve on the Internet and phone calls. To our knowledge only one other birder braved the thunderstorms to come out and see them this evening. All attempts by birders to find them today came up empty. They had probably continued their journey to the Arctic as soon as the storms passed by last night. It should also be noted that the only other sighting of this species on White Memorial property was on August 22, 1997. Jeff Feldmann found and photographed that bird while kayaking on Little Pond. Stormy weather preceded that sighting, too. The photograph still hangs on a wall in the Museum's upstairs bathroom. More than ever it is an incentive for me to spend less time in there and more time in the field looking for birds.

Solitary Sandpipers aren't always solitary

Spotted Sandpiper from http://www.discoverlife.org

Solitary Sandpiper from http://www.utahbirds.org/


Many of my previous posts have discussed the various groups of birds migrating back to and through White Memorial this spring. That includes shorebirds, which I've touched upon a couple of times. Now that we've passed the halfway point in May the shorebird migration will pick up, both in terms of diversity of species and the numbers of individuals moving through. Even though most people associate shorebirds with coastal, saltwater locations, there are inland places such as Bantam Lake and Little Pond in Litchfield, Great Pond in Simsbury, and Nod Brook in Avon which also appeal to shorebirds. If these birds become tired and/or hungry when they are passing over a lake or pond with a muddy shoreline, they are likely to drop in. They seem to be just as capable of finding and eating freshwater invertebrate animals as they would ones from saltwater environments. In fact, many shorebirds breed along bodies of freshwater in Canada. One of them, the Solitary Sandpiper, is pretty much exclusive to freshwater. It is one of the most likely species to be seen at inland water bodies in New England as it passes through northbound in April and May and southbound from late July through late September. Its name is somewhat of a misnomer, at least during migration time. While they aren't sociable, it is still possible to find quite a few of them in an area like Little Pond which offers them ideal feeding conditions when the water is low enough. We are currently experiencing these ideal conditions as floodwaters from the past month recede and expose mud inhabited by a host of invertebrate critters. That's why we encountered 14 Solitary Sandpipers, each, on 5/7 and 5/9 at Little Pond. E-bird flagged these as unusually high numbers, which I had to explain for them to accept. These birds weren't all concentrated on the mud bar at the Bantam River's inlet to Little Pond, as most shorebirds like Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs are. Instead, they were spread out rather evenly from this point down around to the River's outlet and then down the length of the River to a point below Sutton's Bridge on the Boardwalk. That's a distance of 1/4 mile. Each bird had its own foraging space. When one bird encroached into another bird's space, objections were voiced, and sometimes a chase ensued. Obviously, they would be solitary if they had a choice. By contrast, the Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs and Least Sandpipers all foraged together in relative peace at the mud bar, inlet, and outlet. Also found in this area was a Spotted Sandpiper. They prefer to remain somewhat solitary, too. Unlike these other shorebirds, though, this species will remain here to nest. Each summer we can usually find one pair at Little Pond, one or two pairs along the Bantam River as it heads down to Bantam Lake, and 2 pairs in the North Shore Marsh along Bantam Lake's North Bay. They nest on the ground among grasses and sedges, and forage for food along the muddy, sandy, and rocky shorelines. The Old Camp Townsend beach is an especially good place to see them from now through late September.

Confirming the presence and local distribution of porcupine (Erithizon dorsatum) on the White Memorial Foundation property, Litchfield and Morris, Litchfield County, USA.

This project is examining if a porcupine that was observed in the Five Pond vicinity this winter still resides in this area.  Porcupines have a limited distribution in Connecticut, inhabiting the Northwest and Northeast corners of the state.  Porcupines have been observed in Litchfield, as well as other towns in close proximity.  So far we have not observed a porcupine residing on the White Memorial Property until this past winter.  Porcupines have a strong salt drive in the spring and early summer months, therefore we want to use this behavior to aid in detecting this species during the summer.  We want to learn where/if this animal is living on the property and what habitat it is using.  We soaked pine 1 inch x 1 inch x 18 inch stakes in a salt water solution equivalent to sea water for 4 days then let them dry.  We placed these stakes in a grid around the winter homerange at 0.25 mile intervals.  I visited the stations today and replaced each with new salt-water soaked stakes.  I observed some chewing on the stakes, but it appears to have been by our squirrel species primarily.  We'll keep checking and replacing the stakes for a couple more months.

Check back here to stay up to date with this project!

Moose Sighting Update!

The moose was sighted last night (Thursday 5 May 2011) at approximately 9:00 p.m. on North Shore Rd.

Keep your eyes open while driving in the vicinity!

Migrant Fallout, Tuesday, 5/3/2011

Gray Catbird photo by Leo Kulinski, Jr.

from whalesandwolves.com


Red-winged Blackbird immature male

photo by Bob Stanowski


In ornithological terms a fallout is any mass downing of birds from their flight. It is usually caused by storms or other bad weather, but can also be caused by exhaustion or hunger. In the cases of the latter 2 causes they most often happen after birds have crossed a large expanse of water (like the Gulf of Mexico) or have made some other very long flight. Fallouts caused by storms or other foul weather can occur anywhere. Sometimes the weather doesn't even have to be all that bad to bring birds down. That was the case this past Monday night and Tuesday morning when conditions were cloudy and a little foggy with a couple of showers and some drizzle. It was unpleasant, but by no means severe. However, it may have been bad enough to bring a lot of birds down to the N. Shore Marsh and several of White Memorial's trails that run along or near this large wetland. It was also obvious that these birds were hungry, as I saw a lot of feeding activity. Lucky for them, fishflies and other insects were in abundance. I headed down there around 2 p.m. with the intention of conducting our first Breeding Bird Census of 2011. Even though the spring migration is still in full swing, some birds, like Red-winged Blackbirds and Swamp Sparrows, are establishing territories for the upcoming breeding season. Now that N. Shore Marsh is more of a shrubby hardwood swamp than a marsh it regularly hosts almost 50 species of birds as nesters. Back in the 1960's, '70's, and '80's when this wetland was mostly mixed herbaceous and shrub marsh it only hosted about 20 species as nesters. In this case, succession has been beneficial to birds. Many species have been added to this area, while very few have been lost. On Tuesday I found 66 species, many of which would never breed in a wetland. A lot of these were in trees and shrubs along the Lake, Windmill Hill, Ongley Pond, and Mill Field Trails as they run along the northern border of N. Shore Marsh. For species that do breed here it was difficult to tell which individual birds are likely to remain as summer residents and which were migrants that will move on northwards. That's why I try to conduct 10 censuses of each of our 5 Breeding Bird Census plots from early May through late July. This helps to weed-out the breeders from the migrants. Though I was tempted to publish a complete list of the birds that I found Tuesday, I decided that it would be unnecessary since readers can go to ebird.org to view it. Instead, shown below are the species that I found in higher-than-average numbers for early May and their average expected numbers in parentheses:

Northern Flicker - 12 (4); Great Crested Flycatcher - 10 (4); Eastern Kingbird - 14 (4); Blue-gray Gnatcatcher - 19 (6); Gray Catbird - 33 (16); Yellow Warbler - 69 (22); Common Yellowthroat - 23 (12); Song Sparrow 24 (8); Swamp Sparrow - 31 (24); Red-winged Blackbird - 88 (40); Common Grackle - 92 (30); Baltimore Oriole - 13 (3); American Goldfinch - 44 (10)


Some of the figures above also include birds seen at the Museum Feeders and in Ongley and Activity Fields. These birds regularly commute back and forth between these areas and N. Shore Marsh. Other birds seen in higher-than-average numbers around all of the above-mentioned areas combined included Black-capped Chickadees, Tufted Titmice, American Robins, Pine Warblers, and Black-and-White Warblers. These last 2 species were twice as abundant as usual. Some of the other species, like titmice, aren't generally considered to be migrants, but their recent upsurge in numbers might indicate otherwise. Some of the other species, like Red-winged Blackbirds and Common Grackles, stage much of their migration activity in March and April, but are obviously continuing to move through so far this month. With persistent lousy weather it is no surprise that the migration is prolonged this year, and that fallouts are occurring.

Moose Sighted on WMF Property Today!

Moose track found by Frank Errico on May 5, 2011,
300 meters southwest of  junction S. R. 202 and Butternut Brook,
Litchfield, Litchfield Co., CT, USA (scale equals 6 inches or 15.2 cm long).
Photo By: James Fischer


A moose was observed crossing S.R. 202 at the junction with Butternut Brook moving southwesterly (downstream) at 7:45 a.m.

Moose are recolonizing the state of Connecticut, after at least a century since Europeans extirpated the populations of Southern New England.  Connecticut's European settlers altered habitats and harvested the populations with little regard for sustaining the population.  In the years since, forests now occupy most of the landscape where farms once dominated and laws have been created that sustain moose populations  by regulating harvests throughout the New England Region.  The collaboration between government agencies assures moose can disperse from other areas to re-colonize the state of Connecticut and areas where they had been observed historically.  

Amphibian Cover-Board Experiment Monthly Check

Redback Salamander (Plethodon cinereus) observed under a cover-board.
This experiment compares softwood versus hardwood cover-boards to observe if there is a significant difference between the detection rates of amphibian species inhabiting our temperate forests.  Redback Salamander (Plethodon cinereus) and Red Eft juvenile form of the Red-spotted Newt (Notophthalmus viridescens) comprise the bulk of the amphibian species we observe in our study site.  We check the boards once a month when the weather conditions meet a specific set of criteria which insures the bulk of animals are found under the boards rather than wandering throughout the study area.  This experiment began two years ago and we are entering into our third season.  We hope to publish the results soon, but we observed 56 Redback salamanders under the softwood cover-boards and 41 under the hardwood cover-boards.  Only 2 Red Efts were found under the softwood boards while 5 were observed under the hardwood boards.  Considering that we had freezing temperatures most nights only a few weeks ago, these observations suggest that we have quite a few animals in our study site.  Check back to hear more about our progress with this experiment.

Where to Find Mid-Spring Migrant Birds at White Memorial

Savannah Sparrow photo by Paul Fusco

Greater Yellowlegs photo by Paul Fusco

A question was asked recently about the locations of our bird sightings during the spring migration at White Memorial. The person asking the question wondered why so many of the sightings were around the "Main Area" and Little Pond. The answer is simple, with 3 reasons. First, these places are convenient to get to, especially for us staff members who have other duties to perform around the Museum, which is at the center of the "Main Area". Second, they are generally easy to walk around and offer relatively easy viewing of birds. The "Main Area" consists of the lawns around the Museum, White Hall Rd. and its side driveways, Ongley, Activity, Carriage House, and Mill Fields, and Lake, Ongley Pond, Mill Field, and Interpretive Trails, and N. Shore and Pike Marshes. The Little Pond area consists of the Pond, itself, associated marshes, the primary trail leading in from White's Woods Rd. through the Old Sewer Beds, the secondary trail leading in from White's Woods Rd. along Moulthrop Brook, the boardwalk connector leading in from South Lake St., and the boardwalk around Little Pond. Third, these areas include grassy, mixed herbaceous, and shrubby fields, shrubby and wooded edges, mixed hardwood, hemlock/hardwood, white pine/hardwood, white pine/hemlock, and white pine forests, cattail, mixed herbaceous, and shrubby marshes, shrubby hardwood swamps, hardwood swamps, ponds, and the Bantam River for habitats. This is one heck of a mix of habitats in a relatively small geographic area, and they consistently prove themselves to be extremely attractive to migrant birds. They offer everything birds need in terms of food, water, and shelter. It also helps that we provide bird feeders at the Museum and try to encourage native berry, seed, and nut producing vegetation to grow around this area. It's only 3 days into the month of May and we've already seen or heard 68 species of birds on the Property with all of them occurring around the "Main Area" or Little Pond. These include the Greater Yellowlegs and Savannah Sparrow shown in the accompanying photos. Other neat birds found around here since the last blog post include Black Vulture, Merlin, American Woodcock, Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Wood Thrush, Nashville, Magnolia, Black-throated Blue, Black-throated Green, Blackburnian, and Prairie Warblers, Northern Parula, and American Redstart. These birds were encountered at all times of the day, but the most productive times were before 11 a.m. and after 5 p.m. This is the best time of the year to see birds, so come out to White Memorial and enjoy them; and please remember to post your sightings on ebird.org.