Wildlife Camera Images -- February 2017

Birds

American Crow at Pine Island Ditches

Black-capped Chickadee at Pine Island Ditches

Black-capped Chickadee at Pine Island Ditches

Adult Cooper's Hawk at Museum Bird Blind

Dark-eyed Juncos at Museum Bird Blind

Fox Sparrows at Museum Bird Blind

Mourning Dove at Museum Bird Blind

Northern Cardinal at Museum Bird Blind

Brown-headed Cowbird at Museum Bird Blind

Mixed flock of blackbirds including male and female Red-winged Blackbird, Purple Grackle, Brown-headed Cowbird, & Rusty Blackbird.

Mammals

Eastern Chipmunk at Apple Hill

Eastern Chipmunk at Apple Hill

Eastern Coyote at Pine Island Ditches

Eastern Gray Squirrel at Museum Bird Blind

Raccoon at Pine Island Ditches

Red Squirrel at Museum Bird Blind

Striped Skunk at Museum Bird Blind

Virginia Opossum at Museum Bird Blind

White-footed Mouse (eye shine in center of image) at Apple Hill

Yearling Buck White-tailed Deer at Apple Hill

Adult Doe White-tailed Deer at Apple Hill

Adult Doe White-tailed Deer at Apple Hill

Adult Doe White-tailed Deer at Apple Hill

Lingering Birds

Rusty Blackbird photo from

www.columbusaudubon.org

Fox Sparrow photo by Leo Kulinski

from www.whalesandwolves.com

Belted Kingfisher photo by Darlene Knox

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker photo by Leo Kulinski

from www.whalesandwolves.com

The relatively mild weather that has blessed Connecticut for much of the past 6 weeks should have been conducive to let late migrant birds linger around here for longer than they usually would. This is especially likely when there is an abundance of wild food, as there is this year. However, unlike the waterbirds discussed in my last post, there don't seem to be all that many migrant landbirds lingering around here. They do take more effort to find than waterbirds, but we have tried to look for them on a few occasions this month. This is not to say that we haven't had some success. Yesterday, I was greeted by a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker when I went up onto the Museum's deck to fill the feeders. When they get hungry enough they will visit suet feeders. On the 7th, Mike Doyle had a Belted Kingfisher at Bantam Lake's Pt. Folly. They will occasionally stay through the winter if there is enough open water and an adequate supply of small fish to eat. On the 5th, Buzz Devine counted 86 Rusty Blackbirds in a flock along the north side of the Little Pond Boardwalk. Four days later, I saw 2 at Cemetery Pond. They are quite nomadic, and probably have gone farther south by now, but every year we find a few Rusties around here during the winter. Some Red-winged Blackbirds also spend the winter here. Our most recent report of them was from the Museum's feeders on the 10th. Though I haven't seen a Winter Wren or Fox Sparrow on White Memorial property since 11/25, that doesn't mean that 1 or 2 aren't around here somewhere. I have seen a Fox Sparrow elsewhere in Litchfield in the past week. It is a little odd that we haven't seen any big flocks of American Robins around here since 11/25, especially given the continued abundance of Winterberry Holly berries. They may be around; just not in places that we haven't visited lately. All that will change this coming Sunday, 12/18, when we plan to cover White Memorial's property and Bantam Lake as thoroughly as possible for the Litchfield Hills Christmas Bird Count. If you would like to help, please email me at dave@whitememorialcc.org. I still need people who can work independently censusing birds along some of our outlying trails, like the Cathedral Complex and Trail Rider's Jump.

Notable Wildlife Sightings at White Memorial, 10/24 & 25/2011

Rusty Blackbird photo from

www.borealbirds.org

Four-toed Salamander photo by Dave Rosgen

Eastern Red Bat photo from

www.lakecountyspecies.org

This past Monday and Tuesday, 10/24 and 25/2011, produced a fair number of notable wildlife sightings on White Memorial property. Tops among these were an Eastern Red Bat which I saw flying around Ongley Field between 6:00 and 6:10 p.m. on Monday. It then headed off to the south. This is a rather late date for this Connecticut species of special concern. The nearby Activity Field produced a Field Sparrow and a Purple Finch for notable birds earlier this day. On Tuesday, Nicole Morin and I visited the salamander cover boards along the Windmill Hill and Butternut Brook Trails for their final inspection of the year. One of the Windmill Hill boards yielded a Four-toed Salamander, which I think is only the second one of this species found under a board in this plot since we established it about 7 years ago. The rest of the boards in this plot produced a total of 11 Red-backed Salamanders on this visit. About half of these boards were awash in floodwaters a month ago. Interestingly, the cover boards at Butternut Brook, which were completely inundated last month, produced absolutely no salamanders on this visit. However, they did harbour at least 40 earthworms. The Windmill Hill boards had only about 15 earthworms under them. Farther along the Butternut Brook Trail we encountered a nice flock of 18 Rusty Blackbirds feeding under the shrubs in the swampy area. They are a regular, but uncommon fall migrant through this area.

Long-billed Dowitcher and other notable birds seen at Little Pond, 9/27/11

Long-billed Dowitcher photo from http://www.gobirding.eu/

Wilson's Snipe photo by Bob Stanowski

Rusty Blackbird photo by Bob Duschene

from http://www.pvcaudubon.org/

Blue-winged Teal photo by Rob Whitney

from http://www.ducks.org/

Green-winged Teal photo by Rob Whitney

from http://www.ducks.org/

Great Egret photo from

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

A visit to Little Pond this past Tuesday evening, 9/27, (before the latest rainstorms inundated this area with floodwaters) turned up White Memorial's first-ever (in recent times) Long-billed Dowitcher. While scanning the shoreline for shorebirds I spotted a gray bird with a very long bill probing like a sewing machine in the mud. Since Short-billed and Long-billed Dowitchers look very similar, and their bills are only 1/4" difference in length, it was initially very difficult to determine which species we had. Even with the spotting scope it didn't show a definite characteristic for either species. However, since Short-billed has been seen here approximately 8 times in the past 12 years, and Long-billed had not been seen here at all in that time span, I was leaning toward calling it Short-billed or just Dowitcher sp. Most of the previous sightings have been in the spring when the two species have enough differences in plumage to distinguish them. Plus, all of the previous birds gave their distinctive Short-billed "tu-tu-tu" call notes while we watched them. Fortunately for us this time, this bird let loose with its distinctive "keek" call notes several times when it flushed and flew around for no obvious reason. The call notes clinched this bird's identification as Long-billed. These calls, coupled with the lack of striping on the head and back ruled out Wilson's Snipe, which we had just seen a few minutes before spotting this bird. Other notable birds seen on and around the pond on this visit included 52 Wood Ducks, 5 Blue-winged Teal, 13 Green-winged Teal, 4 Double-crested Cormorants, 1 Great Egret, and 2 Green Herons. Notable by virtue of high numbers were Mallards (99) and Swamp Sparrows (45). The Little Pond Trail produced our first Rusty Blackbird of the fall season, 24 White-throated Sparrows, a Marsh Wren, and a hooting Great Horned Owl as notable species. In all, this visit tallied 44 species of birds in 1 hour and 45 minutes. Three days later, after 5.5" of rain had inundated the boardwalk and the rest of the area, we only came up with 34 species along the trail leading in from White's Woods Rd. and the overlook area on the west side of the pond. With no feeding habitat available for shorebirds we didn't find any, but we were surprised to find a Sora trying to forage along the edge of the woods where the floodwaters were intruding into them. For ducks, we only saw 2 Woodies, 2 Blacks, and 25 Mallards. The rest of the birds seen on this visit were common resident and migrant landbirds along the trail, including 35 White-throated Sparrows.