White Ibis

Earlier in September, John Oshlick found a juvenile White Ibis at Sandy/Morse Points in West Haven, one of our monitoring sites for the Audubon Alliance for Coastal Waterbirds. It spent some time on the mudflats and in the nearby creek and marsh while many birders enjoyed good views of it. Keith Mueller took these great shots, thanks to him for letting us share them with you!

This is a long-legged wader we would not expect to record in Connecticut. The species is a resident of the southeastern U.S., and one you'd expect to find on the Gulf Coast or the Atlantic coast only possibly as far north as the Carolinas on a regular basis. Vagrants like this bird travel north on southwesterly winds for the most part, conditions we have seen a lot of lately and typically do in late summer as they precede some of the major cold fronts that bring us that first taste of fall. We have had particularly strong flows in place about four times in the last few weeks, and for the most part Connecticut has been quiet in terms of rare bird sightings. This bird will make its way back "home" on the northwest winds of those cold fronts, following the coast back the other direction and stopping at helpful sites like Sandy/Morse Points along the way.

Nevertheless, keep your eyes open for unexpected shorebirds, terns, and waders during your Intentional Shorebird Surveys and other birding, and please let us know if you find something intriguing.

Audubon Alliance for Coastal Waterbirds, Audubon Connecticut and the Connecticut Audubon Society partnering to improve conditions for coastal waterbirds in Connecticut.

Last call for information

We are in the beginning stages of data analysis and calculations of number of nests, young birds fledged, total pairs, and so forth for all four of our target species - Piping Plover, American Oystercatcher, Least Tern, and Common Tern. At this point, we would love to have all of the data and information submitted to us along with the number of hours you have volunteered for the project if you have yet to send it in to us. The more data we have the more accurately we can render these numbers. It also helps us to see which areas of the Connecticut coastline have sufficient (or even more than necessary) coverage in terms of survey efforts, what locations need more of our eyes next season, any beaches particularly affected by disturbances and when, and much more.

All of our numbers have been even better than we anticipated, and I do mean all of them, from the better than average year for Least Terns to the minimal tidal washouts to how many thousands of hours all of our generous and compassionate volunteers helped to make all of this possible. What we hope more than anything is that everyone returns to assist us in 2013 and that we are able to bring even more concerned Connecticut residents into the fold. Throughout the season, more and more people were signing up to become monitors, and presuming this trend continues we will soon have nearly constant coverage in some of the more populated municipalities and a very strong showing in even some of the traditionally quieter spots.

The 2013 schedule is going to be packed with names, and if you know of anyone else who would be interested in aiding coastal waterbirds please let them know to email us at ctwaterbirds@gmail.com at any time. Friends, relatives, colleagues, those you meet birding or while walking the beach, anyone and everyone of any age or birding skill level would be a great addition to the diverse and expanding ranks. This is a year-round effort and our work to improve conditions for coastal waterbirds in Connecticut will continue nonstop, even as the birds are resting at their wintering grounds.

If you are reading this and want more information about becoming a beach monitor and volunteering for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and the Audubon Alliance for Coastal Waterbirds please send us an email at ctwaterbirds@gmail.com now!


Audubon Alliance for Coastal Waterbirds, Audubon Connecticut and the Connecticut Audubon Society partnering to improve conditions for coastal waterbirds in Connecticut.

Long-billed Dowitchers

If you attended our third shorebird seminar you would have heard quite a bit about picking out the Long-billed Dowitcher from the Short-billed Dowitcher. Keith Mueller has generously allowed the Audubon Alliance for Coastal Waterbirds to use his photos, and here is a striking shot one a Long-billed Dowitcher.

That is a Short-billed Dowitcher in the foreground. Even in this photo you should be able to pick out some of the features that distinguish one from the other. I wanted to also post a photo that Sean Graesser had used in his presentation that was taken by Patrick Comins as it can perfectly illustrate some of the differences.

No, Patrick did not stage this or edit the photo - these two birds are sitting on the dock at the Stratford marina. Can you tell which bird is which in the above photo? Yes, in this instance it really is that easy, and the bird with the longer bill and slightly straighter on the right is the Long-billed Dowitcher while the bird on the left is the Short-billed Dowitcher. However, we all know birding and surveying is not as easy as staring at a frozen moment in time with two birds perfectly posed for you at a very close distance while they conveniently hold their heads in the same direction.

You can also notice that, at this point in the season, these Long-billed Dowitchers have a more gray and drab appearance with less of the buffy colors the Short-billeds do. The feather edges feature more golden on the Short-billed and brown on the Long-billed. The Short-billed has a steeper forehead with a more arched supercilium as opposed to the flatter, for both features, Long-billed. Body shape is a very good feature for these species, as the Long-billed appears to me to often have a longer and deeper back and thus a longer tail and rear, with the Short-billed having a flatter back and more stout rear. Many people say the Long-billed has a "humpback" appearance and it looks like it swallowed a grapefruit (being very rounded) as opposed to the more relaxed and natural curves of a Short-billed.

These are just some of the likely identification points for a tricky couple of species that will inevitably confuse even the best of us in the field on many occasions. Individual birds can vary a great deal, and when you have two such similar species and some may appear much like the other species even when they are not. It is best to use a wide array of features to really hone on in picking out the much more rare Long-billed Dowitchers from the many Short-billed Dowitchers you will see in Connecticut.


Audubon Alliance for Coastal Waterbirds, Audubon Connecticut and the Connecticut Audubon Society partnering to improve conditions for coastal waterbirds in Connecticut.

Final shorebird seminar

Our final shorebird identification seminar, the last of a series of three at the Coastal Center at Milford Point, took place this past Tuesday, highlighted by the Western Sandpiper seen and discussed in this entry. As mentioned, there we were able to see American Oystercatcher and Common Tern, two of our focal species, plus Sanderling, Semipalmated Plover, Least Sandpiper, Semipalmated Sandpiper, Spotted Sandpiper, Ruddy Turnstone, Great Egret, Snowy Egret, Great Blue Heron, Yellow-crowned Night-Heron, Black-crowned Night-Heron, and much more.

While we scanned the Sound and the sand bars, a juvenile Peregrine Falcon decided to make a pass through and actually went after an American Oystercatcher and a small duck, possibly a Green-winged Teal. The latter dove underwater so fast that no one was able to identify it. Peregrines are a fixture at this time of the year as young from nearby nesting areas like the Milford power plant or the I-95 bridge in Bridgeport use the shorebird's coastal staging area as their own personal menu.

The Peregrine was unsuccessful tonight, at least while we viewed the birds, and after a little more than an hour of some fantastic looks and discussion we headed inside for Sean Graesser's advanced shorebird identification seminar. Sean provided the group with a handout discussing some of the identification points of nearly every expected and rare shorebird one could see in Connecticut. He grouped the birds by their size, large to medium to small, and went on to pick them apart from there.

Sean highlighted everything from basic plumage features and coloration, which he reported as being a sometimes subjective mark, to bill size and shape (while comparing it to the head size of some birds) to leg coloration and build to wing length and specific features on the feathering. He went into detail about behavior and movements while mentioning how much molt and seasonal appearance can play a role in identification.

It was an excellent presentation aided by wonderful and intelligent questions from the attendees, and we thank everyone for joining us that evening. Please keep an eye out for a tern identification workshop that we will be putting together along with other walks and talks in the fall and winter months.


Audubon Alliance for Coastal Waterbirds, Audubon Connecticut and the Connecticut Audubon Society partnering to improve conditions for coastal waterbirds in Connecticut.

Western Sandpiper at Milford Point

While I was planning to write about a few great shorebirds this week, I did not expect to have us find one during our third shorebird identification seminar at the Coastal Center at Milford Point last night. I'll write more about this seminar in an upcoming post, but those on hand were treated to a bunch of sights including Sanderling, Semipalmated Sandpiper, Least Sandpiper, Semipalmated Plover, Ruddy Turnstone, and American Oystercatcher. Most of the more common shorebirds numbered only in the tens, and a hungry juvenile Peregrine Falcon, while providing awesome looks, did not help the shorebird situation.

However, this Western Sandpiper was located in a small group, poking around a bit for a snack and then pulling in its massive bill for a little nap. It is a juvenile bird that really fits the expected appearance perfectly. Patrick Comins was able to carefully approach the birds yet stay at a far enough distance using the zoom of his camera to snap off a bunch of cool photos. The shots below show the Western Sandpiper features well.

See the huge bill that is even longer than the head of the bird? It also droops just a bit towards the end. You can see how much the bill stands out especially in comparison to the Semipalmated Sandpipers that surrounded it. You can also clearly see the bright rufous coloration on the scapulars as well as the much more gray wing coverts as opposed to the darker gray and black of a Semipalmated Sandpiper.

Western Sandpipers are rare here in Connecticut mostly because of their name as they are found much more commonly on the western and central coasts of the country. However, they can be found regularly wintering from the Mid-Atlantic coast southward, so we are really one of the only areas in the continental United States where they are not often seen. You may be able to pick one out in a given fall from among the thousands of Semipalmated Sandpipers that migrate through our state, and if you do you should be very happy with that! Thanks to everyone who attended and got to enjoy this stupendous bird, and more will be posted soon about the fantastic seminar.


Audubon Alliance for Coastal Waterbirds, Audubon Connecticut and the Connecticut Audubon Society partnering to improve conditions for coastal waterbirds in Connecticut.