I just returned from one of our monthly surveys of the US Army Corps of Engineers property at Colebrook River Lake. It was painfully cold but surprisingly the entire area was hopping with birds! A very large flock of swallows was swirling over the beaver pond at the main entrance of the site, predominantly Tree Swalllows, but a few dozen Northern Rough-wings and a couple Barn Swallows were mixed in. Also, the trees and shrubs along the Rt. 8 side of the pond were teeming with warblers. I estimated about 100 Yellow-rumped Warblers but there could have easily been twice as many. Mixed in with the yellow-rumps were several Pine, Palm and Black-and-White Warblers. I also heard and saw a Black-throated Green Warbler and Blue-headed Vireo. Common Loons in full regalia were yodeling on the lake, a Spotted Sandpiper was seen foraging along the edge of the (now flooded) floodplain of the Farmington River and many other noteworthy birds were present (Ravens on nest, fly-over Peregrine Falcon, Rusty Blackbird in floodplain, etc.) The full list is attached below: Location: ACE Colebrook Reservoir Observation date: 4/20/11 Number of species: 58 Canada Goose 10 Wood Duck 7 Mallard 2 Ring-necked Duck 4 Hooded Merganser 1 Common Merganser 8 Common Loon 5 Double-crested Cormorant 11 Great Blue Heron 5 Bald Eagle 1 Sharp-shinned Hawk 1 Peregrine Falcon 1 Spotted Sandpiper 1 Mourning Dove 2 Belted Kingfisher 1 Red-bellied Woodpecker 1 Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 4 Downy Woodpecker 5 Hairy Woodpecker 1 Northern Flicker 7 Eastern Phoebe 4 Blue-headed Vireo 2 Blue Jay 7 American Crow 5 Common Raven 2 Northern Rough-winged Swallow 38 Tree Swallow 250 Barn Swallow 4 Black-capped Chickadee 8 Tufted Titmouse 3 Red-breasted Nuthatch 1 White-breasted Nuthatch 3 Brown Creeper 1 Carolina Wren 1 Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 1 Golden-crowned Kinglet 2 Ruby-crowned Kinglet 13 Eastern Bluebird 6 American Robin 21 Cedar Waxwing 4 Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) 120 Black-throated Green Warbler 1 Pine Warbler 3 Palm Warbler (Yellow) 9 Black-and-white Warbler 4 Eastern Towhee 1 Chipping Sparrow 1 Savannah Sparrow 1 Song Sparrow 5 Swamp Sparrow 2 White-throated Sparrow 13 White-crowned Sparrow 1 Dark-eyed Junco (Slate-colored) 27 Northern Cardinal 5 Red-winged Blackbird 12 Rusty Blackbird 1 Common Grackle 14 American Goldfinch 3 This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org) ======= Twan Leenders Conservation Biologist Connecticut Audubon Society 2325 Burr Street Fairfield, CT 06824 Tel. (203) 259 6305 ext. 114 Email: tleenders@ctaudubon.org