[CT Daily] 02/15/2007

[Roy Harvey]

Thanks to Steve Broker for the following update:

2/15 - Report on East Haven's Morris Creek Marshes.  Tuesday evening's
grass fire at East Haven (which undoubtedly was set) burned out 50 per
cent of the marshland between abandoned Ora Avenue and the Tweed-New
Haven Airport runways.  The area is adjacent to the East Haven
landfill where Western Kingbird was seen this December.  Numerous
trees growing on berms in the marsh were killed.  This remnant of the
once extensive Morris Creek Marshes (which historically extended from
the coast to north of Interstate 95) has been producing Marsh Wrens
from the mid-December New Haven Christmas Bird Count through this past
February 11.  The only later dates that I know of for Marsh Wren in
Connecticut were on February 24 and March 6, 1906 in the Quinnipiac
Marshes of North Haven.  The berm - extending from Ora Avenue to an
airport runway - that for many years has been a regular source of
Marsh Wrens through December and into January is in the middle of the
burned over portion of the marsh.  Birders now have an opportunity to
see most of the marsh surface and appreciate just how altered by
dredge fill and channelization the Morris Creek Marshes are.  The
Phragmites will grow back this spring, more dense than ever.  And the
American Bitterns, Green-winged Teal, Northern Harriers, Virginia
Rails, Soras, snipe, woodcock, and Marsh Wrens will continue to thrive
here in early winters to come - if the Town of East Haven does not
continue its efforts to drain and fill the marsh.


 From Steve Broker:
2/15 - Branford, Route 1, Furnace Pond -- American Woodcock, flying
low over traffic, having just come out from Furnace Pond edge (3:04
P.M.).

 From Katy Hubbard:
2/15 - Woodbridge, Morris Road feeders -- Yellow-bellied Sapsucker,
immature female for past week; Fox Sparrow for past month