[CT Birds] Bald Eagles and Rusty Blackbird ramblings

[streatham2003 at aol.com]

Hi Don,

The Bald Eagle story really is a fantastic one and it is always a joy to take part in the CAS Eagle Festival in CT and be able to share with people an environmental success story (there are generally so few!) Bald Eagles have been on the list of common birds since I arrived in CT and were not considered reportable under the old list guidelines (except for gatherings of more than 20 birds): http://www.ctbirding.org/commonbirds.htm This year over on the Hudson I lead a trip for Sunrise Birding where we stopped off at an Eagle roost on the River and had a dozen Eagles all roosting in a tree line less than a few hundred yards long - quite amazing. It would be interesting to hear from some of the more seasoned birders and hawk watchers the timeline of when eagles started to be considered common again in the state.

Also down page I noted a sighting of 30 Rusty Blackbirds if I recall correctly the people at National Audubon or ebird are hoping to track sightings of significant flocks of Rusty Blackbirds - perhaps someone who knows about that could remind us of the details of reporting them?

Luke Tiller
Wilton