[CT Birds] Old Lyme and Hammo 1/8/08

[Mntncougar at aol.com]

Following CTBirds posts, I stopped at the Lieutenant River this  morning.  
South on Rt 156 from I-95 about 1/4 mile to Ferry Lane on the  left.  1st left 
off Ferry onto Lieutenant River Lane.  Go past the  stop sign and park in the 
lot on the left.  Arrived about 9 and found  the YELLOW BREASTED CHAT in about 
half an hour (didn't know just where to  look).   Only quick looks at first - 
he was in the brush down over the  bank, to the right of the lot as you face 
the marsh.   Seemed mostly  centered around the big pile of leaves that has 
been pushed over the bank about  50 feet from the parking lot.   He disappeared 
for a while - didn't  see him for a half hour or so, but I decided to go back 
and give it one more  try.  Sure enough he popped right up, this time up higher 
in the brushy  trees and gave me great unobscured looks for about 10 minutes. 
 Seems to be  feeding on bittersweet.
Other birds: Red-tail Hawk, Belted Kingfisher, 15 Hooded  Mergansers on the 
river, Lots of assorted sparrows, etc. YBC was a lifer for  me.
Hammonasett, 12:15 - 2:30 PM.   Red Crossbills still  in the Pines at the 
extreme west end of the beach, flock flushed and I counted  28-29.   43 Horned 
larks in the Nature Center parking lot but no  Longspurs there.  1 Great Blue 
Hero in the grass west of the  Nature Center.   1 AMERICAN BITTERN in the marsh 
grass  by the East End parking lot.  I got a great look at him after I spotted 
him  from the car top boat lot and drove around to the traffic circle.  
Pulled  the car up on the bike trail and I was within 30 feet of him for at least 
10  minutes.  Had to show him to about 20 walkers with the beautiful weather  
today.  A few bad pics of him:
_http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i292/mntncougar/P1010327.jpg_ 
(http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i292/mntncougar/P1010327.jpg) 
_http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i292/mntncougar/P1010337.jpg_ 
(http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i292/mntncougar/P1010337.jpg) 
_http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i292/mntncougar/P1010333.jpg_ 
(http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i292/mntncougar/P1010333.jpg) 
East end of the Moraine Trail:  2 Common goldeneye, 18+  Surf Scoters,  @50 
Common Mergansers, 2 Common Loons, @8 black-bellied  Plovers, and about 200 
assorted Ruddy turnstones, Dunlin and  Sanderlings.   Someone told me there were 
3 Lapland Longspurs mixed in  with a flock of Horned Larks back at the west 
end so I stopped there.   I  found the Larks, but no Longspurs for me today.  
Great weather and some cooperative birds so a nice  day.
Don Morgan, 
Coventry



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