[CT Birds] a few notes from 5/8 and 5/9

[Nick Bonomo]

5/8 - Sandy Point - male BOAT-TAILED GRACKLE feeding with Common
Grackles on the marsh edge, not at all acting territorially; a
SALTMARSH SHARP-TAILED SPARROW and a single SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPER
were my first of the year

5/9 - birded Hammonassett, the Guilford coast, and Sandy Point without
a notable bird, except my first COMMON TERN, a single bird in Guilford

Shorebird numbers are building. There were very many Black-bellied
Plovers, Semipalm Plovers, Least Sandpiper, Dunlin, Sanderling, and
Ruddy Turnstone. Just a few Short-billed Dowitchers and a single
Semipalm Sandpiper. Terns have yet to arrive in any numbers along the
central coast.

Nick Bonomo
Orange, CT
http://shorebirder.blogspot.com/