Author Archives: Chris Bosak

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About Chris Bosak

Bird columnist and nature photographer based in New England.

Celebrating Vulture Week, part IV

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Photo by Chris Bosak Vultures sit on a hill in Danbury, Conn., fall 2017.

Photo by Chris Bosak
Vultures sit on a hill in Danbury, Conn., fall 2017.

Here’s a young turkey vulture with a wood chip in its mouth (for whatever reason) as a bunch of black vultures gather behind.

Fun vulture fact of the day: A “bunch” is not really what a group of vultures is called. Here are the real terms: “A group of vultures is called a kettle, committee or wake. The term kettle refers to vultures in flight, while committee refers to vultures resting on the ground or in trees. Wake is reserved for a group of vultures that are feeding.”

Taken from Wikipedia, so it can’t be wrong. Right?

Celebrating vulture week, part III

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Photo by Chris Bosak Black and turkey vulture sit on a hill in Danbury, Conn., fall 2017.

Photo by Chris Bosak
Black and turkey vultures sit on a hill in Danbury, Conn., fall 2017.

Here’s a look at both the black and turkey vultures together. In this shot anyway, the black vultures far outnumber the turkey vultures.

Vulture fact of the day: Turkey vultures have a much more keen sense of smell than black vultures. That’s probably why black vultures like to hang around with turkey vultures.

Celebrating vulture week, part II

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Photo by Chris Bosak A black vulture sits on a hill in Danbury, Conn., fall 2017.

Photo by Chris Bosak
A black vulture sits on a hill in Danbury, Conn., fall 2017.

Yesterday was the turkey vulture, today is the black vulture. From a distance they look pretty similar, but closer inspection reveals some differences — the most obvious being the color of the head. Black vultures are also a bit smaller.

Vulture fact of the day: Vultures have excellent sight and smell and can find a dead animal from as far as a mile away.

Kicking off Vulture Week

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Photo by Chris Bosak A turkey vulture sits on a hill in Danbury, Conn., fall 2017.

Photo by Chris Bosak
A turkey vulture sits on a hill in Danbury, Conn., fall 2017.

It’s Vulture Week — a totally made-up celebration concocted by http://www.BirdsofNewEngland.com — so this week I’ll post photos of New England’s vultures and include some facts and/or stories about these birds.

There are two kinds of vultures in New England: turkey vulture and black vulture. Turkey vultures are one of New England’s largest birds with a wingspan of 67 inches (about 5 and a half feet). Black vultures, which are becoming more common in New England, are slightly smaller with a wing span of 60 inches. (Other wing spans: bald eagle, 80 inches; great blue heron, 72 inches; red-tailed hawk, 49 inches, American robin 17 inches; black-capped chickadee, 8 inches.)

More tomorrow …

For the Birds: Brown creeper highlights the fall

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Here is the latest For the Birds column, which runs in several New England newspapers.

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Photo by Chris Bosak A Brown Creeper finds food at the base of a tree during a cold snap in February 2016, Danbury, Connecticut.

Photo by Chris Bosak
A Brown Creeper finds food at the base of a tree during a cold snap in February 2016, Danbury, Connecticut.

The fall migration is miraculous when you consider the thousands of miles birds fly from their breeding grounds to their winter havens. It’s also miraculous in its ability to stir excitement into the hearts and bones of otherwise completely normal adult human beings.

Well, “completely normal” may be pushing it with some birders I’ve come across, but you know what I mean.

Take the other day for instance. I was relaxing on the patio toward the end of a long day when a sight literally lifted me off my seat and drew me closer.

Bald eagle? Brown pelican? Some sort of rare bird not seen in generations?

No, it was a brown creeper. Brown creepers are just as their name suggests they are. For one, they are indeed brown. For another, they creep. They creep up trees looking for insects hidden among the bark. When they reach a point where they think they’ve exhausted a tree’s food supply, they fly quickly to the bottom of the nearest tree and start the creeping all over again.

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Protect habitat: CT Migratory Bird Conservation Stamp available

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2017 Connecticut Migratory Bird Conservation Stamp, featuring canvasbacks on the Thames River and painted by Mark Thone.

2017 Connecticut Migratory Bird Conservation Stamp, featuring canvasbacks on the Thames River and painted by Mark Thone.

Here’s a press release from Connecticut DEEP:

The Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) announced today that Connecticut Migratory Bird Conservation (Duck) Stamps can now be bought through the Online Sportsmen Licensing System (www.ct.gov/deep/SportsmenLicensing) by individuals interested in supporting the conservation and purchase of wetland habitats in Connecticut. Migratory bird hunters are required to purchase a Connecticut stamp to participate in migratory bird hunting seasons. However, other licensed hunters (who participate in other hunting seasons), licensed anglers, and Connecticut residents are encouraged to purchase a Connecticut Migratory Bird Conservation Stamp to provide much needed funding to conserve wetland habitat, thus benefitting a myriad of native fish and wildlife.

“The Connecticut Migratory Bird Conservation Stamp Program is a great example of how conservation works – concerned citizens paying into a program that Continue reading →

More turkey talk III

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photo by Chris Bosak

photo by Chris Bosak

It’s the big day so why not end this series of turkey photos with a shot a nice, big tom turkey? Happy Thanksgiving and thanks for supporting http://www.BirdsOfNewEngland.com

More turkey talk II

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photo by Chris Bosak

photo by Chris Bosak

Since it’s almost Thanksgiving I figured, why not? As in, why not post a new photo of a turkey each day until the big day. Here’s Wednesday’s photo.

More turkey talk

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photo by Chris Bosak

photo by Chris Bosak

Since it’s almost Thanksgiving I figured, why not? As in, why not post a new photo of a turkey each day until the big day. Here’s Tuesday’s photo.

For the Birds: It’s turkey time

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Here is the latest For the Birds column, which runs in several New England newspapers.

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Photo by Chris Bosak Wild Turkey in New England, Jan. 2013.

Photo by Chris Bosak
Wild Turkey in New England, Jan. 2013.

Somehow, it’s time for Thanksgiving already. It feels like yesterday that we were welcoming 2017 — by the way, how did those resolutions turn out?

And here we are at turkey time.

Speaking of turkey time, as I often do at this time of year, I will focus this column on the wild turkey.

Thanks to the work of fish and wildlife departments from several states, the wild turkey is a fairly common sighting throughout New England again. The native bird was abundant throughout New England when the first settlers arrived, but the forests were cleared for farming and the turkey was extirpated from the region in the 1800s.

After a few failed attempts, reintroduction programs in the 1970s and 1990s successfully brought the bird back to New England. The wild turkey again thrives in our region.

I have seen turkeys a few hundred feet from Long Island Sound at a park in southern Connecticut, and I have seen them on camping trips to Pittsburg, N.H., near the Canadian border. They are abundant everywhere in between, too.

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