Blog – Connecticut Audubon Society

Brown Creeper
Certhia americana

Where to find it: Brown Creepers are found throughout Connecticut in mature woodlands. In the winter, they frequent deciduous forests, often in with mixed flocks of chickadees and titmice. Their main diet consists of insects and larvae that they probe out of deep grooved bark. The deeper grooves hold more insects and eggs. Brown Creepers typically feed by “creeping” up and around the trunks of large trees and then dropping to the base of a nearby tree and starting over.

Lapland Longspur
Calcarius lapponicus

Where to find it: Those searching for Lapland Longspurs should visit coastal locations with open expanses of grassland, dunes, sand barrens or other open ruderal habitats.

Long-tailed Duck
Clangula hyemalis

Where to find it: Look in shallow, sandy bottomed, salt water areas of Long Island Sound, at the mouths of rivers and occasionally inland on larger rivers and lakes.

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
Sphyrapicus varius

Where to find it: Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers can be found throughout the state particularly during fall migration and sporadically throughout the winter. It is more commonly found nesting in the northwest corner of the state and increasingly more common in the northeast corner.

The Ipswich Savannah Sparrow
Passerculus sandwichensis princeps

Where to find it: An Ipswich Sparrow has appeared at our Stratford Point Coastal Grassland Conservation Area this winter. It has been seen a handful of times on the outer bluffside trail, and is typically spotted by walking the trail until you note a very pale colored sparrow that may pop up onto one of the bluff boulders. We expect one or more individuals to remain with us at Stratford Point throughout the winter.

Snow Bunting
Plectrophenax nivalis

Where to find them:
Snow Buntings are commonly found in large flocks during fall migration at open coastal fields and parking lots, and in agricultural fields inland. The Connecticut Audubon Society’s Coastal Center at Milford Point is a good starting point, as is our Stratford Point coastal restoration site, across the Housatonic River.

Eurasian Wigeon
Anas penelope

Where to find it: Eurasian Wigeons (the bird to the left with the rust-colored head; the bird to the right of it is an American Wigeon) have been visiting Milford in recent weeks, at the Mondo Ponds Nature Preserve and Education Center and Jonathan Law High School pond.