[CT Birds] B-t Grackle Question

[Clay Taylor]

All -

I'm amazed that they arrived in Stratford (20 years ago?) and have not 
expanded their areas to the Milford Point marshes, the Hammonasset Beach SP 
marshes, or the Great Island, Old Lyme, marshes.   Perhaps they require a 
more urban setting?

Clay Taylor
Moodus, CT
ctaylor at att.net

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "greg hanisek" <ctgregh at yahoo.com>
To: "Tim Antanaitis" <timant123 at yahoo.com>
Cc: <ctbirds at lists.ctbirding.org>
Sent: Sunday, March 23, 2008 11:32 PM
Subject: Re: [CT Birds] B-t Grackle Question


> Tim:
>
>  I'd love to hear other thoughts on this. Here are some of mine:
>       The population seems pretty stable at the moment to me. For several 
> years now the high count in winter up until breeding starts has been in 
> the mid-to-high 20s. I'm not sure what the dynamics are between the 
> wintering birds and the breeding population - i.e is this a self-contained 
> year-round population or do some head farther south in winter and some 
> return in spring? I don't think anyone has figured how many active nests 
> there are or if they've increased recently. Since the species is 
> polygynist, you can't speak in ters of numbers of pairs. So far there 
> doesn't seem to be any strong sign of the breeding colony spreading away 
> from McKinney, but things can change fast. Maybe this year they'll  be 
> found breeding somewhere else. I'm pretty fascinated by the whole thing. 
> The consistent size of the winter flock is kind of amazing.
>
>  Greg Hanisek
>  Waterbury
>
> Tim Antanaitis <timant123 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>  >From Tim Antanaitis:
> 3/22 - Bridgeport, Seaside Park, 6-6:30pm -- male EURASIAN WIGEON along
> Sound shoreline
> Stratford, Sikorsky Airport entrance, 7-7:15pm -- 26 (21m+5F) BOAT-TAILED
> GRACKLES
>
> I didn't rush to get this report in, as these species were sent in 
> yesterday by
> another birder. I took a few bad pictures:
>
> http://picasaweb.google.com/TimAntanaitis/EurasianWigeon
> http://picasaweb.google.com/TimAntanaitis/26BoatTailedGrackles21m5f
>
> The Eurasian Wigeon was with 47 American Wigeon.
>
> The Boat-tailed Grackles were in the trees next to the tall tower at the 
> entrance
> to Sikorsky at sunset. I try to get exact counts every time I see these 
> guys.
> On 4/7/07 I saw 23 (14m+9f) on the railroad trail off of Long Beach Blvd. 
> Does
> anyone know if the population is growing? Does a bigger group break up 
> into
> smaller groups at different night roosting sites? How many females have 
> been
> seen together recently?
>
> Tim Antanaitis
> East Hampton
>
>
>
>
>
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