Subject: CT Trip Report
Date: Mar 23 15:58:16 1997
From: Cathi Pelletier - heronwing at juno.com


Hi Tweeters -
My brother Ron and I decided to do a little birding in the east half of
the state today. (I'm talking about CONNECTICUT, so if you're not
interested, please delete).

We first stopped at North Farms Reservoir in Wallingford, a shallow lake
where local people like to feed the mallards. It's always worth a stop.
Today we had mute swans, mallards, ring-billed gulls, ring-necked ducks,
greater scaup, red-winged blackbirds, a common merganser, mourning dove,
Canada geese, common grackles, and LOTS of sky rats (starlings). There
were no really unusual birds, but there seemed to be a lot of activity.

Second stop was the marshy pond on N. Branford Road off Route 68 on the
Wallingford/Durham town line. More mallards, a pair of hooded
mergansers, and the first wood ducks (2 pairs), I've seen this year.
Also, a singing American tree sparrow. Lots of singing and flitting
about here, too.

Next stop was the pond at Lyman's Orchard Farm Store, where we added
another wood duck and displaying wild turkeys (2 toms, 10 hens). The
turkeys were quite impressive as they puffed and strutted and fanned
their tails, although the hens seemed quite oblivious (playing
hard-to-get, no doubt).

We then stopped at a bird feeder on Race Hill Road in Madison, where a
dickcissel had been reported. There he was, as reported, in with a small
flock of white-throated sparrows. He was joined by a female northern
cardinal, blue jay, common grackle, and sky mice (house sparrows).

Our ultimate destination, Hammonasset State Park, was next. We had heard
reports of two breeding-plumaged common black-headed gulls feeding with a
flock of about 100 Bonaparte's gulls. Ron hasn't seen the common
black-headed yet, so we were quite disappointed not to find them. We
did see about 50 Bonies, though. We also found common loon, red-throated
loon, red-breasted merganser, greater scaup and common goldeneye in Long
Island Sound. We spotted a peregine falcon (small male) flying over the
dunes. Nearby was a small flock of horned larks, snow buntings and four
Lapland longspurs (coloring up nicely).

We found an early glossy ibis, a lesser yellowlegs, and several killdeer
in the marsh behind the Nature Center, and golden-crowned kinglets in the
cedars.

I think my favorite part of the whole day was finding the great horned
owl's nest in a cedar tree. There were two downy owlets peeking over the
rim of the nest (Momma was currently being harassed by some crows, and
had left the nest temporarily). What a privilege to be able to see the
owl's young!

All the birds were very active and singing today. The sun was shining
brightly. Everything seemed like springtime, except for one little minor
detail - the temperature was 20 degrees, and the windchill brought it
down to about zero! BRRRRR!!!!

Cathi Pelletier
Waterbury, CT
Heronwing at juno.com