River Otter Tracks at Butternut Brook

River Otter Tracks and Slide Marks on Butternut Brook, Litchfield, Connecticut, USA, February 12, 2016

A group of River Otters (Lontra canadensis) traveled along Butternut Brook toward the Bantam River/Lake outlet where it was ice free.  The group consisted of at least 3 animals but there may have been one more.  It was not possible to get a closer look at the tracks because the ice is not thick enough to walk on but a photograph was taken from the bridge on North Shore Rd.  It is difficult to determine from this spore the group composition but it is very likely that this was an adult female with her kits but it could also consist of a group of males.  River otter home ranges tend to be larger in the winter because they need to travel between areas where the water surface is ice free.  They will often travel along waterways but may occassionally traverse along upland routes.  River otters consume meat, primarily fish, but their diet will include frogs, crayfish, and other prey depending on their seasonal availability.

Winter Waterfowl Survey--November 2012

A total of 292 Canada Goose were observed on Bantam Lake, Nov. 28, 2012.
Photo By Bob Stanowski.

Nicki Hall and I conducted the first Winter Waterfowl Survey for the winter season 2012-2013 on Wednesday, 28 Nov. 2012 from 10:08 a.m. - 2:02 p.m.  The sky was partly cloudy gradually become overcast with a gentle breeze mostly from the north and gradually changing from the north-northwest.  The temperature for most of the survey was in the high 40's degree Fahrenheit.  The water remained calm and the birds were not disturbed by any other factors, therefore counting the birds was quite easy.  We observed several large rafts of Canada Goose, Mallard, Hooded Merganser, and American Coot.  We did not observe any neck collars on the Canada Goose, which are applied and used by CT DEEP Wildlife Division for monitoring local goose populations.  Other noteworthy non-waterfowl species observed included 1 Great-Blue Heron, 1 American Bald Eagle juvenile, 1 Red-shouldered Hawk juvenile, and 1 Belted Kingfisher.  The only ice cover observed that affected the bird's usage of any water-body was at Cemetery Pond and Little Pond, where few if any birds were observed.  We count from a total of 8 other sites around Bantam Lake, of which the highest abundance of birds and greatest diversity of species were observed in the North Bay and the Bantam River Outlet, two favorite bird-watching locations among our birders.  Although not as many individual birds were observed in the South Bay, this location did produce 4 species, another noteworthy location among birders.

Species	Grand Total
Canada Goose	292
Mute Swan	15
American Black Duck	19
Mallard	168
Ring-necked Duck	1
Bufflehead	39
Common Goldeneye	1
Hooded Merganser	120
Common Merganser	1
Ruddy Duck	12
Common Loon	1
American Coot	61
Ring-billed Gull	10
Herring Gull	2

Bantam Lake Finally Freezes Over!

Bantam Lake's Outlet as viewed from the

Pt. Folly observation platform in a photo

taken by Ashley Hayes 5 weeks before the rest

of the Lake iced-over on 1/16/2012

Bald Eagles, photo by Paul Fusco from

www.paulfuscowildlifephotography.com

Canada Geese photo by Bob Stanowski

Mallard photo from www.wikimedia.org

Northern Pintail photo by Tom Munson

from www.fishandgameidaho.gov

As of yesterday, 1/16/2012, most of Bantam Lake had frozen over. This is amazingly late! As usual, the Outlet and the Bantam River downstream all the way to Rt. 209 has remained ice-free. This is typical except in the most severely cold winters. Though much of the waterfowl that had been seen daily at the Lake so far this winter left in the past 3 days, huge numbers of Canada Geese and Mallards, along with fair numbers of American Black Ducks and Ring-necked Ducks, 3 Lesser Scaup, a Northern Pintail, 3 Hooded Mergansers, and at least 101 American Coots have remained in the open water of the Outlet. The geese and Mallards have fallen into a winter activity mode of foraging in cornfields in Litchfield, Morris, Bethlehem, Warren, and Goshen by day, and roosting at the Outlet from sunset until sunrise. Thus, it is best to look for these birds either from the N. Shore Rd. bridge over the Bantam River or the Pt. Folly observation platform between 7 and 8 a.m. or 4 and 5:30 p.m. Any other time of day will produce a lot less. This has been highlighted by our counts Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. The morning observations, made by Mike Doyle, produced counts of 725, 500, 800, and 800 Canada Geese and 3, 52, 5, and 13 Mallards for these 4 days, respectively. John Eykelhoff didn't find more than 65 Canada Geese and 10 Mallards on his noon-time visits here these days. However, Jim Kandefer and I counted 1,075 Canada Geese and 500 Mallards coming in to roost here between 4:30 p.m. and dark on Monday, and Jim Dugan and I counted 675 Canada Geese and 175 Mallards doing the same thing during the same time frame on Wednesday. No evening counts were conducted on Tuesday or Thursday. During both evening counts, more geese and Mallards flew in from the north than from the south. We didn't see any fly in from the east or west. It doesn't appear as though many of the 65 American Black Ducks that we saw come in Wednesday evening stayed, as only 9 were counted at the Outlet the next morning. We haven't been able to relocate the hen Northern Pintail that we saw Monday evening. The numbers of American Coots and Lesser Scaup have been dropping steadily all week as these birds exit the area. Greg Hanisek saw a Greater Scaup there Wednesday mid-morning, but we haven't been able to find that bird again. Some birds do only drop in to rest here for a few hours before moving on. As many as 4 Bald Eagles hanging around the Outlet at various times has also been a disincentive for some birds to stay here. It will be interesting to see what the rest of the winter brings.

Recent waterfowl surveys at Bantam Lake

Greater White-fronted Goose photo from

dfw.state.or.us via Google Images

Male Wood Duck photo by Bob Stanowski

Male Hooded Merganser photo by

Bob Stanowski

Waterfowl surveying at Bantam Lake's Outlet, which is on N. Shore Rd., has produced an increasing number and variety of birds this week. On Tuesday, 3/8, I focused on counting ducks and geese as they came in to roost between 5:15 p.m. and dark. Most of these birds had spent the day feeding in cornfields around Litchfield, Morris, Bethlehem, and Warren. Among the 1,650 Canada Geese that came in were a Greater White-fronted Goose, a Canada x Greater White-fronted Goose Hybrid, and a Cackling Goose. These are all quite rare in Connecticut. Also seen were 3 Wood Ducks, 45 American Black Ducks, 100 Mallards, 14 Ring-necked Ducks, 26 Hooded Mergansers, and 25 Common Mergansers. Things were a little different when I conducted the survey between 2:30 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. on Friday, 3/11. Most of the Canada Geese were probably still out feeding in area cornfields, as only 325 were counted at the Outlet. These were mostly feeding in the flooded bottomland downstream from the Outlet bridge. With them were 16 Wood Ducks, 185 Mallards, and 1 American Black Duck. The open water closer to Pt. Folly held our first Bufflehead and 2 Common Goldeneyes of 2011. Also there, were 34 Ring-necked Ducks, 5 Hooded Mergansers, and 17 Common Mergansers. Since the bulk of the northbound spring waterfowl migration occurs in March it will be interesting to see what surveys every few days turn up. These will be expanded as the month progresses (and as ice diminishes) to include all of Bantam Lake, plus Little and Cemetery Ponds. Any help with this effort from our readership would be much-appreciated.

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.