Results from the BIG SIT and other fall migration monitoring

Yellow-billed Cuckoo photo by Ronnie Maum

from http://www.fws.gov/

Pectoral Sandpiper photo by Paul Lewis

from http://www.carolinabirdclub.org/

American Redstart from http://www.tringa.org/

American Pipit from http://www.tringa.org/

White-crowned Sparrow photo by

Keith Carolson from http://www.idahofishandgame.gov/

Lincoln's Sparrow photo by Linda Williams

from http://www.cornell.edu/

Savannah Sparrow photo by Paul Fusco

from http://www.paulfuscowildlifephotography.com/

The cold, wet weather that has been a nuisance to us for much of this month has also played a role in the fall bird migration. It stalled on rainy days and moved along at a brisk pace on pleasant days and nights. Winds out of the south also hindered migration activity on some days. For birders, this often meant a bounty of birds on the few nice days this month. One period of time that was especially good was from the 7th through the 11th. Many birds were seen then, including our first American Pipits of the year, which were seen and heard flying over the Museum Area. The Litchfield Hills Audubon Society team conducting the Big Sit bird survey on the Sutton's Bridge portion of the Little Pond boardwalk on the 9th got our first Yellow-billed Cuckoo and Pine Siskin of the year. They also got other rarities like Pectoral Sandpiper, Sora, and Lincoln's Sparrow; and they had some unusually late migrants like Solitary Sandpiper and American Redstart. Before dawn they heard Great Horned, Barred, Eastern Screech, and Northern Saw-whet Owls calling. In all, this survey produced a very respectable 78 species. The day before the Big Sit I led a walk for mostly beginning and novice birders to Pine Island and the Old Sewer Beds portion of the Little Pond Trail. Highlights on this walk were 4 Red-breasted Nuthatches, a Blue-headed Vireo, and several Golden-crowned Kinglets at Pine Island, and 3 White-crowned Sparrows, a Field Sparrow, and a Lincoln's Sparrow at the Old Sewer Beds. We also saw Lincoln's Sparrows in Ongley and Activity Fields this past week. That's pretty good for a species that is usually rare and hard to find! Ongley Field has also produced a Savannah Sparrow and lots of White-throated and Chipping Sparrows over the past 10 days. Yellow-rumped and Palm Warblers have been prevalent around the Museum Area, and Dark-eyed Juncos have been increasing slowly, but steadily in number since Friday, 10/7. Nice weather today, tonight, and tomorrow should bring even more migrants to, and through, northwest Connecticut.

Litchfield Hills Summer Bird Count - An Explanation of Some of the Numbers

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker by Leo Kulinski

from whalesandwolves.com

Veery by Darlene Knox

Gray Catbird by Charles Tysinger from

carolinabirdclub.org

American Redstart adult male from tringa.org

As a followup to the posting that we did just a little while ago with the totals from White Memorial for the 2011 Litchfield Hills Summer Bird Count I wanted to clarify the reasons for some of the high numbers. No, we aren't imagining birds or counting the same ones several times over. Numbers like these do occur in some places at the height of the breeding season when there is a flood of new babies into the population. In many years this occurs after the Summer Bird Count. This year birds got started earlier than usual with their breeding activity so rather than incubating eggs during the SBC period they were mostly feeding nestlings. Some even had fledglings already! A dead giveaway to the presence of young is an adult carrying food or a fecal sac. That's why this type of observation is perfectly good as a means of confirming nesting for Breeding Bird Atlases or ebird. When we observe this behavior we take a few extra minutes to watch and listen for young birds. They are usually pretty quick to give away their presence with food calls when they are hungry. We then count the babies that we can see or estimate the number that we think that we can hear. It also helps to have excellent hearing like I have. If we can't see or hear babies we just add 1 more to the tally for the species of bird that is carrying the food item because we know that it is destined for a baby. The photos above show a few examples of the species of birds that were found in much higher-than-average numbers on the SBC this year, largely due to the inclusion of nestlings.