5:15am - 11:15 am Pleasure Beach/Long Beach, Stratford I walked out to the tip of Pleasure Beach (Long Beach) in Stratford before sunrise this morning in order to watch morning flight and see what I could find out there. Numbers where lower than I expected they would be, though diversity was fairly decent. Most of the birds were actually heard only before sunrise. Morning flight was pretty bad, though every so often a wave of warblers would fly over fairly low to the ground. (Bird) Highlights were an UPLAND SANDPIPER heard flying over just before dawn and a CONNECTICUT WARBLER heard only giving a couple chip calls in a patch of goldenrod. Far and away the overall highlight of the day was the incredible movement of MONARCH BUTTERFLIES. I estimated at least 300 individuals, most were actually in the dunes walking back to my car. At times, they would cover various shrubs and swarm around the dunes. Here is the checklist: https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S48696519 Time to look through my photos from morning flight and see if I missed anything! -- Jory Teltser: President of the CTYBC, and Member of the Land Management Committee at Aspetuck Land Trust Westport *Check out the Connecticut Young Birders Blog!* https://connecticutybc.wordpress.com/

Paul Desjardins and I birded the Stratford, Milford and Lighthouse Pt areas yesterday and I too was impressed, amazed and thankful to see so many monarchs in migration in every location! - it was a beautiful sight to see! Mona Cavallero > On September 23, 2018 at 2:40 PM Jory Teltser via CTBirds <ctbirds@lists.ctbirding.org> wrote: > > > 5:15am - 11:15 am > Pleasure Beach/Long Beach, Stratford > > I walked out to the tip of Pleasure Beach (Long Beach) in Stratford before > sunrise this morning in order to watch morning flight and see what I could > find out there. Numbers where lower than I expected they would be, though > diversity was fairly decent. Most of the birds were actually heard only > before sunrise. Morning flight was pretty bad, though every so often a wave > of warblers would fly over fairly low to the ground. > > (Bird) Highlights were an UPLAND SANDPIPER heard flying over just before > dawn and a CONNECTICUT WARBLER heard only giving a couple chip calls in a > patch of goldenrod. > > Far and away the overall highlight of the day was the incredible movement > of MONARCH BUTTERFLIES. I estimated at least 300 individuals, most were > actually in the dunes walking back to my car. At times, they would cover > various shrubs and swarm around the dunes. > > Here is the checklist: https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S48696519 > > Time to look through my photos from morning flight and see if I missed > anything! > > -- > Jory Teltser: > President of the CTYBC, and Member of the Land Management Committee at > Aspetuck Land Trust > Westport > *Check out the Connecticut Young Birders Blog!* > https://connecticutybc.wordpress.com/ > _______________________________________________ > This list is provided by the Connecticut Ornithological Association (COA) for the discussion of birds and birding in Connecticut. > For subscription information visit http://lists.ctbirding.org/mailman/listinfo/ctbirds_lists.ctbirding.org