Bird walks | Birds of New England.com

Photo by Chris Bosak
An Eastern Towhee at Selleck’s/Dunlap Woods in Darien, Nov. 2013.

A quick walk at Selleck’s/Dunlap Woods in Darien this morning yielded a few surprises, such as a Hermit Thrush, a few kinglets and this very vocal Eastern Towhee.

A Blue Jay mimicked a Red-shouldered Hawk and plenty of American Robins ate berries along the trail. White-throated Sparrows were in abundance, too.

Photo by Chris Bosak
An Eastern Towhee at Selleck’s/Dunlap Woods in Darien, Nov. 2013.

This particular towhee was very vocal, which is how I found it in the first place. It didn’t sing its “drink your tea” song, of course, but gave itself up by constantly uttering its “chwink” or “tow-hee” call over and over.

Let me know what you’re seeing out there at bozclark@earthlink.net. Also submit a photo for my “reader submitted” photo page.

Photo by Chris Bosak
An Eastern Towhee at Selleck’s/Dunlap Woods in Darien, Nov. 2013.

Snapping turtle

The birding was fairly slow on a quick walk I took this morning at a cemetery in Darien, CT.

Canada geese filled the pond. No wood ducks or hooded mergansers, which may also be found there on occasion. Lots of starlings and a few robins, but otherwise pretty scarce in terms of birds.

But the walk was made when I turned a corner to see a big, dark lump along the side of one of the roads that wind around the cemetery. The lump was moving and turned out to be a snapping turtle. I was surprised to see one this late in the year (Nov. 18.) Then again, late sightings are becoming less surprising.

I wish I had my boys with me for this walk. They have recently discovered “Call of the Wildman” on Animal Planet and love the “Turtle Man’s” antics. Wildman often catches and relocates snapping turtles so the boys would have loved this sighting — not they would have tried to catch it. Check out the claws on this turtle. No wonder they are such great diggers.

Turtles know where they are going and this snapper was safely off to the side of the road within the confines of the cemetery, so I didn’t interfere either.