June 5, 2021 — “Sweet, sweet, sweet, ain’t I sweet!” sings the Yellow Warbler, and indeed it is sweet to hear this most vocal of warblers warming up the early spring season with song. Also among the most common of warblers here in Connecticut, the Yellow Warbler is aptly named: it is yellow! While the male proudly displays bold chestnut stripes down his breast, the female is pure yellow tip to toe. No wingbars, no tail spots, just yellow, highlighted by a big black eye, like a round lump of coal.
Posts Tagged ‘Chris Wood’
Daily Bird: Wood Warblers — Yellow Warbler
Saturday, June 5th, 2021Daily Bird: Wood Warblers — Black-throated Green Warbler
Thursday, June 3rd, 2021June 3, 2021 — One of the perils of birding is the affliction known as “warbler neck.” And Black-throated Green Warblers (Setophaga virens) are adept at causing it. From high in the pines or hemlocks of our Connecticut woodlands, the distinctive, buzzy “zee, zee, zee zoozee” (or “See, See, See Suzie”) song of the Black-throated Green advertises its presence and invites prolonged studies through binoculars until 1) the bird is spotted or 2) your neck gives out.
Daily Bird: Wood Warblers — Worm-eating Warbler
Wednesday, May 12th, 2021May 12, 2021 — During migration Worm-eating Warblers may be seen at any of the typical warbler stopovers, such as Connecticut Audubon’s Birdcraft Sanctuary in Fairfield and East Rock Park in New Haven.
Daily Bird: Wood Warblers — Hooded Warbler
Friday, May 7th, 2021May 7, 2021 — Usually first noticed by a ringing “weeta, weeta, weeteeo” song, a Hooded Warbler sighting highlights almost any bird walk in the Connecticut woods. Hooded Warblers reach the northern edge of their breeding range here in Connecticut (although there is a breeding population in southern Ontario), generally arriving during the first week of May and setting up housekeeping almost immediately.
Ovenbird
Friday, June 28th, 2019June 28, 2019 Ovenbird Seiurus aurocapilla by Chris Wood Walking along my regular birding/hiking route at Whittemore Sanctuary in Woodbury in late spring, two ubiquitous birds demand my attention: Red-eyed Vireo and Ovenbird. Red-eyed Vireos may be the most common woodland songbird in the Northeast, but looking over my eBird data for Whittemore (a 680 […]
The Wood Warblers
Friday, April 26th, 2019April 26, 2019 – The next few weeks will be warbler weeks in Connecticut. True, vireos and thrushes and sandpipers and lots of others birds will be arriving too, but it seems almost beyond debate that warbler migration excites the spring birder more than those others.
“Sharp-tailed” Sparrows
Tuesday, October 16th, 2018October 15, 2018 – Although late September through October is the prime time-frame for migratory sharp-tailed sparrows, both species may be seen well into November in Connecticut. One of the best places to look is Connecticut Audubon’s Coastal Center at Milford Point.
Worm-eating Warbler
Tuesday, May 29th, 2018May 30, 2018. Once seen well, Worm-eating Warblers are unlikely to be confused with any other expected species in Connecticut. The trick is, of course, seeing one well. More often Worm-eating Warblers are identified by their song, although this, too, poses a field ID challenge.
Red-headed Strangers
Wednesday, March 28th, 2018March 28, 2018. Redheads and Canvasbacks occur in Connecticut in winter, one somewhat regularly, the other not so much.
Ipswich Sparrow
Friday, January 5th, 2018January 5, 2018. For those birders who relish long walks in biting cold winds, coastal sparrow searches in winter can turn up one of the rarer subspecies of the common Savannah Sparrow, the “Ipswich” Savannah Sparrow.
Lesser Black-backed Gull
Thursday, October 19th, 2017October 19, 2017. Nominally a European species, the Lesser Black-backed Gull is now an uncommon but regularly occurring bird along Connecticut’s coast from October through March.
