Photo by Chris Bosak
A cardinal eats berries in New England, January 2025.
I’ve seen a ton of robins this winter. On several occasions, I’ve seen them in big numbers attacking bushes and trees and stripping them of fruit.
I’ll always remember the first time I saw this spectacle. It was more than 20 years ago, and I was a relatively new birder. I walked into the woods and the trees were alive with bird life. Birds were darting from tree to tree all around me.
I was finally able to focus on a few and discovered that they were all robins. I was surprised because, at the time, I still thought of robins as spring and summer birds in New England. They are the harbinger of spring, aren’t they?
Photo by Chris Bosak
Male long-tailed duck on Long Island Sound, February 2025.
I took a trip to the coast this morning to check out Sherwood Island State Park in southern Connecticut. I have birded there a lot in the past, but it has been several years since I’ve been to the large park on Long Island Sound. I finished the day with 32 species with a good mix of water and land birds. A few photos from the walk are included below.
Photo by Chris Bosak
A junco perches on a branch after a snowfall in New England, January 2022.
If it weren’t for the American robin running away with the Bird of Winter title, the dark-eyed junco would be a serious contender.
The Bird of Winter is my very unofficial contest for the bird species seen in unusually high numbers during the winter. As I wrote a few weeks ago, the American robin is far and away the leader this winter, and I continue to see great numbers of robins nearly everywhere I go these days.
The dark-eyed junco, which has won the Bird of Winter title in years past, is making a strong case for honorable mention this year. I see them in my yard, at work, on my walks and all along the roadsides.
Photo by Chris Bosak – A Belted Kingfisher seen near the Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk on Sunday during the annual Christmas Bird Count.
What comes to mind when thinking of year-round birds in New England?
My guess is the first species that come to mind are songbirds such as black-capped chickadees, tufted titmice, or white-breasted nuthatches. The next birds that come to mind may be slightly larger, like woodpeckers, cardinals, blue jays, or mourning doves. Then it may eventually get to even larger birds such as red-tailed hawks, barred or great horned owls, mallards or turkey vultures.
Some people’s thoughts may veer off to less obvious year-round species such as eastern bluebirds and American robins, which many people may not realize are found in New England during the winter.
My bet would be that belted kingfisher would not immediately come to mind. It certainly would not have for me. I thought about that when I saw one the other day in a rather surprising place, and it reminded me that they are, indeed, year-round birds in New England.
I was walking to the cafeteria at work when I heard a familiar rattling call off to my right. Along the walkway, two consecutive small bridges span streams, one of which is small and often nothing more than a dried-up bed, and the other is a bit larger and flows meekly in dry times and mightily after heavy rains.
Photo by Chris Bosak – A merlin spotted in southern Connecticut during the Christmas Bird Count, Dec. 2024.
The Christmas Bird Count is typically one of my birding highlights of the year. This year was no exception.
The Christmas Bird Count is a bird census conducted by volunteers each winter to track bird populations and trends. Keene was one of the original 25 locations in 1900. Now there are well more than 2,000 counts held throughout the United States and beyond.
I did my usual area along a coastal region of southwestern Connecticut. It is a good area to cover as there is a nice variety of habitats, including Long Island Sound, marshes, freshwater ponds, wooded areas and even some patches of open field.
We started, as usual, at a park that has a river on one side and a marina on the other. Long Island Sound is a mile or so to the south, so the river and marina often get winter ducks normally associated with larger bodies of water.
Remember a few weeks ago when I urged readers to “check those blotches” carefully. Here’s the column for those who missed it. Basically, the column said that if something looks out of the ordinary in the distance, it should be checked out. It may be a plastic bag or mylar balloon stuck in a tree; or it may be a hawk, owl or something else of note in the tree.
I took my own advice the other day and checked out a small clump on one of the old windmills that grace the property at Happy Landings, an open space in Brookfield, Connecticut. Turns out, it was an American kestrel, a small falcon that is somewhat Continue reading →
Birds of New England.com 