Sunrise Birding Walk at Saugatuck Falls - OS Fly etc
Hi All,
Just got back from a very nice morning at Saugatuck Falls Natural Area with a great group of birders from across the state.
Usually I find it is the kiss of death to mention how good a certain spot is for a certain species, but not this time as the swamp area produced great looks at a particularly showy OLIVE-SIDED FLYCATCHER (my gut feeling is that it was a different bird from mid-week). In general I must say I rarely see them flashing those white patches that are often illustrated in the books but today this individual was putting on a great show. As it returned over and over to favored snags we enjoyed great scope views and the group got the chance to really study the bird and get to grips with the key elements of identification.
After that we managed to encounter a small wave of warblers but many zipped by escaping identification, especially after a Cooper's put in a flyby appearance. It occurred to me (and maybe has been mentioned before on here?) that I find one of the best ways of finding warblers and vireos at this time of year is to track down (the more vocal) flocks of Chickadees and see what is tagging along with them, as we did today.
Along the Old Field Trail we were inundated with frugivore bird species gorging themselves on Black Cherry and Cedar fruits. These included robins, waxwings, Scarlet Tanager and a Rose-breasted Grosbeaks - which lead to an interesting discussion about looking out for, and the identification of Black-headed Grosbeak at this time of year (certainly a possibility in CT although I'm not sure if it is on the list yet?) Highlight though was the huge numbers of PURPLE FINCHES that we estimated to be about 35+ and? possibly many more. The key to finding these birds is learning the call note and then when you spot one individual in a cedar start to closely scrutinize the area around them. Even I was pretty surprised to see one Purple Finch in a close by cedar suddenly turn into 9 all within just a few feet of us. Only a couple of these birds were adult males, the rest being female or immatures.
Luke Tiller, Tour Leader
Sunrise Birding
www.sunrisebirding.com
?From Luke Tiller and Sunrise Birding Group
9/22 - Saugatuck Falls Natural Area, Redding - 1OLIVE-SIDED FLYCATCHER, 35+ PURPLE FINCHES
Email and AIM finally together. You've gotta check out free AOL Mail! - http://mail.aol.com
Luke -
Back when we were banding raptors and passerines at Hammonasset, I took an
immature grosbeak out of the nets that looked SOOOO much like a Black-headed
Grosbeak. Ray and I were really excited. Bird in hand, we opened the
Bird Banding Manual and went through all the ID keys - 15 minutes later, it
was unquestionably an immature Rose-breasted. Bummer. That was the
day that I realized that fall migration immature grosbeaks show a LOT of
variation.
I don't have the overall CT Records handy, but my only one was on Feb. 5,
1978, the bird that visited feeders on Flat Iron Hill Road, North Guilford.
I would expect that any really LATE grosbeak (November onward) should be
scrutinized closely.
Clay Taylor
Moodus, CT
ctaylor@att.net
----- Original Message -----
From: streatham2003@aol.com
To: ctbirds@lists.ctbirding.org
Sent: Saturday, September 22, 2007 2:46 PM
Subject: [CT Birds] Sunrise Birding Walk at Saugatuck Falls - OS Fly etc
Hi All,
Just got back from a very nice morning at Saugatuck Falls Natural Area
with a great group of birders from across the state.
Usually I find it is the kiss of death to mention how good a certain spot
is for a certain species, but not this time as the swamp area produced great
looks at a particularly showy OLIVE-SIDED FLYCATCHER (my gut feeling is that
it was a different bird from mid-week). In general I must say I rarely see
them flashing those white patches that are often illustrated in the books
but today this individual was putting on a great show. As it returned over
and over to favored snags we enjoyed great scope views and the group got the
chance to really study the bird and get to grips with the key elements of
identification.
After that we managed to encounter a small wave of warblers but many
zipped by escaping identification, especially after a Cooper's put in a
flyby appearance. It occurred to me (and maybe has been mentioned before on
here?) that I find one of the best ways of finding warblers and vireos at
this time of year is to track down (the more vocal) flocks of Chickadees and
see what is tagging along with them, as we did today.
Along the Old Field Trail we were inundated with frugivore bird species
gorging themselves on Black Cherry and Cedar fruits. These included robins,
waxwings, Scarlet Tanager and a Rose-breasted Grosbeaks - which lead to an
interesting discussion about looking out for, and the identification of
Black-headed Grosbeak at this time of year (certainly a possibility in CT
although I'm not sure if it is on the list yet?) Highlight though was the
huge numbers of PURPLE FINCHES that we estimated to be about 35+ and?
possibly many more. The key to finding these birds is learning the call note
and then when you spot one individual in a cedar start to closely scrutinize
the area around them. Even I was pretty surprised to see one Purple Finch in
a close by cedar suddenly turn into 9 all within just a few feet of us. Only
a couple of these birds were adult males, the rest being female or
immatures.
Luke Tiller, Tour Leader
Sunrise Birding
www.sunrisebirding.com
?From Luke Tiller and Sunrise Birding Group
9/22 - Saugatuck Falls Natural Area, Redding - 1OLIVE-SIDED FLYCATCHER,
35+ PURPLE FINCHES
Email and AIM finally together. You've gotta check out free AOL Mail! -
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