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30th September 2012., Clinton, Connecticut, USA
Seen during the "Connecticut street rod association's" charity event at Hamonnasett state Park on 30th September 2012
More information on the club, can be found here ...
At least I'm 99% sure it is. The local birding shop said they were out there, and it certainly has a relatively narrow, upturned bill and the white face.
Seen during the "Connecticut street rod association's" charity event at Hamonnasett state Park on 30th September 2012
More information on the club, can be found here ...
When I saw the gull in the previous pic tossing a sea star, I was pretty excited. I'd never seen a sea star at Hammo, not in many years of childhood beachcombing. Maybe it's because I was always there on summer afternoons, well after the extreme summer lows at dawn and far from the winter sunset lows? Anyway, there were tons out today! Most exciting.
Went for a walk along the beach, and the Red-throated Loon was kind enough to pop up right in front of me, not 20 ft from shore.
Seen during the "Connecticut street rod association's" charity event at Hamonnasett state Park on 30th September 2012
More information on the club, can be found here ...
See my "video" - 15 still photos, set to the first 32 seconds of "Kingfishers Catch Fire" by John Mackey (which I found in Youtube by searching for the word "kingfisher"). Mackey's work presumably was inspired by Gerard Manley Hopkins' poem "As Kingfishers Catch Fire." What a lot one can learn from Internet search engines!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEdCCvMCAXA
"With its top-heavy physique, energetic flight, and piercing rattle, the Belted Kingfisher seems to have an air of self-importance as it patrols up and down rivers and shorelines. It nests in burrows along earthen banks and feeds almost entirely on aquatic prey, diving to catch fish and crayfish with its heavy, straight bill. These ragged-crested birds are a powdery blue-gray; males have one blue band across the white breast, while females have a blue and a chestnut band." - www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Belted_Kingfisher/id
There are Common and Red-throated Loons wintering at Hamo. I also seem to be able to tell the Commons apart by the absurdly thick necks.
Friends of Hammonasset presents Hammonasset Festival, a celebration of Native American culture and spirit, honoring the environment and her ecology.
Many people don't realize Robins actually spend the winter here in Connecticut. In summer they eat "meat" (insects and worms) and in winter they eat berries. Since they never eat seeds, they don't visit seed feeders, which is why we usually don't notice them around in the winter.
On 10/19 I took my camera to Hammonasset, not knowing what I would find. I was surprised to see THOUSANDS of Tree Swallows flying everywhere. I guess they were in migration from farther north. It was in the 30s at 9 a.m., so I don't know how many insects they were finding in the air, although as time went on I did see insects closer to the ground. For a while I tried to capture the action, but the birds flew too fast and too erratically for me, so I just stood there and watched and listened. I could hear the snap of their wings as they passed, sometimes so close to me I could have reached out and touched them (if I could have moved my arm fast enough!). As I walked to the tip of Meig's Point I came upon a large Cedar in which hundreds of birds were taking turns resting. There was a lot of coming and going. From a distance, so as not to disturb them, I took these photos (at 1/2000 of a second). The close-ups are not very clear because they are massively cropped. In the 5th photo you can get a sense of how far away I was standing. By late morning the activity had died down, probably because they had continued their journey south.
Hammonasset State Park Connecticut. It's easy to tell the greaters from the lessers when several of each are together.
Most Ospreys that breed in North America migrate to Central and South America for the winter. The male and female of a breeding pair leave and return at different times, and satellite tracking shows they winter at different locations. In spring the females arrive on the breeding ground first. They will accept a new mate only if their previous mate does not return from migration. The oldest known Osprey was 25 years, 2 months old.
This photo was taken in early April, when the Ospreys had just returned to Connecticut.