Monthly Volunteer Meeting -- March 2012

Timberdoodle Evening Air Show

We were treated to an airshow at our Monthly Volunteer Meeting.  American Woodcock were performing their springtime ritual in hopes of attracting a mate in the Saw Mill Field.  Nearby we also heard several Northern Leopard Frogs calling in the North Shore Marsh vicinity of Bantam Lake and River.  A real treat for our volunteers, who well deserve it to say the least!

Wildlife Management and Inventorying Activities, 4/14/11

Red-tailed Hawk photo by Leo Kulinski, Jr.

from whalesandwolves.com Sharp-shinned Hawk photo by Darlene Knox Eastern Bluebird photo by Bob Stanowski

Bluebird nest box photo by Dave Rosgen

Yesterday, 4/14/11, Volunteers John Eykelhoff, Jim Kandefer, and Bob Stanowski assisted me with bluebird nest box maintenance and monitoring and a wide variety of wildlife surveying. Most of the time this type of field work is a case of multi-tasking. While working on the bluebird boxes we frequently scanned the skies for raptors, looked around the fields and edges for other birds and mammals, and listened for any birds or frogs than might be calling. Since it was a nice, sunny, warm day there was a constant concert of bird and frog sounds to enjoy. This included our first Northern Leopard Frogs of the season at the Litchfield Town Beach and in the Icehouse Marsh. Our first Common Snapping Turtles of the year also appeared today. Gerri Griswold and Lee Cook saw a huge one moving very slowly in the Bantam River and I saw a big one sticking its head out of Bantam Lake's N. Bay. Our third first-of-the-year animal found this day was a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher behind the Campground Store. Hawk migration activity was very good, with the best viewing being from the Bantam River Field. While replacing a rotted wooden bluebird box pole with a new metal one and replacing a cracked bluebird box front door we saw 3 Ospreys, a Sharp-shinned Hawk, and a Broad-winged Hawk fly over. Turkey Vultures and the resident pair of Red-tailed Hawks were also circling around overhead. These, and 3 other pairs of Red-tails seen elsewhere this day, were engaged in courtship activity. Migrant songbirds seen included Palm and Yellow-rumped Warblers. Eastern Bluebirds were seen at 4 nest box locations, and one of the boxes had a complete nest in it already. Tree Swallows were abundant everywhere. They were joined by a Barn Swallow in the Icehouse Field and N. Rough-winged Swallows at Wheeler Hill, the Bantam R. Field, and Cemetery Pond. Bantam Lake produced lots of action. This included at least 5 Ospreys fishing. Three of them were successful while we watched them, but one promptly lost its catch of a Northern Pike when an adult female Bald Eagle chased and scared it. The Pike disappeared when it hit the water, and the eagle failed to retrieve it. In addition to this eagle, an adult male (possibly her mate) was perched in a White Pine on the east shore, a 3rd-year immature female was flying around and then perched in a tree in N. Shore Marsh, and a 2nd-year immature male was perched in a White Pine at the tip of Lennox Hill Pt. He was being mobbed by American Crows for awhile. Bob was able to get really good Digiscoped photos of these eagles, so I will use them to do a future blog about the ways to determine the ages of immature and subadult Bald Eagles. While the eagles posed for photos, an immature Northern Harrier flew past us and disappeared into N. Shore Marsh, 7 Rusty and many Red-winged Blackbirds called from trees in the Marsh, 2 Green-winged Teal and 3 Wood Ducks swam along the shoreline, and 21 Double-crested Cormorants lazed on the stone blocks in N. Bay. Finally, we ended the day with 3 American Woodcock calling and displaying at dusk at Cemetery Pond. If you take a trip out to these locations, especially in the late afternoon and evening, you may very well be rewarded with these same sights and sounds of nature.

A Flood of New Migrant Birds in Litchfield

Wilson's Snipe photo by Bob Stanowski

Pied-billed Grebe photo by Bob Stanowski

Fox Sparrow photo by Leo Kulinski

American Woodcock photo by Bob Stanowski

The photos above depict but a few of the many species of birds which have migrated back to, or are migrating through, White Memorial this week. Even though the weather conditions haven't been particularly favorable for migration, the birds have been moving anyway. Some, like the American Woodcock and Fox Sparrow, have been present here for 3 weeks, but their numbers have increased quite a bit in the past week. Others, like Blue-winged Teal, Common Loon, Pied-billed Grebe, Double-crested Cormorant, Osprey, Wilson's Snipe, Palm and Pine Warblers, and Swamp Sparrow have just arrived this week. Most of these birds have settled in, at least for awhile, so readers of this blog have some time to go out and look for them. Bantam Lake continues to produce a really good number and variety of birds. These include the aforementioned Common Loon, Pied-billed Grebe, Double-crested Cormorant, and Osprey plus Bald Eagle, Bufflehead, and hoards of Common Mergansers. The best places to view these birds are from the Pt. Folly and Lake Trail observation platforms. Little Pond has become increasingly productive in the past week. That's where the Blue-winged Teal and one of the Wilson's Snipes were observed, along with Northern Harriers, Ospreys, Bald Eagle, and Killdeer. The Little Pond Trail leading in from White's Woods Rd. produced the Palm and Pine Warblers. Palm Warblers were also seen at Pt. Folly along with Swamp Sparrows. Cemetery Pond is producing American Woodcock every evening after sunset. It was also the location of our second Wilson's Snipe sighting. Most of the Fox Sparrow sightings have been at the Museum Feeders and along the Ongley Pond Trail. Please remember to report sightings of these and other birds to us either directly at my e-mail dave (at) whitememorialcc.org or indirectly through the share mechansim at http://www.ebird.org/. By typing in my email address after clicking "share" on the ebird report, a copy of your report will be sent to the White Memorial Foundation Archives. This will really help the bird migration monitoring efforts.

The Migration Continues!

Sharp-shinned Hawk photo

by Darlene Knox

Red-shouldered Hawk photo

by Darlene Knox

Adult Bald Eagle photo by Paul Fusco

My posting yesterday promised an update of the bird migration activity that I expected to encounter in the afternoon after I sent out the post. At the time I figured that we would mainly find more migrant waterfowl. While we did find birds in this group, it was the raptors that proved more interesting. They were obviously staging a migration yesterday. The first one that I encountered was a Sharp-shinned Hawk that came in from the south, buzzed all of the birds at the Museum's Bird Observatory Feeders, and then spiraled upward after failing to catch anything. It continued northeastward out of sight. Within minutes of this sighting, I heard a Red-shouldered Hawk calling. I saw it come in from the southwest, soar and circle overhead, and headed due north. About 5 minutes after this bird disappeared, a second Red-shoulder appeared on the southwest horizon, soared overhead while calling constantly, and headed off to the northeast. After another 5 minutes had elapsed, a third Red-shoulder appeared appeared in the southern sky. It was also calling, and followed the same flight path as the second one. Two hours later, while working along N. Shore Rd., Jim Kandefer, John Eykelhoff, and I saw a total of 5 Red-tailed Hawks. Four of them (2 pairs) were likely residents by their locations and behavior. The fifth was an immature bird that flew and soared over us from southwest to northeast without stopping. It was likely a migrant. A little while later, we saw an adult male Cooper's Hawk fly past us, hit the ground, and come up with a small mammal that looked like a vole. It carried the critter deeper into the woods of Wheeler Hill, where we lost sight of it. On our way back to Pt. Folly we saw the Canada Geese and Ring-necked Ducks rise up in a panic. Swooping over them was an adult male Bald Eagle. It failed to catch anything, and landed in a tree on the Point. It perched there for several minutes before taking off and disappearing around the Point. We re-located it about 20 minutes later sitting on the ice off Deer Island. It was still there as of the time we left. As for the waterfowl, the Northern Pintails and most of the other birds mentioned in the previous post were still off Pt. Folly, but Canada Goose numbers had dropped sharply to 260. Since we stayed along the road watching for them until dark, and they failed to materialize, it is highly likely that they have migrated farther north. By contrast, Wood Duck numbers had increased to 29. Most of them were found feeding under the shrubs in the Bantam Lake Outlet area. We also saw a Great Blue Heron opposite the Pt. Folly observation platform, and heard and saw 4 American Woodcock displaying in the Bantam R. Field. In the non-bird category, we heard our first Northern Spring Peepers of the year calling from 3 spots along N. Shore Rd., and we saw a total of 5 Muskrats in various spots.

Early Spring Migrant Birds

Canada Geese photographed at

Bantam Lake by Bob Stanowski

Eastern Bluebird photographed at

White Memorial by Bob Stanowski

It may be February 25th, and it may only be 34 degrees outside with a cold rain, but some birds are migrating back to and through Connecticut, anyway. Most of these early birds are short distance migrants that spent the winter in New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, or Virginia. The previous blog post of mine touched upon some of these birds, along with an unusually early American Woodcock. Since then, more of the "regular" early spring migrants have arrived or increased in number. Chief among these are blackbirds, bluebirds, and Canada Geese. Even though White Memorial's Museum feeders have hosted up to 12 Red-winged Blackbirds all winter, we now can safely say that the migrants are here. The numbers around the Museum have increased somewhat, there are now a few at the Bantam Lake Outlet, and a mixed flock of 60 Red-wings and 20 Common Grackles has joined the European Starlings at Arethusa Farm. Eastern Bluebirds had been scarce around White Memorial during January and the first half of February, but we counted a combined total of approximately 25 around the Museum Area, along Webster Rd., and at the Bantam Lake Outlet for the Great Backyard Bird Count this past long weekend. This count only produced about 300 Canada Geese and 75 Mallards at the Bantam Lake Outlet. These have been typical numbers all winter. Therefore, it is highly likely that many of the 1210 Canada Geese, 155 Mallards, 34 American Black Ducks, and 16 Common Mergansers that I counted there last evening were newly arrived migrants. It should be noted for anyone visiting the Outlet that the number of birds is a lot lower in the morning and throughout much of the day because many of them go elsewhere to feed, and many of the new arrivals that have migrated all day don't settle in until evening. It is quite a spectacular sight to see wave upon wave of geese coming in to land in this relatively small area. If you wish to witness this yourself in the next week or so, you should park off N. Shore Rd. near Pt. Folly, and either walk to the Pt. Folly observation platform or walk down N. Shore Rd. to the Outlet bridge. High snow banks are currently making it impossible to park at the Outlet bridge.

Early American Woodcock & other birds on 2/18/11

American Woodcock photo from

http://www.jczinn.com/

On Friday, 2/18/11, Jim Kandefer, Mike Amodeo, and I censused several parts of White Memorial for the Great Backyard Bird Count. We came up with fairly good numbers of most of the expected species around the Museum Area, Pike Marsh, Bantam Lake Outlet, and N. Shore Rd. This included 4 Wood Ducks at the Outlet, 2 Red-breasted Nuthatches at the Museum feeders, and a total of about 25 Eastern Bluebirds. We ended the day with a successful hour and a half of counting along Webster Rd., including Catlin Woods and Miry Brook Marsh. Arethusa Farm yielded a large mixed flock of blackbirds that included about 50 Red-wings and 20 Common Grackles with 500+ European Starlings. Unfortunately, we couldn't find the American Kestrel that we saw there on Wednesday. Heading back into Catlin Woods we heard a Great Horned Owl hooting from the area of the intersection of White's Woods and Webster Roads. Then we were astounded to hear an American Woodcock giving its "peent" call from Miry Brook Marsh. After a few "peents" it picked up and flew around the marsh before settling back down and resuming "peenting". Then it lifted off, flew around the marsh, up Webster Rd. over our heads, and northbound over Catlin Woods. We didn't hear it again after that. I think that this is only the third time that I've encountered a woodcock as early as February in the Litchfield/Morris area. Right after the excitement of finding this bird had subsided I started whistling for Northern Saw-whet Owls. We have found these birds quite regularly in Catlin Woods in mid and late February. After about 2 minutes of intermittent whistling we heard a Saw-whet answer from the north side of the road in the thick hemlocks. We saw it fly among the sapling-sized trees and then disappear. Not wanting to subject it to any more disturbance or being preyed upon by the Great Horned Owl, we stopped whistling and left it alone. When I get all of the results from our GBBC counters compiled, I'll post them in a future bog.