One of the highlights of the post-spring migration rush in New England is to visit a field in New England where bobolinks nest. Luckily, I have one fairly close to where I live — Happy Landings in Brookfield, Connecticut. The bobolinks’ bubbly song (which reminds me of R2-D2) fills the air as red-winged blackbirds and yellow warblers provide an apt auditory background. Here are a few shots of a recent walk in the field.
I couldn’t quite get the entire belted kingfisher in the frame, but I like the shot anyway as it makes it look like the bird is sneaking around the swamp.
Late March and early April can be a tough time for birdwatchers as we are in the slow build up to spring migration.
The spring migration actually starts sometime in February when the first male red-winged blackbirds arrive. It’s a nice sight (and sound) when they return to our swamps, but it’s pretty much just a tease as we know winter will continue, and it will be several weeks until other birds start to show up.
American woodcocks and eastern phoebes return to New England around the middle of March. A few weeks later, ospreys arrive. The build up can be excruciatingly
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Here are a few photos from the calm after the storm. It’s still bitterly cold in New England, but the sun is shining brightly.
Here are a few leftover photos from yesterday’s storm.
A montage of snowy bird photos wouldn’t be complete without a junco, so here you go. Also, a blue jay as a bonus.
Well, you all had to have seen this coming. Here is round one of the January 29, 2022, snowstorm photos. Like any great bout, this will likely go several rounds.
As of Thursday morning, the forecast calls for some snow throughout New England. Will it be a fierce Nor’easter that will drop a foot or more of snow or a relatively calm storm with an inch or two? That much remains to be seen as different models are predicting different outcomes. Like always, we’ll wait and see. In the meantime, here are a few snowy bird photos as we await the storm.
I dreaded looking it up, but as it turns out, there was nothing to dread.
Let me explain.
There are a handful of regular birding columns that I write every year about this time. One is on Christmas gifts for the birdwatcher, one is about the Christmas Bird Count, one is on my birding highlights of the year, and one is on my New Year’s resolutions for the coming year.
It is the resolution column that I dread looking back on. There are sure to be many failures, and I just hope there are a few successes to go along with it.
I was surprised when I looked up last year’s resolution column. As it turns out, I didn’t write one last year after all. Maybe there was too much going on, maybe I figured I wouldn’t stick to the resolutions anyway, or maybe COVID’s first Christmas had me so down I just couldn’t bring myself to write a forward-thinking, optimistic column.
Well, COVID is still with us and wreaking havoc on another holiday season, but I am not going to let it win this year. So here’s my latest birding New Year’s resolution column.
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If you’ve spent any time in the New England woods in the spring, summer or fall after a rain, you’ve certainly come across an eft or two (probably way more than that.) They wander onto hiking trails and can be quite numerous the day after a rain. I came across several during a recent walk at Huntington State Park in SW Connecticut. Notice the different colors of the two efts pictured. The eft is the terrestrial stage of the eastern newt. The four stages of the newt are described succinctly in the following post by author David George Haskell.
Birds of New England.com 