Long-tails

Brant Oddity

2012-01-14T00:52:00.003-05:00

While passing through Norwalk's Calf Pasture Beach late this afternoon, I came upon this odd looking Brant that was hugging close to the shoreline in today's forty plus mile an hour winds.

This guy was all alone, staying in tight within the lee of the mainland.

I noted the odd bump on it's forehead and started taking photograph's.

In the above photo, it appears as though the left eye has been pushed downward from this tumor like hump.

Right side eye seems normal

Another view of the left side eye abnormality.

This bird seemed otherwise very healthy as seen here feeding alone the shoreline

Plus just to be a showoff it hauled out and posed for the camera.

The other bird of the day were these beauties.

Often, people think of these Ring-billed Gulls as merely seagulls....

In gale force winds, it would be difficult to come upon a more graceful dancer!

Lastly, a local Oyster Boat calling it a day.

with Peck's ledge Lighthouse in the distance.

Would you believe that with today's gales, two hunters went out the islands and had to be rescued by the Norwalk Police Marine Unit!

http://www.thehour.com/story/517875/npd-marine-unit-rescues-hunters

Norwalk Island Razorbills

2012-01-09T23:24:00.002-05:00

Nice boating weather is hard to come by this time of year.

I have a few winter boating guidelines that I try my best to stick to.

First 40 degrees is a great start, second little or no wind, third, the sun is shinning.

Today fit all three, I made a call to my friend Chris and suggested today's the day, since we have been trying, but not able to get out on the boat for a few weeks.

My reasoning for these guidelines are these: water freezes, when it's spray hits the deck in windy and freezing temps, an ice skating rink on the deck, is not cool.

The ray's of the sun always helps out to keep you warm, as opposed to a cloudy day.

With over thirty years of winter boating, regardless if it was for fishing, birding, seals, photography or whatever, we are on a twenty one foot boat, it has a small cabin but no heat.

There is no warm car to run back to when frostbite and hypothermia start to set in.

Today was somewhat pleasant and we headed out into the sound.

Just south of Goose Island we saw out first Razorbill.

While searching for White-winged Scoter several miles south of Cockenoe Island, we came upon several more Razorbill's feeding over sixty five feet of water

This bird allowed us to come fairly close.

As many diving birds do, this Razorbill dips it's head underwater in search of prey, we are in 65' of water in LIS, I'm not sure how far it can see? 10'?

Perhaps it's not about seeing?

Back inshore we spotted this Gannet flying from the shoreline area, to the deeper waters of the sound.

In the background is the western edge of Sherwood Island State Park

Over a period of several minutes, we saw five adult Northern Gannets fly south from this very inshore area.

It looked as though they were flying out from the Mill Pond area.

I called a friend that birds this area almost daily to get her observations.

Tina, said that in the very calm waters off of Westport this morning, she saw fish breaking the waters surface.

Great Info! I have been doing well catching Atlantic Herring in Norwalk Harbor and other fishermen are catching these herring in almost every other harbor along the Fairfield County coastline.

Bottom Line... these birds don't travel far from the refrigerator.

Common Loon, inshore of Cockenoe Island, feeding on the flats, 3-4 ft of water.

A cold winter morning

2011-12-29T14:43:00.001-05:00

While peering out my kitchen window, I notice that the hummingbird feeders had frozen up over night.

With this mornings temperatures being in the low twenties, I guess it's time to take these feeders down before the glass tubes break from the ice.

All was normal, White-throated Sparrows and Cardinals were under the other bird feeders, picking up seed that was being dropped to the ground by Chickadee's and Titmice.

Joining in on the feast were a number of Grey Squirrels.

Suddenly I saw a something spring out of nowhere, the wildlife that was just having breakfast scattered in all directions, I saw the critter that cause this commotion as it returned empty handed from under the junipers.

Although this is not the culprit, it was one of this guy's feral cousins that was looking for breakfast.

I saw where he went...

He appeared to go under the deck, I could see this place as a potential place for a surprise ambush.

I though he had gone back there to set up another attack.

Armed with a 2 million candlepower search light and my camera I set out to see if the cat was hiding in the dark shadows beneath the deck.

I didn't see anything obvious, but searching deeper into the darkness I saw something stir, however I didn't see the orange that was this cat's color.

Instead it was very dark...

...and with a black stripe.

I took a quick snapshot and feeling bad that I had rudely awakened this sleeping skunk from its winter slumber, I called off my feline search party.

As I was walking back towards the house, I saw one of our local Red-tail Hawks perched very close by in a neighbors tree.

Yes, this juvenile hawk was giving be a very stern gaze, not only had the cat interrupted his hunting, but I was certainly doing the same.

Back inside the warm comforts of the house, I could see the squirrels slowly inching their way back to the bird feeders.

I turned away from the window to leave nature to play out the remainder of this day on it's own terms.

Cockenoe Is. vs Irene

2011-09-15T17:00:00.000-04:00

The Cockenoe Island Sand Spit did not fare well in it's recent bout with Hurricane Irene.

All of the islands vegetation is gone as well as a foot or so of the top of the spit.

Above is an old metal post, one of many that was exposed with the removal of the vegetation.

My guess is that these were part of a dune grass protection fence from a few decades ago.

Seems like I remember something of that sort.

In this post Irene picture we are looking south. You can use the back round trees as reference point for the next photo.

This photo is the same part of the spit, from summer of 2010.

Here is another shot from 2010, this time looking north towards the mainland.

Same north facing shot, after Irene.

Check out the small dark projection in the middle of this photo.

It is what was left to the root system of one of the beach plants, this root is about a foot or more in height, it is easy to see where the plant snapped off and how much erosion took place in order to expose the remains of the plant.

The USFW bird fencing has been either ripped out or snapped off and is now on the eastern side of the island.

The metal fence post were either bent 90 degrees or snapped in two.

I tried to pull this line out of the ground, impossible!

It is covered over with so much sand and rock, it might take a backhoe to dig it up.

I'll leave it for the next hurricane or for someone else to find in another fifty years

There is still bird life around, I found six American Oystercatchers at Cockenoe and another fifty three gathered on Crow Island, these were some of them.

A half dozen Osprey were feeding in Norwalk Harbor, here is one carrying an Atlantic Menhaden, one of the ospreys favorite dishes. This fish is locally know as "bunker"

There was a feeding frenzy near the Cockenoe Is. sand spit, not only by Laughing Gulls, but a number of Common Terns and Herring Gulls as well.

The disturbance was from small bait fish being pushed to the top by bluefish.

It's been a while...

2011-07-21T01:28:00.001-04:00

It's been a while since my last post, health issues have slowed me to a crawl for the past several months.

Feeling a tad better, I finally made it out on the boat today for the first time in almost two months.

Though I spent most of my time scraping barnacles,

I did get some fine birding in at Cockenoe Island, Westport.

Before I made it to Cockenoe, I found these two Long-tail Ducks hanging out on Calf Pasture Island.

A few of these birds may hang out around the islands during the summer instead of migrating north to the arctic to breed. I often wonder, is this because they can't fly?

These are both males and appear to be in post alternate (breeding) plumage

Arriving at Cockenoe, I found about fifteen American Oystercatchers.

In this photo a juvenile is to the left and the adult is on the right.

Notice several difference between the two.

The color of the eyes, bill and back are not the same.The young bird is changing it's look fast and soon it will be the same coloration's as the adult.

In the islands back bay I couldn't miss all these egrets.

I counted 127 in this area, the camera missed a bunch on either side. Elsewhere on the island

I easily found another one hundred.

These are mostly all this years youngsters as there is a good size rookery here.

The majority of this flock are Great Egrets with a few dozen Snowy Egrets mixed in.

I didn't look up close, I'm sure there were other heron species here also.

The Sandspit.

US Fish and Wildlife took care of the fencing this year.

Judging by the hundreds of young Common Terns USFW did a great job protecting the colony.

I did not see any Least Terns out here today, they started nesting here in late May but did not succeed and move on.

Another view.

A few laughing gulls on the sandbar leading to the sand spit.

Note the three different plumage stages between the four gulls.

With ninety degree temps today, these six Common Tern hatchlings found the only shady spot on the sandspit.

Todays surprise was this Whimbrel mixed in with several Willet.

Whimbrels do show up as individual birds almost every year on Cockenoe in late July and August.

The calender say's we are almost into August, yet this female Osprey is still adding to her nest on one of the local lighted channel markers.

Her mate is perched above to the right and she has three chicks in the nest.

Those three chicks appear to be wondering " where's the fish, we can't eat any more of the darn sticks"

The third chick is way to the right, almost hidden.

I hope to be back soon.

Best to All!

Larry

Horned Orioles?

2011-04-01T01:34:00.000-04:00

The pair of Baltimore Orioles that have wintered over in my Norwalk CT backyard are looking a bit ragged these days.

Check out the A bird in molt, of course it's not a Horned Lark, but it is this oriole's best impression of one.

Last week around 3/22 I noticed a difference in the two orioles, I thought perhaps they were sick.

Worried like the Mother Hen that I am with these two, I almost freaked out.

I started photographing them and talked to bird rehabbers, soon I saw that this was just a molt.

Wow, I could relax.... I am now photographing them daily to show the progression of the molt.

Something that is rarely seen in wild Baltimore Orioles in these parts, since they do this molting process before they return to New England.

Hanging out near the Oriole feeders, is one of my best backyard bird friends, this Mockingbird is doing it's best Cyclops Mockery.

This bird is very friendly and is always in line for a few meal worms.

Of course all these birds need someone to look out after them when I am not around.

This dude gladly volunteered to keep watch over my flock.

I found it in the neighbors magnolia tree this afternoon, just yards away from the Oriole feeders.

I kept shooting and shooting with the camera, getting closer and closer, this bird had no fear of me.

I walked directly under this Sharp-shinned Hawk, just feet away, it still would not flush.

I checked under all the evergreens, I did not see any feather piles...

I also did not see the Orioles for the rest of the evening, yet their meal worms disappeared while we were not watching, I'm sure they are fine, they deal with these raptors daily.

Remember that 60's song by Sam the Sham and the Pharaoh's.

"Hey there little Black Vulture Bird, you sure are looking good"

Found this lone bird in Fairfield on 3/29 keeping watch on a roadkill raccoon.

All right, it's Little Red Riding Hood, don't get upset Sam.

This past Saturday, I was the guest on Chris Bosak's "Bird Call's" radio show.

This is Chris in action in the above photo at the WNLK/WSTC Studios in Norwalk.

1350/1400 AM.

The show broadcast live each Saturday from 3-4 in the afternoon.

If you are out of range or missed the show, they are archived on Chris's website.

www.birdsofnewengland.com

Yours truely on the radio, move over Don Imus!

Plankton, Tows and Gulls

2011-03-20T01:30:00.000-04:00

While at the Connecticut Conference on Natural Resources last week, Dennis Varza and I bumped into

Jack Barclay after one of the classroom sessions.

Jack mentioned that he would like to collect plankton samples off the coastline from Norwalk to Stratford.

It took no arm twisting at all to have me fire up the outboard and start this St. Patricks Day journey.

Instead of being at a parade with marching bands, pipes and drums corps and others, we ran into a different parade, this one was of gulls, thousands of them along with hundreds of other birds, such as brant, black duck, and scaup, all feeding on the microscopic life we know as plankton.

They all had one thing in common, that was to feast not on corned beef, but the bountiful masses of the various plankton that were afloat to the waters surface.

It was easy to find the plankton, just find the birds

Jack provided all the equipment needed, most importantly this plankton seine.

We would make a slow troll with it at about two knots and for several hundred yards before hauling it back on board.

This bottle at the end of the net is the capture tank that holds everything we gathered on the trawl.

As you can see, it is past being full.

Jack and Dennis preparing to unscrew the bottle.

Then empty the contents into a plastic bag.

Thousands and thousands of microscopic living animals (zooplankton) and plant life (phytoplankton) abound in this small bag.

Bags are quickly labeled and put on ice, data entered includes Lat/Lon,

time of drag start and finish, water temp, air temp, wind direction and velocity.

The seawall off Stratford's Lordship Point.

Birds were gourging themselves along the beach from this seawall on east to Stratford Light House.

More microscopic gull food

Bonaparte's Gull were numerous around the plankton blooms

The entrance to Bridgeport Harbor easily had the largest number of birds feeding on the plankton today

These four pictures could be put together for a panoramic view of the thousands of birds around the boat.

Seaside Park

Just outside the breakwater.

Barnacle larvae attaching themselves to the glass jar.

Penfield Reef was another popular feeding area.

The main reason for this trip was not just to gather plankton, but to gather them for a purpose.

Not to simply identify different species, but for scientific study.

These samples are all going to a lab, where scientist will be testing them for toxins.

When and if I have results, I will post them here. Hopefully soon.

This last night of winter's full moon.

Great Backyard Bird Count by Boat

2011-02-20T01:50:00.003-05:00

The Great Backyard Bird Count started today, and what a day they picked to start this event.

At least in Long island Sound that is.

My friend Alvin join me on this trip, we left the dock at 08:20 2/18/11

with calm winds and above freezing temperatures.

We started today's count on the western side of the islands at Greens Ledge Lighthouse, this reflective photo shows the calmness in the air, what it doesn't show is the temperature.

The thermometer was rising rapidly on the mainland, yet out here I doubt we ever felt anything more than high thirties at best, the sound is still an ice box and does not warm as well as land.

We drove out to this Light house for a reason.

Cormorants.

Great Cormorants use these rocks that surround the Lighthouse as a perching area during the winter.

A look at the massive amount of white-wash shows that this is a popular resting place for these birds.

In total there were seven Great Cormorants here when we arrived.

Before I forget, left click on any of the photo's to enlarge.

Leaving Greens Ledge we headed eastward, not but a mile past the the lighthouse, cruising at 25mph I passed very close by to what I though was a lobster pot.

Alvin yelled OMG thats a seal!

I turned and looked, yes it was.

My problem here is why didn't it move or submerge?

They don't do this, I figured it was sick or injured.

I turned the boat around and pulled out my cell to dial either Norwalk or Mystic Aquariums,

for help.

The seal, head out of water never moved or flinched, as you can see from the above photo he appeared to be just sleeping, eyes are closed. This is something they do, just tread water and zone out.

Apparently this is what was happening here, as we came closer to this Grey Seal, it's huge eyes slowly opened, seemingly without a care in the world, he lazily looked at us and slowly turned, arching it's back and giving us a whale roll disappeared below the surface.

At first this looks like a rock in the water, but it is the rump of our almost 800 pound 10 foot long Grey Seal, submerging into the depths.

Check out how the water never leaves contact with the seals skin.

Just beyond the seal is Norwalk Seaport Association's Sheffield Island Lighthouse, in winter plumage.

The windows are buttoned up, plus there is still a good bit of snow on the ground.

This Lighthouse and Sheffield Island can be visited during the summer months via the Seaport's Ferry service on the C.J. Toth.

Visit their site here: http://www.seaport.org/

While your there, check out the Bird Cruise info.

Come onboard and join the Seaport and I for a great trip and some awesome views of the Norwalk Islands and its incredible wildlife this coming spring and summer.

Bird Counting was the reason for this trip, we had great numbers of several species.

Almost 600 Long-tail

800 greater Scaup (above photo)

Brant numbered close to 900.

The Seaducks, Brant, Goldeneye, Scaup, Scoter, plus Black Duck and others are expected around the Norwalk Islands and Long Island Sound during the winter.

What I never expected, showed up on Cockenoe Island.

From the boat I picked out one small finch/sparrow like bird that flittering on the shoreline.

I maneuvered the bow of the boat onto the shoreline, where I saw a number of small birds moving about.

Song Sparrows? Horned Larks? Snow Bunting? Savannah?

Lapland Longspurs?

All these were calculating in my head, what could they be?

Then I saw my first good look thru the bins.

Common Redpoll on Cockenoe Island, no way!

Here they were, on Cockenoe Island, one mile offshore, feeding on seed heads from this past years
seashore plants.

They were in numbers, a minimum of forty five, maybe fifty.

Redpolls feeding along the slipper shells?

On a island in LIS?

This is Oystercatcher and Tern nesting ground. The last bird I would expect out here is the Redpoll, a arctic/sub arctic nesting bird of the conifers and scrublands.

They are never common in Connecticut, yet during occasional winters they will erupt in this State.

So far this winter, there have been a few reports in Connecticut, but mostly in areas inland from here.

They do show on rare occasion at Sherwood Island State Park, not but a few miles from here, but that is on the mainland. I guess they have no issue about flying a distance over water?

East White Rock came through again with ten Purple Sandpipers.

After big time search efforts, no other shorebird species were found.

Although we had a Killdeer on Chimmons this past Wednesday.

Great Cormorant numbers were at 14.

Status Quo for them around the islands this time of year.

As I mentioned in my last post, the Great Black-backed Gulls have moved back to their nesting islands, these birds are hanging out on the northern bar at Goose Island.

That is Peck's Ledge Lighthouse in the back round

Same lighthouse and same sandbar from a few years ago.

When Goose Island played host to this Snowy Owl for a few days.

I know its mid February, these gulls were not here a week ago, now there are almost 200 on the two nesting islands, looks like they are setting up shop to me.

This is the salt marsh behind the Norwalk Power Plant.

With the extra high tide this place was alive with water fowl.

Besides the Geese and Black Duck that are seen in the photo, Wood Duck, Northern Pintail, American Wigeon, Gadwall, Mallard, Green-winged Teal and others were abundant in the area

Fishing and Clamming Gulls

2011-02-16T23:53:00.000-05:00

With a touch of spring fever almost in the air this afternoon, I called my old friend Towny Dickinson to join me on the boat to do some seaduck photography.

Of course Long-tail were just about everywhere, never easy to get close to, but we were able to catch a few decent shots.

On the way in, we saw a few raccoons feeding along the shore of Chimmons Island, as we followed the shoreline around the corner we came across a Great Black-backed Gull feeding on something significant at the waters edge.

This bird had a fresh winter flounder that it was trying to swallow whole, the flounder was of decent size, probably a pound and a half, just a tad to large for an easy gulp.

As we aproached, the gull flew off with the fish, but dispite the gulls size it could not carry this prey for long and dropped it on the beach.

It returned for the fish, we then left the gull alone to feed in peace.

Another note, many Black-backs are back on their nesting grounds at Goose and Long Beach Islands in Norwalk, we noted a number of them in bright breeding plumage, staking claim to their nest sites.

Sounds crazy, this early right? In another month Double-crested Cormorants will be setting up shop in these same areas.

First come, first serve.

We watched a few Herring Gulls feeding on mussels along the expose shore at White Rock,

but as we entered Norwalk Harbor, I stopped the boat at Round Beach, the small hummock type island a few hundred yards south of the western side of Calf Pasture Beach.

I was in particular looking out for any plankton feeding gulls in the area, non of these gulls were doing that.

Instead what we found were Herring Gulls along the shoreline in just inches of water, many were tipping over, head submerged below the surface, what were they feeding on?

Hard Shell Clams!

I shouted "Wow! Towny, look at that he caught a clam"

We then watched in amasement as these gulls were coming up with Little Necks and Cherrystones Clams, with seemingly no effort.

After studying this behavior for a bit, I joked to Towny that this reminds me of when I was a kid, when we would walk the shallow waters at low tide and feel for clams with are feet....

Guess What?

This is exactly what these gulls were doing, they were feeling for clams with their feet.

They would almost never dip their heads below water with out coming up with a clam.

Astounding!

I mentioned to Towny that these gulls must be of different DNA than the ones found in trash dumps.

Hum?

A nice look at a Bufflehead in the harbor.

Although there are a good number of deer on the islands, this is the first winter that I have seen them on Cockenoe Island, these four were from there today.

This area here is Oystercatcher nesting zone, eggs could be trampled in the up coming months.

How is the heron colony going to deal with these guys?

Once they eat out all the undergrowth, as they have on all the other islands,

(some that were major heron rookeries in the past)

will these birds still find it hospitible to nest here?

The heron/egrets stopped nesting on Chimmons Island soon after the deer and raccoons moved in.

I thought Cockenoe was these birds last safe haven out here.

I don't like this, stay tuned.

I didn't forget Part Two of Scoter Feeding grounds, I just have not completed my homework, it's coming.

Please don't forget this upcoming weekend is

The Great Back Yard Bird Count

It's free and easy to participant, plus being very important to the future welfare of our many bird species.

If you only saw one cardinal in your travels, it's still important to scientist.

Have some fun and report your sightings!

This is also a great way to get kids involved first hand with nature

Give it a try!

http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc/press/news-stories/2011-gbbc-news-release

White-wing Scoter Feeding Grounds Part 1

2011-02-09T23:11:00.002-05:00

Several winters ago we came upon a flock of over one thousand White-winged Scoter, one mile or so south of Cockenoe Island, during the Christmas Bird Count, while doing the boat survey of the Norwalk Islands for the Westport Circle.

This species has been a wonder to me ever since.

What I have noticed over the past three winters, is that these flocks, which can range anywhere from several hundred to five thousand plus have one thing in common.

They are constantly feeding in the same area, a strip about two miles long and a mile wide

My friend, Biologist Dennis Varza suggested that it would be interesting to get bottom samples from this area, to try to get an idea as to what food species they are using in here.

How were we going to get benthic samples from 30-40 feet of water in the middle of the winter?

Enter Norm Bloom, owner of Norm Bloom and Son L.L.C.

Norm very kindly volunteered to take us out on one of his oyster boats, to the areas that the Scoter have been feeding.

Fortunately a number of his oyster beds were in this zone, so we would be able to work some of that bottom.

These beds are large, the parcels in this area are 100 acres each, they are surveyed and divided up into farming lots of different sizes, the same way land parcels are. Some are small and others large.

These lots are then leased from the State, for Aquaculture, a fancy name for oyster, clam and other underwater related farming.

A small raft of scoter appears off the bow, this photo was taken from the wheel house of the

Grace P. Lowndes a classic wooden oyster boat, built in South Norwalk by

William Caniff Bedell in 1931, and still going strong today

These rake baskets are big, roughly four feet across, then 30x30 inches.

This one is about to be lowered into the depths, there are two of these, one on each side of the vessel.

They are made of iron and weigh hundreds of pounds each.

After a quick several second drag along the bottom, the rake is pulled back to the surface.

The boom that is holding the rake is 3" Galvanized pipe, with about 1" steel cable attached.

The mate has to manually swing the boom and basket into the deck.

As you can see there are tons to sample through,

Almost all of that is shell that they are bring back to the dock, to clean and dry.

Our samples are in front of Dennis, with the orange bucket.

Here is some of the life we found on the Scoter feeding grounds.

Please don't crucify me if I misidentify any of these.

Above is a Transverse Ark, a bivalve closely related to Cockles and Scallops

The vertical shell is a young oyster that has attached itself to another oyster shell.

A Cunner, locally known as a bergall. They are bottom dwellers and grow to about five or so inches in the sound, but can reach longer lengths.

Sorry, one of the sponges, help me here if you can.

After doing two dredges on maintained lots we did one on a dormant lot.

It was loaded with Asterliid Sea Stars, starfish as we commonly know them.

These bad boys are deadly to oysters, clams and many other species.

Turning one over, we see a live slipper shell being devoured.

A purple Sea Urchin

A Channeled Whelk, but when we turned it over...

A Flat Clawed Hermit Crab had taken up residence in the shell.

The most famous bivalve of them all, the common oyster.

This was the most impressive specimen of the trip.

Click on the photo to enlarge, this oyster is a living condominium for an assortment of other species.

Check out the crab to the left middle.

Close ups show some interesting worms, these are tiny about 1/2 inch at best.

A different worm, same size hiding in a crevice on the shell

Smaller mollusk, attached to the oysters shell, these are about the size of a pencil's eraser

On the bottom of the shell was this (tunicate?) a live organism that was incredible under a small microscope

Captain Jim Bloom in the wheel house of the Grace P. Lowndes

I wish to send a big thank you to Jim and his dad Norm for going way out of their way to accommodate us and our research.

Check them out here: http://www.normbloomandson.net/

Next week I will try to make sense of what we found.

Ice Stormed in Orioles

2011-02-02T14:25:00.003-05:00

Everything was frozen this groundhogs day, including these holly berries that were coated with ice.

The two Baltimore Orioles are still doing fine, even with the harsh winter that we have been having in Connecticut.

I made a short video of them feeding on meal worms this morning.

This is the first time that I have seen them on the same feeder together, since they don't seem to care much for each other.

For whatever reason I could not download the video on this site but it is here on You Tube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQrpQpVbYM0

Arborvitae covered in ice.

Red Cedar the same.

I can only imagine what the boat looks like?

Two Connecticut Baltimore Orioles

2011-01-24T23:06:00.002-05:00

What would be the next best thing to having a Baltimore Oriole in your backyard

during one of Connecticut's harshest winters in recent history?

How about having Two!

Last Thursday 1/20/11 a second young female Baltimore Oriole showed up in our backyard.

This bird was not at all welcome by the original bird that had been here for over a week.

I will refer to the 1st bird to arrive as "A" and the 2nd as "B"

Every attempt by B to land on the feeder was quickly challenged by A.

In fact A had become the ruler of the yard, the mockingbirds and cardinals that were coming in for jelly,were quickly chased off the feeder, this young oriole is this yards dominant bird, and is protecting it's domain.

                   A number of emails from Jayne Amico (a songbird rehabilitator in CT) helped me
                                  understand what was needed, and what was happening.
First there was a limited food source, bird A claimed stake to it, her life was depending on this source, there wasn't enough to share with others. Next was that oranges and grape jelly may be fine for entertaining backyard orioles in the warmer months, but these birds were not going to survive for long in this
                                                 extreme cold and snow on just a few sweets.


                                           Meal worms were suggested, 100 each day per bird.
                                         In the above photo A is swallowing a mouthful of these.

             I distinguish between the two birds by the median coverts on the right wing of each bird.
In the above photo, these are the strong white tipped feathers that are forming a horizontal white bar
                                                         (wing bar) on it's wing.
           On this bird (A) this line is solid, (click on the picture and you can count these feathers)

This is B, she has dropped a few of these feathers and has a clear gap in the lineup of median coverts.

Q....Any idea where they get the Baltimore Oriole name?

a city in Maryland?... a baseball team?....

I started putting out meal worms for these two, but things were just not working out, as soon as I put out a bunch A would either eat them or perch nearby and protect them, things were looking bleak for B as this bird could only grab a few worms before being chased off.

I had another feeder in my garage and set it up about 20' from the first on Saturday, A thought this was great, twice the food!

As time went on, A's belly became fuller and more content, she slowed down on her patrols of the feeders, and slowly allowed B to feed longer and longer.

They now perch in the morning and afternoon sun, sitting sometimes within a few feet of each other, until A realizes B is there, she then move of, just not as far each time.

I fill both feeders about 6 times a day with at least 15 worms in each, and make sure that they and not others are eating the worms. This is working, as of today they are now sharing the goods equally.

These neo-tropical migrants (could or should be in South and Latin Americas this time of year, at least FL.)

survived 3 degrees last night, and only slightly warmer the previous night.

My guess is they will be here for a while

A with a meal worm.

Answer from above:

George Calvert, a 17c nobleman.

this birds colors resembled the coat of arms of good ole George,

who was also best known as Lord Baltimore!

"Baltimore's Oriole"

Iced Oriole

2011-01-18T13:02:00.000-05:00

This mornings winter storm only dumped an inch or two of snow in our yard, by 6AM it had turned to rain.

The problem with the rain is that it was only 24 degrees outside, ice was forming as fast as the precipitation hits the ground.

I was concerned for the Baltimore Oriole, today will be the seventh day that she has been here.

I went out in the early morning dark and found the feeder frozen.

I brought it inside, cleaned it up with hot water, put a new orange half on it and fresh jelly in the trays, then brought it back outside to it's place.

Soon after dawn, she was at the feeder, I guess I forgot to take care of the other feeder.

No hummingbirds here, but I keep trying.

Poor bird is soaked.

The half frozen Koi pond is popular with robins and other, with plenty of unfrozen water.

Squirrels are always taking advantage of the open water.

Norther Flicker raiding the suet this morning.

There were hundreds of birds this morning as I spread large amounts of seed and nuts over the frozen snow and ice covered ground.

Outside of the oriole, no others birds were out of the normal species that could be here.

Snooriole

2011-01-15T23:34:00.002-05:00

I peeked out the window Wednesday morning, yellow tail feathers were the first thing I saw, white belly, grey wings and white wing bars.

I thinking that this isn't your normal yellow shafted flicker, or yellow bellied sapsucker, birds one might expect to see in Connecticut with a few feet of snow on the ground.

In fact, I'm still digging out of Tuesdays 18" snowfall, so what is a Baltimore Oriole doing at my suet feeder?

I grab a cup of coffee, shook off the fuzzies and take another look, OMG it is a Baltimore Oriole,

I grab the camera.

This young lady was sampling all the goodies, she enjoyed the several suet feeders, moved on to the split peanuts, and then grabbed a few sunflower seeds

She fed like there was no tomorrow, lucky for her my feeders are filled with high fat content goodies to replenish her needs.

After her feeding binge, I lost sight of her.

Later a friend of mine, stopped by and re-sighted the bird perched in one of the cedar trees in the backyard.

The bird was seen again later in the afternoon, perched in a neighbors yard.

Friday morning came, and after some quick feeding the oriole flew to our always open water bird bath, had a few drinks and then hopped in for this invigorating bath, singing that constant oriole rattle chatter, the whole time.

The temperature was 11 degrees Fahrenheit, yet she enjoyed her bath.

I put out my oriole feeder with oranges and Poloner All Fruit Grape Jelly.

She ate from them both on Friday.

I did not see her this morning, and had to leave for much of the day,

When I returned home, I never did see the bird, but most of the jelly was gone.

Duped

2011-01-07T19:30:00.002-05:00

The wind gauge read zero, the thermometer said 29 degrees, chilly for a boat trip, but with the lack of wind

I made up my mind to go get a quick look outside the islands, as weather is expected this weekend.

As usual, flocks of sea ducks were everywhere, brant, scoter, long-tail, scaup and others.

With no razorbills in sight, I headed towards Cockenoe Island. I spotted a bird, sitting on the water in the distance and all by its self, an eider?

I slowly turned towards it, taking pictures all the way.

I can see this bird swimming in the current, turning side to side, I continue taking pictures, but something is just not right, I spy it with my bins, I'm still not getting it.

As I get closer, I wonder, is this the Real McCoy?

Holy Duck Decoy, I've been Duped!

I would never expect to see one of these a few miles off shore. The jokes on me!

The current makes it appear to be swimming along, and this thing actually turns side to side.

Very realistic, maybe I'll troll her behind the boat one of these days when mating season nears and the boys start getting frisky!

By the looks of it, this Hoodie was also target practice at some point.

For whatever reason the birds were very accomodating today, as this Common Loon was, and the

White-winged Scoter in the first photo.

I found a few Long-tail to pose for the camera.

This beautiful Male...

... and this handsome pair.

Back in the harbor, I see this Great Blue Heron, perched on a mooring buoy.

The bird lost its balance with my wake and flew off to the next ball.

It soon learned to balance perfectly on the rocking ball.

I'm thinking Miyagi and Daniel in the Karate Kid ...

...the piling scene, near the shoreline.

Focus Daniel-san Focus!

This American Coot is a year round resident in Norwalk Harbor, I have followed him for four years now, he paddles along the marinas in the harbor, feeding along the docks and boat fingers.

My guess is he can't fly, but otherwise appears healthy.

Up river, north of the two bridges is the Water Treatment Plant, a good spot to find dabbling ducks.

This American Wigeon was slurping in the shallows, when he finally raised his head, I caught him

drooling some rather viscous water.

Another look at this beauty.

Three Razorbills off Norwalk Islands

2011-01-01T16:41:00.004-05:00

We started the New Year with a Bang!

Dennis Varza joined me this morning for a boat trip outside the Norwalk Islands. Our target was to chart out the feeding grounds that White-winged Scoter have been using for the past three winters.

We were slowly heading east, at five knots, our position was roughly two miles south of Cockenoe Island.

Three somewhat different birds appeared off the bow, immediately I shouted Razorbills, Dennis paid little attention to me since moments before I somehow made a small black and white floating object into a Dovekie

The three birds submerged, but as soon as they surfaced, it was confirmed, three Razorbills!

Happy New Year!

This is one of the few shots I got of the three birds together, soon one split off and we lost the other two.

We continued to follow the single bird.

These birds were feeding from 47-52 ft of water about 1 mile South of Buoy 24,

which is off Cockenoe Island, Westport. There were also many White-winged Scoter in this area.

Poor Photo's but they get the job done

Near Cockenoe Island we picked up this lady King Eider, it flushed off the water, flew away from the boat, it then turned and flew back towards us. Finally passing off our starboard.

I saw three eider in this area yesterday,

I assumed they were Common, but who knows?

Harbor Seals would often pop up around the boat, almost always when we were near shallow water.

These Brant spooked for no apparent reason, often I see flocks of these and other birds do this, I mentioned to Dennis, that maybe this is what happens when a seal pops up in the middle of a raft.

Long-tails were everywhere, thousands?

A deer on Grassy Island, checking us out.

Another close fly by

Dennis found this Purple Sandpiper and several of his friends, sitting on the channel marker at the entrance to Norwalk Harbor

It was a great day, who knows when it will be this calm and warm again?

Boating days are precious and few during this month.

It's January and this is New England, yet I can't wait for the next trip!

A Pre-Blizzard Walk

2010-12-27T00:41:00.004-05:00

After securing the boat with extra dock lines, I had a few moments this morning to take a walk in the woods, before the snow started in earnest.

I stopped by a nearby patch of evergreens, to see if these trees were holding any owls, since there has been a number of of Saw-whet and Long-eared Owls, reported thoughout the area recently

It was nice to get lucky this morning, as it took little time to happen upon this Long-eared Owl, perched very much in the open in a spruce tree.

Generally, instead of looking in trees for owls, it is easier to look on the ground for signs that they are around.

In the above picture, the white wash on the ground is bird guano, in this case Saw-whet owl waste.

Owl pellets are another sure sign that they are in the area.

These are usually tightly wrapped grey fur balls, that owls will regurgitate after their meal is digested.

Pellets are the undigestable body parts, (fur, bones) that are left from the owls catch, which can be anything from a mouse, squirrel, to other small rodents, mammals and birds.

Looking above the ground at eyeball height, there is more wash.

This time on the branches, this is where your heart may start pounding, because as you look a little higher in the tree...

...You might see one of these little darlings staring back at you,

the Northern Saw-whet Owl.

Although a few nest in the State, this bird is more of a wanderer or migrant in this area, with most birds being found from late Autumn to early Spring, the same hold true for the Long-eared Owls.

These are small birds, only eight inches tall, that's smaller than a Robin, a hard find as they blend into their environment and the backround of trees, branches, leaves, vines, cones and more.

The Great Horned Owl is a resident in this area, and are often the most common owl found.

They are large, about twenty-two inches, although they also conceal themselves very well, their size makes them a bit easier to find.

Their prey is also much larger then that of the smaller owls, skunks are on their diet, so if your in a stand of evergreens and you get a whiff of Pepe La Pew, look up, something may be staring back at you.

Other resident owls we have in Connecticut are Barred Owls, Eastern Screech Owls and a handful of Barn Owls.

I didn't see any of them today, although a few may have seen me.

Christmas Bird Count by Boat

2010-12-19T19:00:00.004-05:00

A boat trip in the winter on Long Island Sound often starts with breaking some ice to get out of the marina.

This mornings Christmas Bird Count for the Westport Circle was no exception.

With temps in the 20's and little wind in the marina, it almost felt balmy as we were slicing our way thru the ice before finding open water in the harbor.

My friend Chris Bosak was on board to help with the count, we both anticipated a good day and couldn't wait to get out and see what we would find.

Outside the islands, a brisk nor-east breeze is chilling our faces as we make our way to Buoy 24 off Westport, the seas are getting choppy, and this makes it hard to find birds sitting on the water, especially from a rocking boat.

We soon picked up White-winged Scoter, in small flocks scattered about, I was hoping to find a few thousand, by I knew that would be difficult in these conditions.

A lone gull lifts of the water to our north, white head and tail, very light gray back and a white leading edge on its wings, a Boneparte's Gull, a nice find, a large white object is sitting on the water off to the east, an adult Gannet, we make made our way over to it, it stayed on the water as we closed to 10-15 yards.

Wow I've never been so close to one of these. The bird finally stopped trusting us and flew off to the east.

We counted a hundred Scoter and decided to move in closer to the shoreline, more for safety then anything else. There is no one out here but us, I would feel happier a bit closer to the mainland.

We laugh along the way as spray hits the side of my face and ear, I joke...

"Chris, you know it's nasty out here when the cold spray warms your face"

There is no warm car to hop into out here.

I could see a bird perched on some driftwood as we approached Cockenoe Island Bay.

This lone Peregrine Falcone was surveying the beach, well so much for finding shorebirds in this area.

It's mate soon join in and the two flew off towards the Norwalk shoreline.

East White Rock rarely disappoints when it come to Purple Sandpipers, and it came thru again today, in total there were nine of these guys here. This rock wall they are sitting on is near vertical, they hop around it as though they were mountain goats.

Earlier we had a mixed bag of over a hundred assorted Ruddy Turnstones and Dunlin at Copps Island, these in total were all the Shorbs we would see today.

Purple Sandpiper, always one of my favorites.

As we neared Goose Island, Chris spots a seaduck in the choppy waters ahead of the boat, a Common Eider, this species is rarely seen this far west in the sound, my first ever seen from my boat around the islands.

Thanks to a phone call from Nick Bonomo, we found out we were a bit incorrect at naming this bird,

this is a King Eider (The Queen as Nick calls it) and not a Common Eider

A still better find.

Another blurry shot of the Female (Queen) King Eider

A Great Cormorant passes us at Goose Island.

This was one of the Osprey nesting sites from this year, its now used as a Cormorant perch

Of couse we can't forget our Long-tailed Ducks, we easily had over five hundred of these today.

A few of the other species we found today were, Cooper's Hawk, Northern Harrier, Common Loon,

Great Blue Herons to name a few, of course there were the normal, Brant, Canada Geese, Herring and Great Blacked-back Gulls, Black and Mallard Ducks, Gadwall and more.

You may note that I did not post any photos of the up close Gannet and others.

This is because of Photographer Malfunction.

Some day I may learn to manage my camera's settings.

I did the same thing last week and lost all my shots, therefore no blog.

At least I salvaged a few from today.

Wildlife Christmas Tree

2010-12-07T16:08:00.003-05:00

My wife suggested that this year we move the Christmas Tree from inside the house to the outside, I thought for a moment... "sure let's do that, we can make it a wildlife tree, with all kinds of good eats for the birds"

So come Sunday morning I was out bright and early, bought a tree, went food shopping for some goodies, came home and we both worked on the tree for most of the day.

The Mrs. made a lovely bow to top the tree, right next to the suet.

Stale Italian bread, soaked in bacon fat then dipped in thistle.

Thoughts of Pine Siskens are dancing in my head.

Peanuts are strung with needle and twine.

The Bluejays will have a feast with these.

More bread, this time slathered with peanut butter and dipped in sunflower seed, and hung as an ornament with twine.

Tufted Titmice were after these, moments after they were put up.

Ahh, this tree will be magical!

Strands of cranberries and raisins are necklaced around the tree.

How long before Cedar Waxwings find these?

We tried to string the homemade popcorn, they kept breaking so we balled them in an onion bag.

This is going to be great, this tree is awesome, birds of many varieties will soon come the visit, we can't wait!

It then hits me... what about Rocky and Bullwinkle? How long will this tree last, if a deer finds it?

A few pesky squirrels shouldn't be too much of a problem, no?

OK, so maybe we'll have to refill the tree every few days or so, just as we do with the other feeders.

No problem.

Sunset had now come, we turned on the lights, the tree was beautiful, and all was well.

The following morning sunrise came and the tree was still standing, at least a deer didn't go and get his antlers caught up in the lights.

I see is movement within the branches, must be a titmouse or junco feeding on the seeds...

The branches are bouncing to much for a small bird, I see gray, but its not feathers, it's fur.

Rocky is engulfing everything he can, no problem we'll just make more.

Rocky enjoying the peanut butter and seed bread, in fact he and his crew had just about eaten everything on the tree in less then a hour... stuff that tooks us several hours to make, oh well.

It's the thought that counts, right?

Later in the day as sunset approached, I plugged the lights in.. what the #%&^@ why is the whole top half of the tree not working?

Seems Rocky doesn't know the difference between strands of peanut and strands of LIGHTS!!!

Thankfully the power was off, so it made for a good laugh.

This morning I just threw the nuts and stuff on the ground just as I always have.

I'm now hoping these squirrels don't develop a taste for copper wire and plastic insulation, while we still have a few lights left!

Sunday, lunch on the half-shell

2010-11-28T19:41:00.001-05:00

A friend of mine has a new visitor in his backyard, an Eastern Screech-owl has taken up residence in a Wood duck nest box in the middle of a pond behind his house.

While I was in the neighborhood, I stopped by for one more look at the Fork-tailed Flycatcher, In Stamford.

This bird is dazzling!

The day was warming nicely, I decided to head for the boat, although there was ice along the shoreline, and the boat, it would soon melt.

As I was cruising out the harbor, I saw a Common Loon diving in a deep hole just off the Shore and Country Club, as I drove over the hole I could see on the depth finder, the reason he was there.

The little speck just off bottom is a small school of Atlantic Herring, I marked a good number of them while going out the harbor, good Loon food, for sure.

Long-tail duck numbers are increasing, with an easy three hundred of these around the islands.

The water is extremely clear this autumn, I can clearly see bottom in ten feet of water, even over muddy areas.

I found these holes all over the bottom inside Cockenoe Is. bay. They look like tiny volcanoes.

I do believe these are Razor Clam beds.

The only shorebirds I saw today were a few dozen Dunlin scattered about, this one is coming in for a landing.

The White-winged Scoter population is now around one thousand, it was choppy out in the deeper water and difficult to get a good count, I'm sure there were many more.

Some of the other birds I counted were one hundred seventy Red-breasted Mergansers, eighty-five Bufflehead, three Great Cormorants, a few Greater Scaup, five hundred Brant, and one dark morph

Rough-legged hawk.

It was now past noon, so with a couple of scraps along the bottom with my clamming tongs, presto instant lunch on the half-shell!

Bufflehead are back in nice numbers inside the harbor.

White-winged Scoter

2010-11-13T23:53:00.000-05:00

The winds finally dropped to less than gale force today, in fact there was almost no wind at all, nearly flat calm seas, and with the air temps in the low 60's, there was no doubt that I was starting up the old outboard and heading out to the islands.

I had to see if the Scoter have returned to their favored winter hangout just a few miles off the Westport mainland.

I wasn't to be disappointed, barely a half mile South East of Pecks Ledge Lighthouse, I found the first five White-winged Scoter in about thirty feet of water, there were also groups of Common Loon in the area, a dozen for sure.

I continued out to the area south of Buoy 24, which is a mile South East of Cockenoe Island, Westport.

Sure enough there they were, 25, 50...100...150...200...3-400, more 500, still more 600..with birds now flying in every direction it was time to stop counting.

That is Compo Beach in the background, as a small group of Scoter leave the scene.

Another view, the building in the background is the Nature Center at Sherwood Island State Park, seems close but it is about three nautical miles away. These are all White-winged Scoter, for whatever reason I see very few Surf and Black Scoter in this area, when ten or so miles to the east, off Stratford these other scoter species are seen with regularity

This one was a loner, and had a hard time flying.

This group of males was inshore, off Cockenoe Reef in about ten feet of water, there are aways a few of these birds hanging around the rocks on this reef.

I saw my first seals of the year, near Copps Island.

From a distance I could see three Harbor and one Grey Seal, hauled out.

By the time I finally made my way out there, there was just this one young Harbor Seal left.

They will become regular, especially after the boaters call it a season, in the next week or two.

By the way, I checked my WW Scoter reports from this time period last year, but about a week later then now. My count was 800 in this same area, close to the same numbers, are they the same birds?

Norwalk Cattle Egret

2010-10-28T23:59:00.000-04:00

I stopped by Norwalks Veteran's Park this afternoon to have a look around the shoreline, I notice a few dozen gulls sitting on the grass lawn near the southern edge of the park, plus a number of Canada Geese at bit north of them, I pulled into a parking space to get a look at the geese.

My eyes quickly wandered back to the gulls, huh! that's quite a few egrets hanging out with the gulls, small ones too, Snowy's? nah, can't be, Greats? to small...

Holy Cowchips Batman! They are all Cattle Egret, I lift the bins to my eyes and counted, 1, 2, 5, 9...13

Thirteen birds, a really nice number for Norwalk CT, in fact, I had never seen one in Norwalk before.

I've seen an occasional single bird in Westport and other areas of the state, I thought this was an impressive sight for Norwalk, I drove back home to grab my camera.

Something was missing.. the Cattle?

When I returned, they were still there. In fact one more joined the group, to make it fourteen.

This one had it's stern (nautical term for rear end) to the wind, makes for a nice feather ruffle

Since they were somewhat scattered about, I couldn't get them all in the same frame.

Cool lineup though?

I still can't fit them into the frame, but here are eleven.

A flight shot, that is the Vet's Park Transient Dock, with Sono Water St. area in the background.

This shot shows the 14 egret in flight, click on it to enlarge.

They were still there when I left around 4:30, feeding on the grass lawn where I originally found them

Milford Point & Rumps

2010-10-27T22:31:00.000-04:00

Recently, there has been a small invasion of these young juvenile Yellow-rumped Warblers, this one was foraging through my backyard compost pile.

When I was fishing off Norwalk and Westport on October 17th, hundreds of these birds were passing me, as I was positioned two miles south of the Connecticut Coastline. All of these birds were heading north towards the Connecticut coastline, they were flying in from the Long Island area.

My thoughts were that they were blown out to LI from the nor-west gale winds that I fished and discussed from Oct.15-16

Their natural migration is way inland from the coast, but these are young birds, and this is there first southerly migration, they have to find it out all on their own.

You would have to think that these birds flying north across Long Island Sound and finding the mainland, is a great example of their ability to globaly reposition themselves when off course.

(Don't forget to click on these pix to enlarge, some are worthy of it)

I spent a day this week with the crew from CT DEP DIV OF WILDLIFE attempting to capture and band shorebirds at Milford Point. as we did in earlier this year.

There are still many shorebirds around, Dunlin (landing on the outer bar, in the above photo)

Sanderling, Black-bellied and a few American Golden Plover.

A view towards the Sound showed White-winged Scoter, several Black Scoter, Common and Red-throated Loons, closer in, several American Oystercatchers were still hanging out as were multitudes of

Double-crested Cormorants.

The gear was hauled out to the sandbars, the net was set and the explosives ready to fire the net.

Now it's time to sit and wait for the tide to come in and hopefully push the birds to the pre-planned area.

One hour before the expected shoot, what happens?

A couple of fishermen (a lovely elderly couple, by the way) walk out to the end of the bar to fish, between us and the birds, of course they are warned about the explosives and eagerly stay away from that area.

We sit, we wait... I have my camera and spend the quiet time photographing anything that moves.

The white chested, light gray backed shorebird in the above photo is a Sanderling.

( click on him, he's really cool)

These birds are common along the CT. coastline in the Autumn, Winter and Spring Months, they are always in flocks, anywhere for a few individuals to thousands.

They do prefer the sandier areas of the coastline.

Nothing like a early afternoon siesta, both these birds are keeping an eye opened for me.

Sanderling in the foreground, Dunlin in the back.

Note the comparison between these two, the Dunlin has a brown mottled chest and brownish head and back.

Both these species are in basic plumage, in alternate (breeding plumage) they have a totally different look.

Much more red/rufous coloring on the head and back, plus the Dunlin grows a very black belly patch.

The Mute Swan, an elegant bird, a favorite of many people.

It is an introduced species from Europe, but often upsets the balance of nature in North America.

In local ponds it will push out all native species of nesting waterfowl, including Mallards, Wood Duck, Teal,

Black Duck and others, it is very territorial and protects its adopted nesting area from many native species.

But they are pretty?

A nice mixed bag of mostly Sanderling and Dunlin.

Perhaps one of my last Osprey photo of the year, as these birds have been migrating south for a few months now, many to as far away as Latin and, South America .

This bird could be spending this winter in Suriname, Guatemala or Brazil to name a few.

Oh by the way, we never did get a chance to shoot off the net, to band the birds, sometimes it's just

Natures Way.

Birding and Fishing the Nor'easter

2010-10-15T23:31:00.002-04:00

What else is there to do on a Friday afternoon in mid October, as a Nor'easter is rambling up the Coast?

Jump on the boat and do some extreme Birding and Fishing!

As you can see in the above photo, the water seems tolarable, but also note that there are no other boats on the horizon today, later we did see one Oyster Boat working off Peck's Ledge Lighthouse.

My nephew Ken joined me to try some Blackfishing before the weather really started getting rough.

With a WNW (280 True) wind in the twenties , we thought we could hide behind on of the islands, we tried Sheffield, and decided it wasn't to bad yet, so we decided to make our way to a favorite spot to the east off Cockenoe Island.

Along the way, I spotted a shorebird on one of the boulders east of Copps Is. Dang if it wasn't one more of those late "carrot billed sparkplugs" the American Oystercatcher!

I can just never get enough of these birds, and I know everyone I see may be my last, until late March.

We anchored up on Dunder Rock, just south of Cockenoe Island in about eight feet of water, I tossed a baited crab in and immediatly hooked up to a four pound blackfish, I think to myself." it's going to be hot"

This was the last picture I took from my 400mm as a wave broke off the bow and sprayed my lens big time.

Different Camera.

As we were catching a few small togs, the wind was increasing.

Increasing to the point that we knew it was about time to call it a day, and get in before we had wind against tide conditions, where even in this shallow water the waves can get nasty.

In the above photo, these waves are 1-3 ft with occasional 4 footers, they are coming from on shore and we are fairly close to that shore, must have been a beauty mid-sound.

Had a few nice fly by birds in this wind, a White-winged Scoter, four Black Scoter and two Long-tails!

According to the Beauford Wind Scale, when white foam forms off the tops of waves,

the wind is "near gale" 32 to 38 MPH

This is that "near gale" condition.

The birds and the fish didn't seem to mind, and neither did we, but it was time for safe harbor, some dry clothes and a hot bowl of soup!

Changing of the Guard

2010-10-11T22:32:00.001-04:00

Columbus Day is here, and after a well deserved break from boating and following the wildlife around the Norwalk Islands, I am back.

Life is changing out here, it still has a long way to go, as some species seem to be hanging on a bit longer than usual, yet Autumn arrivals are about right on schedule.

To me the changing of the guard is the first mass arrival of Brant, the close cousin of the Canada Geese.

These birds nest way north of us in the arctic, and are usually only seen in these parts from Autumn until

late Spring, although a few may always be around.

Today I found many hundred Brant, including this migrating flock in the above photo, a sure sign that the seasons are changing

I was trying to get out for some fishing this afternoon, but I had to stop for this group of Ruddy Turnstones before leaving the harbor, the rock jetties off Norwalk's Shore and Country Club are a popular hangout for shorebirds as the waters chill.

Check out how they squint their eyes to avoid the splashing water.

So while having some R& R ,what is better than good old yawn!

See the bird in the middle!

Black-bellied Plover now are in basic (non-breeding) plumage, here they are hanging out with some of the newly arrived Brant

Double-crested Cormorants are still here with numbers pushing a thousand, perhaps the birds in this shot, migrated from up north of us and are are just stopping over while moving on south.

There were still a dozen American Oystercatchers at the Cockenoe Sandspit, this may be the latest that I have seen this number of Oystercatchers hanging out.

My intent was to do some fishing, and that I did.

The Blackfish (tautog) bite was pretty good today, these two fish in my cooler measured 22 and 21 inches each, both were over six pounds but less than seven.

How to help get rid of invasive species?

Go down to the shoreline, turn over rocks and grab all the Asian Shore Crabs you can.

Put them on a Virginia Style Hook (blackfish hook) and hang on to your rod.

Some one recently told be that these crabs are "blackfish crack" perhaps a bad analogy, but it is very true.

Our waters are loaded with these crabs, and the taugs do eat them like candy, their bellies are stuffed with this species of crab.

I doubt I fished for an hour the afternoon, probably had twenty five of so fish, including a number of smaller fish in the mix, the action was fun.

When I was a youngster, all we fished were Fiddle Crabs for Tautog Bait, and hammered big blacks, these Asians Crabs are yesterdays Fiddlers.

This and that

2010-09-29T20:17:00.002-04:00

I haven't been out checking the islands on the boat in a while, I'm waiting for the for the wave of winter migrants to arrive, in the meantime I had a blast catching Blue Crabs off the pilings in the marina, I just about filled a five gallon pail with the tasty little critters, but after culling the shorts and females, I only had a few dozen left. The Mrs.and I enjoyed them on the patio, with some nice cold beers and a bottle of homemade champagne. I also had a few soft shells, and OMG they were spectacular.

Tautog season starts Oct 1st, I won't be here, but look forward to some great fishing in October and November.
We are off to New Hampshire this weekend, to friends Dave and Aldonna's Cabin,"The Wilderness" a dozen or so miles north of Concord, and way off the beaten path, just an incredible place... loons on the pond, owls hooting, coyotes howling, black bear and moose tracks around the pond, hopefully I will catch one of the mammals this trip, and not just find their tracks... I forgot to mention the "stars" there is absolutely no light interference in this neck of the woods. The moths are phenomenal, I'll be spending many hours after dark photographing these little cuties, and calling owls, or in this case, they may be calling me, yes its a cabin in the wilderness, there is no TV and thank God for that!

Till then, check out the first summer American Redstart taking a dip at one of my bird baths in the above photo.
Several stop by each day, and love the water.

American Oystercatcher Pre-Migration Staging

2010-09-15T22:18:00.001-04:00

I have been following this with great interest over the past three years,

American Oystercatchers grouping together in numbers on Crow Island Bar,

a small sand bar between Copps and Chimmons Islands in Norwalk, CT.

They start to group together at the very end of August and peak during the first few weeks of September.

Over the past few years, the number of Oystercatchers staging here prior to their southerly migration has been growning, in 2008, there was a high of thirty eight birds on this sand bar, last year on Sept 6th we had fourtyfive, this year, 2010 the number increased to fifty seven.

This is a small part of the group, up and about, before landing again on Crow Island.

It's been impossible to get the whole flock together for a photo, but this is a partial shot of the group of

forty five from 2009.

Besides the Oystercatchers, the departing numbers of Terns, Gulls, Cormorants, Osprey and Herons have left a deafening silence around the islands. This will be the course for the next month or two.

I think it's time for some fishing, or hawkwatching...or both!

A Big Thank-You to everyone that stopped by and visited me at the Norwalk Oyster Festival under the

Oyster Pavilion Tent, it was a fun time!!!

THANKS!!!!

One Last Tern!

2010-09-01T23:46:00.000-04:00

We went out to Cockenoe Island to remove the tern fencing before Earl potentially does that for us.

Although there were still several hundred Common Terns along the shoreline, with almost all being this years juveniles, there was no activity in the nesting area, and we felt all the chicks must have fledged by now.

As we were untying the knotted roping and removing the stakes, I noticed something very small and gray, hiding in the vegetation.

Wow! There is still one last chick on the island, that had not fledged, but something else was wrong, there were no adults defending this chick, none of the others birds seemed to care in the least that we were on the island, as they would normally be very upset, and dive bombing us, did something happen to it's parents?

I went back to the boat and grabbed my camera, took a few shots of this little darling, when all hell broke loose, seems the parents were out feeding, and upon their arrival back to the island, were not at all happy with us being there.

We cleaned up the rest of the gear, loaded it onto the boat.

This is the last photo, of the last Common Tern chick on the island.

They have been incredible to follow for the past several months, four hundred or so birds fledged on this tiny sand spit. I will miss them, and hope they return next spring.

Hummingbird Highway

2010-08-26T21:57:00.008-04:00

We never get numbers of Ruby-throated Hummingbirds in our backyard, three, four at the most, and that never last for a very long time, as they just don't seem to care much for each other.
Skirmishes quickly erupt between them, with the winner claiming our feeders for a few days.

Our yard is on their migration highway, and has plenty of attractions for them, as the butterfly garden, food, water and cover, keep a steady stream of these little gems at our feeders from mid July until early October, some stay for a day or two, others may protect our yard for a week, as the above juvenile female did a few weeks ago.

As always, click on any of these photos to enlarge.

Another recent youngster.

This young male introduced himself to me this evening, he almost ran us over while we were in the garden, then when I approached the feeder, he boldly came within eighteen inches of my face, gave me a tail wagging display, and I guess realizing that I wasn't going to move, he gave up and went back to his feeding!

He did some nice showing off and didn't mind the camera at all.

This adult male, patrolled our yard from August 16-18, he would not tolerate any other hummers, his was on constant offense. (attack all intruders!)

This bird was incredibly fast, and I never got a good shot of him.

Black Tern and Shorebird's Feeding

2010-08-20T22:34:00.017-04:00

A juvenile Black Tern has been hanging out with the Common and Least Terns on Cockenoe Is. Westport for most of this week, I was able to catch a few photos of this cool tern this afternoon.
Click on any photo to enlarge.

Taking a break.

Just loafing along the shoreline.

The Semipalmated Plover's did not disappoint this afternoon, as I was able to get a few shots of them worming.

When it comes to catching worms, I think these birds would give any Robin a run for it's money.

They just don't miss, and feed in the exact same style a Robin would, walk around, listen (or feel) walk some more, and bam! the bill plunges in between the stones, and up comes dinner.

The ever cautious eye to the sky, Peregrine Falcons are also feeding in the area, this was a false alarm, as it was only an Osprey passing over.

A little feather straightening, and it's back to work.

This is an interesting series of photos. In this shot it appears as though the adult American Oystercatcher is showing it's fledge how to open a clam.

The adult had pulled out a clam (I'm not exactly sure what it is) and walks over to the youngster that had been startled by more Oystercatchers flying in for the food.

The adult on left dropped the food into the water, the juvenile is picking it up.

And makes short work of this snack.

A small flock of Short-billed Dowitchers, enjoying lunch at this free,

Westport Waterfront Restaurant.

The bird on the left is having a good scratch, must have previously dined in NY and picked up a few bed bugs?

A few Least Sandpipers showed up, along with the hundreds of Semipalmated Sandpipers.

This Black-bellied Plover in eclipse plumage, was one of the many of it's kind participating in the hunt.

Last but not least, there are still a number of not yet to have fledged Common and Least Terns on the Island.

Shorebird Banding

2010-08-12T21:28:00.016-04:00

Shorebirds have finished their nesting season in the Arctic, and are slowly migrating back both adults and juveniles to their winter grounds in South America, Central America and the Southern USA.
It is time for CT DEP, Division of Wildlife to start it's Shorebird banding program as
numbers of migrating shorebirds stop by and use Connecticut saltwater shores, freshwater inland areas, swamps and fields as feeding stops on their leisurely migration back to their winter feeding grounds.

Milford Point in New Haven County is one off the largest stop over areas in Connecticut for these hungry birds, as tidal areas abound with food, in this place where the Housatonic River meets Long Island Sound.
This point has numerous sandbars that are natural resting places for shorebirds at high tide, and it a great target area for capturing these birds for banding

It's not just a matter of capturing a bird, putting a ring on it and calling it a day, a whole lot of work by many people, mostly volunteers, goes into it.
Lead by, and at the direction of the CT DEP Migratory Bird Biologist Leader, a whole lot of things have to come together to make this all happen.
First is trekking the gear out to the capture area, which may be a half to three quarter mile walk one way carrying everything from the capture net, holding bins, biological testing kits, notebooks, chairs, tents, the incredibly heavy steel explosive gear, signs, spotting scopes, water, food, and the list goes on and on, hopefully with a dozen or so people, this all gets transported by hand in one trip.

The spot where the nets will be placed have been scouted out days in advance by a DEP Biologist, with great expertise in this field, this is not a crap shoot, they know exactly where the birds will land at a specific time, and tide level.

So here we go....

All the birds we netted were either Semi-palmated Sandpipers or Semi-palmated Plover, in the above photo, these are the sandpipers. Two hundred birds were banded this day, with five being recaptures.

The net was set, a flock moved into the expected area, and the black powder charges were detonated, hurling the net up and over the birds that were resting on the shoreline.

Of course many birds escaped without ever seeing the net, including two Oystercatchers and many others.

It is then a mass removal of all captured birds, ASAP! This was the very end when there were only a few birds left, that I was able to grab my camera and take a photo, before that it was all about getting the birds safely out of the net.

Each bird goes though a number of test before being released, in this case the length of this sandpipers wings are being measured.

It is then put into a cloth bag and weighed.

They are swabbed at both ends, mouth and cloaca, these test are monitored closely to see if anything like "bird flue" is coming back into the USA along with these highly migratory species.

Data, Data and more Data, all information on each bird is hand written on to (guess what) Data sheets in the field as each bird is processed.

Finally, preparing to band this tiny little sandpiper.

(I love the tee shirt with the cute little puppy dog checking this all out.)

A plover receiving it's band.

Sandpiper, the same.

"In Loving Hands"

Please click on any photo to enlarge.

Osprey Chick loses life to Fishing Line

2010-08-04T21:52:00.005-04:00

This is the July 30th photo of the one young Osprey from Channel Marker 1 in Norwalk Harbor.

This birds parents have been attempting to nest on this navigational light stanchion with out success for three years, this year they finally produced one offspring, the bird in this photo.

This youngster was ready to fledge at anytime now, but I'm guessing that while learning to flap it's wings in the nest, something went very wrong.

If you look below the birds head to the lowest part of the photo, you will see the discarded fishing line that the parents brought back to the nest, little did they know what they were bringing to their one offspring.

The following picture is GRAPHIC and may not be suitable to all.

I started receiving emails and phone calls this morning, I immediately hopped on the boat to check out the scene, it was to late, from what I know, this bird was spotted in this position on Tuesday Aug. 3rd. I last saw this bird on Sunday and all was well.

This reminds me of Hank Golet's haunting photo from Old Lyme two years ago, of another Osprey meeting the same fate.

It's sad and it happens all to often, one of those human footprints that are not always counted.

The bird has been cut down and is on it's way to CT DEP.

Least Terns, is the third nesting attempt the charm?

2010-07-30T21:31:00.021-04:00

With amazement, I found seventeen Least Terns today on the Cockenoe Island sand spit sitting on nest, the amazing part is that this is their third nesting attempt this season, with seventy five of the eighty nest having been wiped out by extra high tides during June and July's new moon phases.

I knew they were renesting, and again thought this will be for naught, when something happened... I was following Common Terns bringing fish back to shore for their hungry offspring.

A Least Tern passes close bye with a fish and I follow it to the nest, figuring he's providing nourishment to its mate sitting on the nest, the mate quickly move off the nest to accept this gift, this broke the cover for what was sitting under its wing.

Out of no where pops up this tiny hatchling, WOW! Through all their nest failures, this very late nesting attempt is producing young, she went back to sitting on the nest and the youngster stayed close by. We will continue to monitor these late nest for as long as it takes.

Common Terns have now fledged several hundred youngsters on this tiny area, but they still have aways to go, at least forty are still nesting and there are many hatchlings at various stages on the island. In this photo a butterfish? is being fed to the oldest chick, but lets look deeper into this photo.

This cropped closeup shows four chicks in all, in different stages of development.

To the right of the chick being fed, is a stone, between that stone and the next obvious older chick are two much smaller, very hard to notice smaller chicks. Click on the image to enlarge, its not clean at that magnification, but the birds are there, hope you can see them.

What I had many photos of were this years, begging young Common Terns, the parent to the right seemed disgusted with this, and tried its best to walk off, yet the youngster kept following, finally the adult flew off, for some peace and quite, or to bring back some food?

Besides the terns, there are many other visitors here, including this pair of Willet coming in for a landing.

We also had an alternate plumage Red Knot on the shoreline, this bird flew by at close range, I was not able to photograph it, nor could we relocate it after two hours of trying.
Also seen was several looks at a Roseate Tern feeding near the island.
There are large amounts of baitfish close to the island, with feeding frenzy's all around.

More time needs to be spent around these feeding free for alls, I'm sure there are other birds that I am missing.

A number of Laughing Gulls were loafing along the shore line, these three are in different stages of molting, a nice comparison.

Semipalmated, whether it be Plover as in this photo, or the many hundreds of Sandpiper

were an easy spot along the shoreline.

I'm thinking this is the neatest, coolest dance new dance going on in the islands.

I don't know what it is called... the Oystercatcher Shuffle?

And then there were two! My favorite nest, the one that we have been following, three were there as we approached, it happened, the oldest hopped off the nest, skimmed the water and slowly gained altitude, flew off to perch on a pole next to dad.

The bird to the right is practicing lift, but is not ready yet, the youngster to the left seems to be wondering what this wing flapping is all about, I give him one more week and he'll have it down pat.

This one was flapping its wings with out lifting off, encouraging the other chicks to do the same.

I'm sure you have seen the movie Jurassic Park, recall the Velociraptors?

It's easy to see what this bird evolved from, and they still even call them raptors today, imagine that?

Here is a crop of the above photo, a nice look at the business end. You can also see that well known "reversible outer toe" this is the toe closest to and facing you.

By reversible, the Osprey can hold this toe out to the side as it is doing in the photo, or move it forward, perching with three toes forward and one back as most other raptors do.

By moving the toe to the side it allows the Osprey to carry fish, two toes in, and two toes outside of the fish, better gripping power and more aerodynamic.

Owls also have the ability to do this.

Doormat Fluke and Snorkeling with the Birds!

2010-07-25T22:09:00.011-04:00

The South Norwalk Boat Club held their annual Fluke Contest this weekend.
This beautiful 9lb 1oz Doormat Fluke was leading the board with one hour to go in the contest.
Proudly displaying his catch is Paul Fosse, who along with partner Paul Lovas had a fine weekend of fishing with a number of other fish pushing the five pound range.
This fish was about 30 inches long, it was well on the thin side, if it had packed on a few waistline inches, it could have gone in the twelve pound range, either way, great fish guys!

With the outrageous heat wave we have been in, I have had no desire to go boating, other than the Norwalk Seaport Associations Bird Cruises to which I am committed.
My friend Marc called me a few nights ago and suggested we go snorkeling around the islands this weekend, huh?
I always have my snorkeling gear onboard, but never use it, outside of cleaning off the boats bottom several times during the summer months.
I have many hundreds of hours in the water snorkeling from Florida to St. Croix but never thought much of trying it in the Norwalk Islands.

I agreed with Marc that, I'd be very happy cooling off in the water in this hot weather, and with a noonish high tide, I'd be game to try it out, we met at 10:15am and were in the water by 10:45.
Crow Island was my choice, it is a rocky, cobble sandbar extending between Chimmons and Copps Islands.
It has a variety of underwater habitat that is exposed at low tide, but can easily be explored with a snorkel, mask and fins at high tide. I was not disappointed.

In fact I was incredibly impressed, this was not the Florida Keys, Hawaii, or the Virgin Islands by any means, but yet I was awed at the underwater beauty and life that was surrounding me, it only took moments before I became one with this incredible environment.

The first school of a few hundred, one inch long shiner type fish passes a foot in front of my mask, the visibility in this shallow water is four to six feet, and having this school so close to me, perked my interest.

I have my eye on a number of Turnstones, Plover, Cormorants, Terns and Oystercatchers that are either resting along the rocky shoreline or are perching on large offshore boulders.
I wonder, how close I can get to them in the water, will they accept me as something natural, and not fear me, or just flush as they would a human on land?

Before I can get to them, I have to snorkel around a few boulders and a good bit of vegetation.
My mask is below water all this time exploring the fascinating world around me, as I get close to bigger boulders I see larger fish darting for cover beneath the large rocks, small scup, three, four inches long, then snapper bluefish, the same size, just feet away I venture near a maze of eel grass, sea life is very abundant along this edge, a small blue crab scampers away, many Asian Shore crabs run for cover, large Atlantic Silverside shiners are abundant, in schools of many hundreds, a school of fifty, two inch long Menhaden pass inches in front of my mask, I'm almost looking cross eyed to see them.

Face down and floating on the surface, I laugh as the eel grass is now tickling me, with the wave action softly brushing the tips of these grasses against my belly, I am laughing through my snorkel, this is an experience I would have never imagined could happen in these islands.

There is a Common Tern loafing on a boulder twenty feet in front of my, I wonder how close...?
I slowly snorkel along the shallow water until I reach the boulder, I tilt my head and mask half way above the water line, look up, and just twenty four inches in front of me is a juvenile Common Tern, looking at me as though to say "gee, I never saw on of these before".
The bird never flinched, I wished I had the camera for this shot, plus catching the twenty one Ruddy Turnstones from water level would have been neat, but with no camera in hand, I just slowly backed off, the birds stayed in their places.

Turning around and looking away from the shoreline, I see a Double-crested Cormorant, floating on the water thirty feet away from me, I thinking that if he dives, can I hook up with him and see him underwater?
Yeah Right? I now know I must be suffering from rapture of the deep (the bends) from my two to three foot dives, the corm is not happy with me and dives in the other direction.

The tide is now moving with the outgoing tide and is bringing Moon Jellyfish in numbers,
these small transparent jellies are incredible to see underwater and I attempt to play with a few in my hands, this looks much easier than it is, sort of like trying to catch jello in a bathtub, they just continue on their own merry way.
A small horseshoe crab is crawling along the sea bottom, I pick it up for a moment, I hope this little one survives to help reproduce many offspring, I release it and marvel as it slowly swims off to its next adventure.

Anyone that has ever walked a shoreline at low tide must have come the upon many groups of seemingly lifeless seaweed that are flattened out against the ground, but at high tide these seaweeds are anything but lifeless.
They lift up and now float still attached to the bottom and abound with great beauty, not unlike our most favorite perennial shrubs and bushes, wavering in the wind. Sort of like the sea fans of the southern oceans.
Within the cover of this vegetation hide many small fish, crabs, periwinkles, barnacles and probably one hundred thousand other organisms that I am not capable of naming.

I can't wait to get back and do this again, it is a fantastic underwater world, and it's in our own backyard!

From past blogs, you know this youngster, the one that was always ruffled up.

This is probably the last shot we will ever get of the three amigos/amigas together
as they are about to fledge and fly off any moment now.
They will still return to the nest site for a few more weeks, but to get the three together for a photo, will probably never happen again.
Good Luck, My Friends!

The Terns Survived

2010-07-15T23:07:00.017-04:00

After this weeks new moon tides, three 8.5 and one 8.6 tide, I had to think that the Cockenoe Island Tern Colony had to have been devastated, a look around at low tide on Tuesdays, Norwalk Seaport Associations Bird Cruise didn't reveal a whole lot of birds.

We could see where the previous night tide line came up to, there was very little island left above the tide line, if a bird couldn't fly away it may have been swept away by the extra high tide and the currents.

I had to get a better look at high tide, when I can get my boat very close to the island.

I already knew that the Least Terns nest went underwater, as they play Russian Roulette with the tides, yes these nest were gone, but as I peered closer, I could see life on this tiny sand spit, and a whole lot of life there was.

I counted one hundred Common Tern chicks , there were more, I was so impressed to see that these chicks survived, I stopped counting them and started looking for Least Tern chicks.

On the southern edge of the island, there they were, first one, then two, three, four , five, perhaps a dozen made it, alright!

Though their nest have been wiped out twice from big tides, this Least Tern seems to want to try again. Again well below the tide line. Recognize the coffee cup in the backround?

The adult American Oystercatcher is to the left, note the bright orange bill, yellow eyes and orange eye ring. The youngster in the middle still has black in its bill and has dark eyes and no eye ring.
Click to enlarge any of these photos.

Here is one of the few Least Tern chicks that survived.

Least Terns are on the Threatened Species List in Connecticut, and are on the Federal Endangered Species List in other parts of the United States.

This herring species fish is now dinner for one of the hundred or more Common Terns chicks running about.

Common Tern chicks are at all ages out here, this one has fledged and can fly short distances.

They are loud and cranky, I was target practice. They won!

A younger Common Tern chick, huddling up to an old Lobster pot buoy.

Adult Common Tern in the backround, with it's chick in the foreground.

I know its hazy, hot and humid, but talk about a bad hair day.

This young oystercatcher is learning to preen its feathers.
Edward Scissorhands?

Part of the Heron Colony out here. On a recent survey that I was part of with CT DEP

108 Great Egret nest were counted, 27 Snowy Egret nest, Glossy Ibis and Little Blue Heron had five nest each plus a number of Black-crowned Night Herons.

These areas are off limit to the public, they are NASTY, filled with poison ivy, broken glass, vines prickers, and stink beyond belief!
Please don't even think about it.

Besides, most of the colony has fledged, these birds are now feeding inside the bay at high tide.

There were over one hundred herons and egrets feeding here.

I keep checking on these dudes, I cropped the third bird on the left out of the picture, as I was awed by this pose.

A bit more cropping, incredible!

This is The Norwalk Seaport Associations brand spanking new tour boat, The C.J. Toth Quest.

At 45 feet, it is an incredibly comfortable vessel. If you have any interest in seeing the wildlife around the Norwalk Islands, or even just a nice three hour get away, book a seat on this boat for one of the very popular bird cruises, I promise you won't be disappointed, it's quite awesome.
In the backround is the Seaports Sheffield Island Light House which can be visited daily.

Visit http://www.seaport.org/ for times and reservations, for both the Lighthouse and the Bird Tours.

A Backyard Pool Party, For The Birds!

2010-07-08T22:02:00.014-04:00

It was just too hot to be on the water this week, I checked the sand spit Tuesday morning and all is well. In the meantime it wasn't just you and I that thought it was HOT!
Let's get out of the sun and take a quick look at the backyard at our house.

A number of years ago, I installed a flowing water bird creek in our back yard, it was always a magnet for birds, but it had served its purpose, it was time to do something a bit different.
This spring I pulled it out and did something a bit different, it was still based on a waterfall or two, but this time it has a bigger, deeper water pool, about a four foot round by two foot deep pond.
In here are a few Koi, Goldfish and water plants and a fountain.
Surrounding the pond is a shallow, one to two inch deep bog area, with a number of shallow water plants, this is the playground for many of this years fledged and adult birds.

With the heat wave, and drought that we are currently experiencing, this has become pool party central for the neighborhood birds, the adults have always brought their fledges here to drink their first water and take their first baths, but with the expanded area that I installed, more and more have come, especially in this heat wave.
At night I have also see skunks, raccoons, opossum and others come in for a drink.
A short-tail shrew has also adopted us, we see him in the daylight often.
This is the lower pond area, it a few feet deep and four feet around, Goldfish and Koi are visible in this photo.
The outside area is the bog, a very shallow area, also with lots of moving recycling water that is a favorite for birds, bathing, drinking or cooling off, it is washed and cleaned daily!
There are two waterfalls and a fountain, lots of aeration, even on these hot days, it stays cool as it only gets an hour or two of direct sunlight.
This is a 24/7/365 water feature, I add a heater in the winter to keep the water fluid, in deep freeze it is very popular, not just with birds but with mammals also, it may be the only open water for miles.

This is the upper waterfall, it flows into a very shallow pool, sort of running brook style,before flowing into the pond. Birds cannot resist it, the sound of running water stops passing birds in flight, to come take a look, a drink and maybe a quick bath.

A side view, we have less than quarter acre lot, the arborvitae and red cedar provide perfect cover for the many birds visiting and nesting in our yard.

Believe it or not, I have had 8 and 10 point deer, right here.

Fox Sparrows are common bathers during migration.

These young Common Grackles are possibly my favorite, their parents seem to drop them off here by the truckload, "spend the day in the pool kiddies, We'll pick you back up before dark"
They are precious, but also have to feel everything with their bills, they are chopping down my Pickerel Weed, and chewing up every plant in the bog. But that's OK!

In Wednesday's heat there were sixteen birds in the bog at one time, all youngsters, Catbirds, Robins, Grackles, Orioles, Starlings, House Sparrows.

We have several other bird baths in the yard, without moving water, Goldfinches and others seem to appreciate these.

Tail-less Catbird at Oriole feeder.

These Oriole feeders are very hot right now, the bottom is filled with sugar water, 1 part sugar to 4 parts water, boiled, stirred and refrigerated. Hummers love it also!

Where this birds feet are, there are trays that I fill with Poloners Grape Jelly, this is natural jelly, with no artificial sweeteners, (the chemical stuff is not cool and may harm these guys) and of course a half an orange.
Beside the Catbirds, It is the place to be if you are an oriole, I've had up to six males, six females and all their kin fighting for a spot at these feeders, and right now is the time to have these feeders out..

You will also be surprised at the number of other species that show up on these feeders.

Where's the Fruit?

I also keep thistle and shelled nuts out during the summer, goldfinches are here daily, sun up to sun down feeding on the thistle, unsalted peanut halves are a easy delicacy for many birds, including this recently fledged Red-bellied Woodpecker.

Happy Backyard Birding!

July 4th, no holiday for nesting shorebirds

2010-07-03T14:57:00.018-04:00

The 4th of July is official start of summer, but if you are a shore nesting bird, this time of year can bring tragic loss to young hatchlings, and unhatched eggs without a moments notice.
Offshore islands now become the summer playground for thousands of boaters in the Norwalk area.

With the many boaters, kayakers, surfboarders, PWC operators and others now using the shoreline areas around the islands for their enjoyment, birds species that have set up nesting sites weeks or months ago when all was quiet, are now in jeopardy of losing this years clutch of offspring.

Places like Sandy Point, in West Haven, rely on volunteers to monitor nest sites and keep firework watchers and others from trampling through these areas.

It is no different in the Norwalk Islands, except there are no monitors, the wildlife and vegetation are pretty much on there own out there.
I spent a few hours Friday evening, it could have turned ugly, but that was avoided.
I left Cockenoe Island as the sun was setting, all seemed quiet. But this was just the start of a long weekend!
Click on any photo to enlarge.

An unsuspecting kayaker paddling close to shore, flushed this flock of nesting terns.

This often happens, and the terns put up with it, as long as people don't walk onto or get near the nesting area

This American Oystercatcher fledgling has now reached adult size, but has not grown its flight feathers and cannot fly, it is easy game for a loose pet.

So would this young Killdeer, these birds are less than six inches tall, stones and shells are mountains to them.

This Piping Plover chick is almost invisible with it's surrounding habitat, if they can't run away they will freeze in place. Many are trampled on each year by unsuspecting beach goers.

These recently hatched Common Terns, again very hard to see, can't fly and have very short legs, it would be impossible for them to flee from any predator, including humans, that could walk ontop of them since they become almost invisible with the shoreline.

These are just some of the birds that need our help when we are along remote shorelines.
One loose dog can kill many chicks and eggs, I know, I've seen it happen.
It's up to us, to protect them, and let life move on.

While two of this Herring Gulls siblings walked off into the vegetation after seeing the boat, this one chose a different maneuver, He'll just swim away.
A Q/T

Just opposite the young Herring Gull was a Glossy Ibis feeding in the marsh.

On a recent survey that I was a part of with CT DEP at least five Glossy Ibis nest were found around the Norwalk Islands.
I will report on the others after the nesting season is over.

Willet are becoming more common as most their young have now fledged.

Nice photo to left click on.

The food source was not far away, as a school of bluefish were blasting baitfish near Peck's Ledge Lighthouse.

This was a repetitive route, ongoing throughout the evening by hundreds of terns.

This is of concern, these youngsters were pounding the fragile beach vegetation with sticks.

I gave them a holler and they stopped, but they then started walking off towards the tern nest site.
Fortunately they turned around within just a few hundred feet of the site, and went back to their
campground or boat.
I had visions of this crew treating the terns as pinatas. Oh Boy!
This is why enforcement is needed. Law Enforcement that is, not me!

One thing I do understand is "boys will be boys"

As the sun was setting, I caught this last tern, returning to it's nest.

Here Come The Babies

2010-06-25T23:20:00.011-04:00

I only had a few moments to check on the tern colony at Cockenoe Island, as I was motoring out Norwalk Harbor, I couldn't help but notice an osprey hovering and then stooping, it was a quickly repeated movement, I put the boat in neutral and stood fast.

What this female osprey (the one in the above photo) was doing, was following a Double-crested Cormorant that was searching sub surface for a fish or two for lunch, the osprey would hover, following very slowly, just before the cormorant would surface the osprey started it's stoop from fifty or so feet, and meet the cormorant with talons extended as soon as the cormorant surfaced.

I watched six stoops, the corm never came up with any food and finally the osprey retired to her nest. My photos were way too out of focus to show.

The Cockenoe Island sand spit is a very busy place right now,

The Least Terns are renesting after their loss of nest and eggs from last weeks moon tides.

The Common Terns are doing very well, since they nest just a bit higher in the sand than the Least, in the bottom middle of this photo is a few day old Common Tern chick, with parents on either side scolding another tern, telling it not to land here.

Bottom bird is an adult Oystercatcher with it's three healthy chicks above, the youngsters are quickly molting into adult plumage, but still have dark colored bills.
Their bills will slowly change to the bright orange of the adult in the nest several months.
You saw these same chicks a few weeks ago on past blogs.
A few pair of Oystercatchers that lost their clutches are now renesting.

There were about three hundred Common Terns around the sand spit today, this seems to be an ordinary photo of a C Tern posing on a rock.

Click on the photo to enlarge and note the banding ring on its leg, my closeup shows a possible letter H on it.

I have yet to research it but I will. If anyone has the data on hand, please chime in.

I'm cruising along and note this Great Egret flying side by side with the boat, I snap a few shots, then realize it's flying the same course that I am navigating, we stay together for over a mile.

I look at the boats GPS and see that the bird and I are cruising at 19.2 knots, with a 4-5 kt head wind off the birds and my port bow! In mph this puts us at about 22mph.
These birds fly very leisurely, I've had races with Bald Eagles and many other birds that blow by me when I'm over 30 mph, and those birds were not cranking it up.

Osprey chicks are starting to show, this undisclosed local nest is not far above the high tide line.

Note how the chicks lay down to become one with the nest.

Please don't get upset that I was to close to the nest, again I am shooting at 400mm and these pics are cropped most likely past 2-3,000mm, Photoshop helps big time with the clarity.

If it weren't for the orange eyes they would be invisible.

This Great Blacked-backed Gull chick is now learning to hang out in the one to two inch surf.

By the wetness of it's feathers, I'm guessing a boat may have come by, leaving a wake large enough to give this bird a bath? Or maybe it just took one?

Black-back Predation

2010-06-20T22:17:00.009-04:00

I was just reading "Steve's Bird's"

In his blog he talks about a missing Piping Plover chick and the possibility that it was taken by a Great Black-backed Gull, as there were several present in the area.

This reminded me of something we saw this past Monday 6/14/10 at Goose Island, Westport,CT.

(The photo to the top right is of a week or two old Black-backed hatchling, they are very cute at this stage, as they become older, they are still beautiful, but.)

Beware, it gets ugly and graphic from here on in.

You may recall this GBBG feeding on a Black Duck from April.

And this spat with the Corms from May. Now it gets bad,

PLEASE, DON'T LOOK IF YOU HAVE A WEAK STOMACH!

My guess is that this is an Oystercatcher Chick, that the gull is having a problem devouring.

I have been watching the Oystercatcher families, most had three chicks to start, some still do,

other families are down to zero, one or two chicks.

The Black-backs are never far away when easy pickings are around.

This is all part of nature, sad yes, but no different than a Red Tail Hawk grabbing a squirrel, a Sharp-shinned eating that lovely Junco in your back yard, or a Chimney Swift polishing off a few insects above the treetops.
It happens everyday, and in many cases for millions of years.
The Balance of Nature?

Barn Swallows and Boat Anchors

2010-06-16T22:05:00.007-04:00

I have been watching them for many years, Barn Swallows arrive sometime in early May, feeding on maritime insects of all sorts, those good old no-seeums, mosquitoes and whatever else that is available.

They enjoy the habitat surrounding the many marinas in Norwalk Harbor, close to the shoreline, lots of bugs to eat, and some cool man made places to make a nest.

They like a place with a bit of cover to build their nest, and many boats in the area seem to be the perfect place for there nest building.

Most boats these days have a built in bow pulpit, this is an extension of a boats bow that usually accommodates the boats anchor, Barn Swallows have found the underneath of these pulpits to their liking as a nesting sites.

It is not hard to follow adult Barn Swallows right to their nest in any marina, as they are busy providing food to their very hungry and demanding youngsters.

The bottom is the boats anchor, the nest is built on top of it,
above is the bow pulpit with the roping.

Note the mud based nest, built on the top of a boat anchor,
beneath the boats bow pulpit, they fill it with many feathers.

Not a good shot, but you can see the open mouths of the hatchlings,
asking me for a bit of food!
Mama was right there to feed them as soon as I passed bye.
The poop is not from the adults, but rather the youngsters, they quickly learn to turn around and deficate outside of the nest!

The only issue here is when a Captain chooses to go boating, and does not realize he/she has a few extra passengers on board!
The swallows seem to use the less frequently used boats, but that is not always the case.

Red Knot Banding Data + Oldsquaw!

2010-06-10T17:04:00.005-04:00

Thanks to Jeannine from Bandedbirds.Org and Particia M. Gonzalez from Global Flyway Network Sudamerica y Coord. Programa Humedales, in Argentina I was able to get the banding information on the three Red Knot that showed up in the Norwalk Islands last week.
There were two birds on Cockenoe Island this afternoon, neither were banded.

This orange flagged, red banded and metal tagged bird #A9S was originally banded on 11/08/07

as a second year bird in Rio Grande, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina.

Argentina is not yet sharing info into the Banded Birds database, is was nice that they personally contacted me about this bird. (Thanks Jeannine!) The only other info I have on this bird is that they did not see it in Argentina last year, they didn't say if they saw it in prior years, but it sounded like they did.

This bird was resighted 06/02/10 Cockenoe Island, Westport, CT.

This light/green flagged bird N0K was captured and banded 5/31/08 08:53 Mispillion Harbor, DE.

It was resighted 5/22/09 thru 5/27/09 in Mispillion Harbor, (see how they return to the same stop over areas each year to feed.) and then resighted by me on 6/05/10 at Cockenoe Is.

The white flagged bird (YA) was banded in Canada in '07 or earlier, it was resighted in Mispillion Harbor 5/22/08 thru 6/1/08, then 5/23/09 at West Creek NJ. then 6/5/10 at Cockenoe Island.

Cool Stuff, Huh!

Speaking about arctic nesting birds, why were these four Oldsquaw vacationing in the Norwalk Islands today, they appear to be two males to the left and two females to the right, click on the photo to enlarge.

Note the green grass in the backround, you don't see this when these birds are normally here.

Many duck/goose species lose their flight feathers this time of year, these birds could not fly enough to gain any altitude, guess they are stuck here for the summer?

The photo on the top was a fly by Osprey I saw while coming up the harbor this afternoon.

Red Knot Feeding Frenzy

2010-06-05T11:38:00.015-04:00

I made it out to the tern bar at Cockenoe Island,
at 6:30 this morning.
The first thing I noticed was a brouhaha with a American Oystercatcher doing battle with a Glossy Ibis, seems as though the ibis had way to much interest in one of the oystercatchers chicks. Eventually the ibis gave up and flew off.

Scanning the shoreline from the boat, I quickly found a number of Red Knot hanging along the shore, I found two flagged/banded birds out of the twenty two birds here.

As the tide dropped, the Red Knot and other shorebirds, started feeding very rapidly along the slowly exposing shoreline, horseshoe crabs have been laying eggs in this area lately, and the Red Knot have found them.

A bill full of horseshoe crab eggs. Click on photo for closeup.
Click twice for a closer look.

Searching the shallow shoreline for more Horseshoe Crab eggs.

They seem to peer into the water, sight feeding?

Most of the many hundreds of Semipalmated Sandpipers are doing

this display, rump is raised, tail lowered and primaries tilted upward.

They are very vocal and are chasing each other around the shoreline.
Raging Hormones?

I sort of forgot the hundreds of Ruddy Turnstones.

They are very beautiful in their breeding plumage.

One of the two banded Red Knot. This one was wearing green.

(no he's not Irish) This color indicates it was banded in the USA.

The number is NOK.

The other banded bird was a white flag YA, banded in Canada.

Must have been banded last year or earlier, since these birds

are still moving north and have not yet made it to Canada.
This Canada bird was reported at Mispillion Harbor, Osprey Point, Delaware

where it was documented from May 22 until May 30th this year.

Double Header Striped Bass on fly rods, nice!

Red Knots and Horseshoe Crabs...

2010-06-02T21:31:00.013-04:00

Something was making me very itchy to get out on the boat this
afternoon and have a look around, perhaps it was my nephew's
report of a raccoon sleeping under a Osprey nest in Norwalk?
Neither birds were sitting on the nest when I arrived, they were perched on a nearby house, this was not a good sign, as one bird almost always stays with the nest and eggs or young chicks.
A few days ago Ken found a raccoon sleeping just below the nest, which is on a group of pilings around Rowayton, CT. I'll look into it further.

Off to Cockenoe Island four miles to the east to check on the tern colony, first I stop in the bay and check out the shoreline for shore birds, it's high tide and every twenty or so feet, I see horseshoe crabs, paired up and digging into the sand to lay their eggs.

I think to myself, that's pretty cool, sort of like the Nature show I've seen on PBS, The Tale of Two Species, or something like that, it is a fantastic one hour documentary about the interconnecting lives of the horseshoe crab and the Red Knot, oh well, we have the crabs, but the knot could be tough.

I venture over to the tern sandbar, put the bow on the shore and start counting terns, the numbers are growing since this past weekend, I've got at least eighty three Least Terns, with about forty sitting on nest, over a hundred Common Terns, I didn't get a nest count since I could not see the other end of the bar.

There are also a number of shorebirds hanging around the high tide line, a few hundred Semipalmated sandpipers, sixty Ruddy Turnstone, thirty Dunlin, fifteen Black-bellied Plover, eight Semipalmated Plover, eight oystercatchers and a pair of Spotted Sandpipers,
Nice numbers for this tiny bar, barely two hundred feet long and maybe fifty feet wide at it's widest.

A flock of shorbs fly by the other side of the sandbar, alright! These guys are different, they land about sixty feet away, it's a good mix but the first oddities I pick out are a bunch of Red Knot,
Twenty three in total, also with them are fourteen Short-Billed Dowitchers, some Ruddy's and Semi/sands.
I'm excited to see these Knots, and the camera is firing fast.
It wasn't until I came home and down loaded the pics, that I noticed the flagged and banded
Red Knot.
I have sent this birds information out, but if anyone wants to further use it, that's OK with me.
The flag number is A9S in red, also with a red band on opposite leg.

Horseshoe crabs, she's almost completely buried

To the right of this crusty old guy is the female.

She is completely buried below the sand

They are piled up, a great sight to see!

It's not Delaware Bay, but The Norwalk Island do lend a helping hand.

Part of the flock of Red Knot flying bye, what else is in there?

Dunlin and Semipalmated Sandpipers?

Click on any of these photos to get a closer look.

Knots and Stones!

The white headed, black chested, brown backed birds are Ruddy Turnstones,

the other drabber birds are Red Knot.

A few Short-billed Dowitchers, Semipalmated Sandpipers to the right

Another look at the Knot, with a red flag and red band.

From the information that I have picked up, and I hope I'm right

This bird should have been banded in Chile.

These birds all appear to be nice and plump, a good thing,

they still have a long way to go on their migration,

north about as far as you can go, just before you run into ice and snow.

NEW NOTE! Data base tells me this is orange, not red
The numbers only match up to orange,

THIS BIRD IS NOT FROM CHILE, BUT ARGENTINA

It was interesting to watch the Least Terns with their catch,

in this case a sand lance, (sand eel)

The catch would be offered to a number of birds, then when

he could find a bird to finally except it, he would pull back,

fly away and start all over again.

The numbers of nesting and pre-nesting terns are increasing.

This is a pair of Common Terns mating.

More nest will be coming.

I almost forgot this guy, Mr. Osprey perched above the nest

with an Menhaden (bunker) that eventually he will share with

the female and the kids.

Chicks and Terns!

2010-05-29T13:04:00.015-04:00

I decided to take the boat for cruise around the islands
to see if there were any newly hatched babies.
I called my friend Alvin and we were off.
Our first stop was Goose Island, we know the
Cormorants were hatching, but how about the Gulls?

Surely enough, along the sandy coastline we saw the
first little puffballs of the season, Great Black-back Gull
chicks love to hang out along the shoreline, and there were a few,
just yards from the bow of the boat.
I never get tired of these little guys, they are beautiful.

We head off to Cockenoe Island in Westport, I know we will find a few American Oystercatcher chicks along this islands coastline, not to be disappointed, as soon as we saw the first pair of adults, we saw one, two, then three little fuzzy chicks following their parents around.

From the south side of the island we saw that the heron colony was doing well, then a Least Tern flies overhead with a small fish in it's bill, I follow the tern with my binoculars but soon lose it in the distance.
What I do know is that this bird is bringing food back to a nest, what I what to know is where is that nest?

Least Terns are on the Threatened Species List in Connecticut, mostly due to the losses of their preferred nesting areas, they nest just above the high tide lines along sandy beach areas.
They need little to no human disturbance and absolutly no disturbance from dogs, feral cats, raccoons and others, a hard spot to find in Connecticut these days.

Anyway, we made our way out to the small sand bar (or whats left to it, from severe erosion)
and darn if there aren't a few terns flying around, as we get closer to the tiny sand spit, we see more and more terns. Mostly Common Terns but there are a few Least in the flocks.
As we scan through the birds on shore we see many birds sitting on nest, 50, 60 70 nesting birds.

Then it hits me, it's Memorial Day weekend, hundreds of boaters will becoming here in the next few days, and if these birds don't get some sort of protection immediately, none of their eggs will make it through the weekend.

It's 1pm, I make a phone call to Nick Bonomo, hopefully he can help organize something very quickly.
We talk briefly and Nick is on the case, the word gets out on CT Birds and the ball is rolling.
Charlie Barnard calls me and said he has some left over signs and stakes from when DEP roped off Long Beach in Stratford a few week ago, he will walk the one mile to get them, he knows there are not enough for what we need, and stops at a hardware store to pick up more stakes, twine and ribbon.
He also makes a stop at the Town of Westport they have a few more signs available.

We meet back at the boat at 4:30, Charlie, Alvin and I have the nesting area completely roped of by six o'clock.
I can't believe the response from the many people that stepped up to make this happen so fast.
Not in any particular order, The Town of Westport, CT DEP, US Fish and Wildlife, National Audubon, CT Audubon, and the many individuals that made this happen.
Thanks to All!

One of the newly hatched GBB Gulls.
Tell me this isn't adorable!

Most gulls are still siting on nest

This little gem is an American Oystercatcher chick

Be very careful if walking the islands, these guys are

to small to get away, little stones are like mountains

to them, they hide in between the rocks and

can easily be stepped on as they are almost invisible.

This adult oystercatcher was trying to protect it's

young from the dive bombing terns.

When the terns got to close to the Oystercatchers

chicks, in return the adult Oystercatcher would chase off the terns,

it seemed to be never ending, the oystercatchers

had this place all to themselves until a day or two ago.

Least Tern sitting on eggs.

A small smattering of the hundred or so

Common terns here.

This are part of the signs that were put up.

Three Common Tern eggs, again almost invisible

they can easily be stepped on, dogs and other

animals can sniff them out.

Loose animals running through a nest site,

can easily destroy many, many eggs!

I hope people respect this area and give it a

wide berth

Some may come and some may go...

2010-05-18T01:44:00.013-04:00

Last Wednesday I received a call from my friend
David Park who noticed on a recent kayak trip that a
local osprey nest was missing from it's usual stand.
Being a bit upset, I ventured out on the boat, and sadly confirmed David's findings, not a twig was left standing.

I've been very bummed out about this, since I have been following this pair up close, for the last five years.
They returned this past April 1st and had their nest well underway. On our April 15th survey, she was sitting, most likely on eggs, the nest was large, and all was well.

This nest was on one of the privately owned Norwalk Island docks, I know there was incredible wind the past few weeks, I really hope this was the cause of the nest destruction, God only knows!

Besides this doom and gloom the islands are buzzing with new life, as life again is renewing itself, those early arriving Double-crested Cormorants are parenting the first newborns in the Norwalk Islands as we speak, the birds that first arrived and took up the area closest to the Goose Island shack are the first to produce young.

I was also witness to a spectacular standoff between a Great-Black Backed Gull and a Double-crested cormorant, devouring the cormorants egg clutch, incredible!

Black-bellied Plover in full gear

Altercation on Cormorant nesting site

The Great Black-backed Gull raiding the Double-crested

Cormorants nest, with huge disapproval

It is not seen here, but the gull came up with some yolk,

despite it's size the gull is very cautious of this snapping cormorant

When they are not bothering others, they

are very beautiful while sitting on nest.

Another, hidding in the grass.

Adult Cormorant feeding it's clutch,

most pairs have 3-4 youngsters to feed.

The mate will find food and return to the nest

to help feed the young.

The average adult Double-crested Cormorant consumes about one pound of fish per day.

I saw a very nice early season Summer Flounder weighed in by Marcy Lozniak at the South Norwalk Boat Club yesterday, it pushed the scales at nearly 8 lbs!

Nice fish Girl!!!

C.J.Toth

2010-05-13T18:25:00.006-04:00

The Norwalk Seaport Assoc's new boat arrived this morning at Norwalk Cove Marina.
The C.J.Toth Quest named in honor of the late Charlie Toth, was shipped via truck from Tarpon Springs Florida where it was built by Corinthian Catamarans.

The Toth is a 45 ft catamaran with a 14 ft beam, it is powered by twin 225 hp Honda Outboard engines and will accommodate up to 49 passengers.
The hull has a draft of ten inches, but with the engines down its closer to two feet, it is also certified for a distance of twenty miles offshore, if the petrels show up off the islands we will now be able to get out to them, and fast with all that horsepower!
Hope to see you on the NSA bird cruises that will be coming up soon starting in June, dates will be announced shortly.

Captains and crew assembling the top.

A view of the bow

Starboard side.

Time for some fishing!

2010-05-06T19:51:00.008-04:00

With the arrival of some decent spring weather, boats are being launched and fishermen ( I'm still part of this clan) dust off their rods and reels and make way to the Norwalk Islands.

In Connecticut, Tautog (blackfish) season ends April 30th, it is difficult to catch a taug before this date as the sound waters are still to cold for these fish to move into the shallows.

Since a child I have learned that the Lilac bloom and spring blackfishing are closely associated, as the Lilac turn into full bloom, the blackfish are returning to the shallows.

This year was an exception, with botany species at least two weeks ahead of schedule in Connecticut, Lilacs were blooming in mid April instead of their normal very end of April, early May.

Regardless, my nephew Ken and I headed out on April 30th to see if there were a few blackfish around, we fished for about five hours and for the most part the fishing was very quiet, but we did have a little blitz in the shallows off of Cockenoe Is. for a half hour or so.

Ken was hot and hooked a few in the six seven pound range, we released another half dozen fish keeper sized fish, we took great care of the two fish, keeping them alive in the boats fish well.

Upon return to the South Norwalk Boat Club, the fish were weighed on the certified scales and promptly released to live another day.

This past Sunday the SNBC held its annual Winter Flounder Tournament, I don't have all the particulars but that the numbers of teams seemed to be lower this year.

It wasn't long ago that hundreds of fishermen (and ladies) would participate in the Interclub Flounder Derby in Norwalk, with the demise of winter flounder, sadly this is a thing of the past.

A few private clubs may still hold there own derbies, but even those are slowly also becoming a thing of the past.

I fished with my wife Glennis and our dear friend Aldonna Sanborn, and if there are two more intent fishermen (ladies) then these two , I have yet to meet them. These girls are the best, and believe me they catch fish! and BIG ONES!

Just not this year. We did very well in comparison to most teams, Aldonna had a 2lb 2oz for our big one, we had ten fish, releasing all but our allotted six, many teams with some great fishermen had a much slower time. Two fish for a four fishermen team in a six hour contest seem to be common, lets figure that out, that's two fish in twenty four total hours of fishing, one fish for every twelve hours of fishing, YIKES!
Maybe it's just time for a moratorium, though I'm sure that isn't the answer either.
A few nice fish were caught, Reeve Moore (pictured at the top) had a 3lb 6oz fish for 1st place and Tom Renzuella was a close 2nd with a 3lb 3oz. fish

Capt. Al's flounder crew. I've spent many nights
on this boat in the offshore canyons tuna fishing.

A team deciding which one's to weigh in, only four fish per boat
could be weighed, if the team could catch that many.
Most teams didn't

Ken with a nice 7lb Blackfish

Passing Peck's Ledge Lighthouse on the way out,

I spotted two Peregrine Falcons perched on the

upper railing.

That's some look he's giving me!

CT Council of Environmental Quality Annual Report

2010-04-30T23:10:00.011-04:00

A few weeks ago , I was surprised to receive an e-mail from Karl Wagener. Executive Director ,

of The State of Connecticut's, Council of Environmental Quality, asking if they could use one of my photos for their 2009 Annual Report.

I was more than pleased to accommodate them with a photo of a Wilson's Storm Petrel from July 13 2009

This specie's is an oceanic (pelagic) wanderer that occasionally graces western Long Island Sound with it's presence in the summer months.

Deep water fisherman refer to these birds as "Jesus Christ" birds for their apparent ability to be able to walk on water, as shown in this photo.

Please check out the CT CEQ site, www.ct.gov/ceq for their newly released report,
it is a wealth of information as to what is happening in our own backyards.
Click on the "annual report" on the right near the petrel photo, for the info.
Get involved!

Stranded on Chimmons Island

2010-04-25T22:41:00.023-04:00

I woke up this Sunday morning, looked out the blinds, saw dark grey skies and rain, I returned to my bed, tossed the covers over my head and caught up on some sleep.

After an added hour of sleep, I watched the news and weather forecast, checked out the Internet and made some breakfast.
Gleniss, my wife asked me what I was going to do this afternoon?
I replied that I didn't know, maybe I'll go out on the boat, but the forecast was for 15-20 knot winds out of the East, not a comfortable day on the water.

I stopped and purchased a Norwalk Clamming Permit, yes I could now taste my fresh homemade Linguine with red clam sauce, lots of garlic, oregano, parsley, evoo, the best!
With clamming tongs tossed over my shoulder I walked down the ramp to my boat, started the engine, untied the docklines and was off.

It was 1:30 and I had plenty of time before the 3:45 low tide for clamming, I decided to try to check a few areas out for nesting birds. The first was the Osprey pair on Channel marker 1 in Norwalk Harbor, this are the pair that have never produced offspring, as I edge closer to this site I see how large the nest has grown in the past week, and "lo and behold" she is sitting on the nest, this is a first! In the past years they built their nest and both of them just looked at it for the whole nesting season, I think they finally have it together. Good for them.

As I near the end of the harbor and protection of land I feel the easterly winds and realize a trip to Goose or Cockenoe Islands for a count will not happen today as the seas are on the nasty side. I decide to go to the west side of Chimmons, to get out of the wind. I ram the bow of the boat on the beach the best I could so that I could hop off the boat and not get wet.
With binoculars, camera and a raincoat I jump to the beach and set the anchor in the sand, half way up to the high tide line.

If I walk over to Crow Island Bar, I can get some nice fresh steamer clams, then the thought occurs to me, my pitch fork and garden claws are home, I remember I'm still planting a garden at home,
Oh well, I take a walk down to the bar, I see a late pair of Red-breasted mergansers sitting on a rock, a few dozen Brant feeding along the shoreline, a handful of gulls and a pair of Oystercatchers, there is no rain and the skies look dry so I walk around a bit more, time goes by and I remember the tide is still falling, I head back to the boat and of course it is high and dry.

I now know that I will be on the island for a few hours so I decide to take a walk around the island, I think this island is around 70 acres, I should be back around the time the boat is floating again, off I go, I will let the pictures tell the story.
You can click to enlarge these pictures if you wish.

Memoriam to Stewart B. McKinney

Old Farming Cultivator

Remains of barge that I remember for the 50's

and early 60's, this is on the NW side of the island.

High and Dry!

I have a different attitude for these geese, they

are the truly wild ones, that want no part of

Golf courses, State or local parks, or green lawns.

This bird is not banded and is not sitting on a nest, just

relaxing, I accidentally found his mate later.

Many of these small tidal pools are on the SW

section of the island, crabs and small fish become captured

in these pools as the tides recede, making these pools

an oasis for feeding birds such as egrets and gulls.

I walked the entire island hoping to find a Piping Plover or two.

Then I remembered the islands raccoon population.

No plover, but I did find a pair of nesting Killdeer.

There were a fair number of these caterpillar nest

around the island

Old 8 cylinder engine on north side of island,

could have been from a shipwreck or from farm equipment.

There were plenty of mockingbirds on the island,

other species that were plentiful were robins,

common grackle, red-winged blackbirds, starlings

and song sparrows.

A view from the northshore of Chimmons.

That is Peck's Ledge Lighthouse in the back round,

with Cockenoe Is. behind it and to the left.

The nearby island to the right is Grassy Is.

There are many remnants of shipwrecks on this island.

If this piece of wood and rusted bolts could only speak.

I'm sure it would have a colorful tale.

The shoreline is covered with just about

everything you could possibly imagine.

Even an old shoe!

This awesome rock is on the SE corner, it is about

4ft x 4ft and was perfectly split, I'm sure by ice.

Glaciers deposited this rock during the last ice age

10-20 thousand years ago.

One of the many boulders on Chimmons Is.
This is on the south side, that is Copps Is. in the back round

This can marked "T" was near Goose Is all winter,

the March storms washed it up in Chimmons.

It had a good fifty feet of anchor chain attached.
Anybody own it?

This unique tree on the south shore has most of its

northerly roots exposed, with no apparent roots in any other direction.

It was spectacular.

I even found the kitchen sink!

I didn't see the mate to the previously mentioned

Canada Goose until I unknowingly almost walked upon

her as she was well hidden above the high tide line.

She flew off, I snapped a shot and left quickly.

Before leaving I reached down to pull the anchor out of the sand,

I notice a few white spots on my left sleeve,
the size of a quarter, somewhere on this island a bird high

above me had good aim.

I thought of it as a badge of honor to this incredible island, which has a history that can only be captured in a book, not in this blog. I hope to be back out here soon.

As for the clams, I will wait for another day.

Norwalk Islands, a bird nesting haven

2010-04-16T00:09:00.013-04:00

It's April 15th and time to cruise the Norwalk Islands again,
to get a good count as to what is coming and what is going.
At 10:00 this morning, I met Chris Bosak and David Parks at the boat, the plan was to survey all the osprey nest sites in the Norwalk Islands and surrounding shoreline.

The Norwalk Ospreys are doing well, with at least ten confirmed nest sites being used as of today.
Besides checking the osprey sites, my plan was to also survey the nesting areas of all other species.
I was concerned about the seemingly low numbers of American Oystercatchers a few weeks ago, not to worry we found eight pair around the islands and I'm sure there are a number more.

Double-crested Cormorant numbers have swelled to over three hundred on Goose Island, I expect this number to double or triple in the weeks to come.
The Herring Gull colony on this same island is now at six hundred, with Great Black-backs at three hundred.
I don't see the oyster-catcher pair here this year, as their nesting attempts the past two years turned into food for the gulls.

The Heron colony at Cockenoe Island is well over one hundred, I can't determine between Great and Snowy Egrets at the distance needed to view all, but it seems that the Greats are by far the majority, there are also Black-crowns and other species in there as well.
Goldfinch can be heard throughout this island, which is also a great spot for a few early season Ruby-throated Hummingbirds, I didn't see any today but did note a Morning Cloak Butterfly making it's way between islands.

Peregrine Falcons, the pest of anything that dares to fly out there are also doing well.
This week they were not harassing a Bonapartes Gull but rather a Rock Pigeon, near the Norwalk Power Plant, which has installed a nest box for them on the main building, not far from the Osprey nest which has the camera on it, this could become interesting as I and others have watched Peregrines attacking young osprey in there nest before they have fledged.
Hopefully this is just a game for them.
We also witnessed a number of mating attempts today, from ospreys to gulls.
The kids are coming in another month or so, stay tuned.

Channel Marker #1, just one stick on April 1st
lean two style, it grows daily.
This is the pair that has never
produced offspring.

Aigrette, doing that incredible dance, a slow hop up and down,
a little side to side sway, head extended then into a tuck.
Plumes extended.
The tango, egret style!

Not a good panoramic view but the are over 100
egrets in this one area.

DC Corms, their numbers are growing,
Did I mention the guano stench in this area?
Es muy mal!

A close up, note the hair doo.

Bad hair day?

Carrot-billed sparkplug again

I didn't mention the hundreds of Brant still hanging

around, only a handful of Long-tail and other winter ducks

were seen today.

Osprey Nest Building 101

2010-04-09T21:42:00.010-04:00

I was somewhat concerned earlier this week, the female osprey that was sitting on Channel Marker #1 in Norwalk Harbor disappeared.
She sat perched alone for four days awaiting her mate, who just never arrived.
This has been a special nest site for me over the past several years for a few reasons.
First it is in the middle of Norwalk Harbor on a Lighted Channel Marker that divides the East Norwalk and the Norwalk Main Channels, this is a high traffic area for both commercial and recreational boaters, these birds never seem bothered by the amount of people traveling just yards away from their nest.
Second, this sight is close to Veterans Park and other shore areas in Norwalk which makes it viewable from many spots along the shoreline.
The third and most important reason to me, is that although they have been nesting here for at least two years, they have never raised young.
They build a nest in a lean-two style (it appears this will be the same model nest this year)
and then they proceed to look at it day on end waiting for something magical to happen, they perch on the railings and peer into the nest, day after day, week after week, month after month.
As late August arrives they abandon the site and move on.
After she sat at this site alone from last Thursday through this past Sunday, she then abandoned it from Monday thru Wednesday, since all other nest in the area are active, I thought the worst, but Thursday afternoon I could see they were both back, and that they were rebuilding their nest.
It takes about four years for Osprey to reach sexual maturity, maybe they were too young, or perhaps one of them is just not able to reproduce, I can only speculate on that and hope for them a fruitful season. I will keep you informed as this plays out.
It was spitting rain as I photographed these birds today, terrible shots of course, but I wanted to document their nest building. That is quite a stick (or half a small tree) the male is bringing to the nest site in the photo above.

Delivering more nesting material

While he adds to the nest, she is eating
a small fish.

A windproof tangle in the making?

Look at the square tail of the fish she is eating.

The State has been stocking trout in locals rivers and lakes

for opening day next Saturday April 17th.

This bird isn't doing some pre-season poaching is she?

Bad day to be a Bonaparte's Gull

2010-04-02T17:23:00.024-04:00

It was an incredible few hours out on the boat today, the islands are loading up with birds preparing for the new nesting season that is upon us.
The eight existing osprey nest sites are now all filled, most just in the last day or two.
The bird pictured on the right, just arrived today, yes that's the first nest stick just below the osprey. Several pair were trying to copulate, and others were disputing nest sites
These were not the only birds having disputes today, as I was checking out the Cockenoe Island heron nesting sight, I noted a flock of gulls having a issue, but something was different here, a Peregrine was harassing the flock, I watch for a few moments and realized there were two falcons, not one and that they were after one particular gull, that gull was a lone Bonaparte's which was striving to save it's life.
The gull could not take wing to get away, since as soon as it would try the falcons were be all over it. The only thing it could do is try to dive into the water, the peregrines would always stop short of getting their talons wet.
This went one for at least five minutes, the falcons finally tired and the boney slowly took wing and flew off in the opposite direction.
Getting back to Cockenoe Island, I could see many white patches in the trees around the southern shore, I counted twenty five Great Egrets sitting in their nest trees, their nuptial plumes were all puffed out.
Over at Goose Island, the Double-crested Cormorant factory has now grown to over one hundred individuals, one lone Great Cormorant was along the western shore, which was packed with an easy two hundred Great Black-backed Gulls, the largest number I have ever seen on any one island around Norwalk. To complete the list of the island were four hundred Herring Gulls and two American Oystercatchers.
Checking out one of the local rock piles for shorebirds, I came across two Black-backs pecking away at something, that something was a still alive Black Duck that was on its last legs.
I felt very sad for this bird, but this is a real life and death game that is played out each and every day in nature, most of us never see this world, I know that it is not up to me to change nature's course. I play no part.
Well at least I found a few Purple Sandpipers, six Dunlin and a lone Turnstone, in this area laying very low as not to be noticed by the gulls.
Still an impressive number of at least one thousand Long-tails around, but outside of that the winter duck numbers have taken a dive.
Please click on any of these pictures to enlarge.

A quick mating attempt

Rebuilding the nest that was lost during the winter.

Numbers are growing, just wait to see what happens

at this place! I'll keep you posted

Showing off their nuptial plumage

This is why they are named "double-crested"

Male Long-tail in alternate plumage.

That old "carrot-billed sparkplug" again.

Their numbers seem lower so far this year.

The start of this years heron colony on Cockenoe Island

"Aigrette" French for plume

Peregrine Falcon stooping on Bonaparte's Gull

Boney hits the water as the falcon pulls up

Gulls attempt to get below the water as Peregrine stoops.

Note the hole in the water in which the Boney sits,

he hit the water HARD to evade this predator!

This gulls acts as though I just interrupted
the mugging. I'm guilty

Diver Eyes

2010-03-28T12:24:00.020-04:00

I've always been fascinated by the diving birds ability to see while swimming under water. Here is a quick view into their eyes.
Humans and mammals have one upper and one lower eyelid, birds on the other hand have a third eyelid, which is called the Nicitating Membrane.
Instead of opening and closing up and down as do our eyelids, the nicitating membrane opens and closes sideways across the eye, it is used to keep their eye's surface moist and clean.
To help see underwater, many diving birds have a special window type area in the center of this membrane, it is like the goggles Michael Phelps would wear while racing for another gold medal, allowing them decent underwater vision.
Another interesting note on these bird eyes, is the size of their pupils, they are tiny, as you look through the following pictures you will see that their eyes are mostly a large iris with a very small pupil in the center.
I would imagine their pupil grows much larger as these birds dive deeper into darker depths of the water column, just as our pupils would do in dim light.
Click on the photos to enlarge, these birds have some awesome eyes.

White-winged Scoter have a beautiful pale blue iris.

Long-tail iris's can be from brown to pink

One of the most incredible eyes in the animal kingdom.

A dark brown iris, changing to a lighter brown with the tiny pupil.

Hooded Merganser.

Golden Eyes, but not Goldeneye.

The Horned Grebe has a two toned iris, red to yellow.

Land birds show a much larger pupil as seen in this

young Great-horned Owl.
Imagine this pupil in the darkest of nights.