Some of my favorite birding spots in CT are
in Milford and Stratford, but I don’t get to that area often since it is beyond
my self-imposed 2-hour drive limit to chase rarities. So needless to say when a business trip to
Milford came up, I decided to take advantage of being in southwest CT and added
a vacation day for some local birding. A
couple days before the trip a Painted Bunting was re-found by Tina Green in Westport
at the CT Audubon Tree Farm, so that would be an obvious place to start my day. And then after trying for the Bunting I
planned to go to the Quaker Ridge hawkwatch where a number of Golden Eagles had
been seen so far this fall. So that
would give me two CT targets to shoot for.
I traded e-mails with Tina Green and she
offered to meet me at the farm and show me the exact spot where she had been
seeing the Painted Bunting. Tina had
seen the bird 2 consecutive days eating mile-a-minute berries at a location that
was some of the first vegetation to be lit and warmed by the rising sun. So she suggested we start at that spot at
dawn and wait for the bird to appear to eat its favorite berries. When we got there in the pre-dawn light I
could see many plants with berries that the Bunting might like to eat. I was now a bit concerned that this could
become a needle-in-a-haystack kind of situation. Most Painted Buntings seen in New England are
birds that show up at feeders in winter, and many stick around for an extended
time. For that reason, CT Audubon had
put out a feeder nearby in hopes that the bird would come to the seed. So if we didn’t see the bird eating natural
foods, maybe it might show up at the feeder.
Unfortunately dawn came and went without
seeing the bird. And the feeder had
regular visits of Chickadees and Cardinals, but no Bunting. I spent about 4 hours at the tree farm, and
found 55 species at this very birdy spot, including only my second ever
Orange-crowned Warbler in CT, but no Painted Bunting. That was most disappointing given that I had
not chased after a semi-reliable Bunting seen the previous winter at a feeder
in Stamford – beyond my acceptable chasing distance. And the winds were out of the south so there
was no reason to try for eagles or other raptors at hawkwatches. So with no other rarities to chase, and work commitments
backing up, I decided to head to my Milford hotel early and get to work instead
of taking more time off.
It was now late afternoon, and not only had
I missed my target bird, but work wasn’t exactly going very well either. I looked at my watch and it was 3:30. Milford Point, my favorite birding spot in
the area and one of my favorites in all of CT, was only about 15 minutes
away. I asked myself why I was sitting
in my hotel room working on a vacation day instead of birding. So I decided to make a quick run to Milford
Point and just do a couple hours of late-day fun birding.
I arrived at Milford Point and first went
to the inland side of the park. Tide was
pretty high, and I didn’t see much except a small flock of Brant. Then I headed over to the beach to see what
gulls and late shorebirds might be around.
At this high tide all the birds were way out on distant sandbars. I could see a couple birders out that way, so
I headed out to join him. It turned out
to be Steve Spector, who I birded with back in February at Silver Sands State
Park in Milford to find a stakeout Long-eared Owl, and his wife Charla. First we spotted a flock of Horned Larks on
the nearby spit but no Longspurs. Then
we turned our attention to the distant sandbars where there was a nice collection
of shorebirds – principally Black-bellied Plovers, Sanderlings, and Dunlin,
plus a nice flock of Oystercatchers. And
of course there were a number of Great Black-backed, Herring, and Laughing
Gulls. I was scanning through the
shorebirds hoping to find something else when Charla asked what this gull was
with a bright red bill. It turned out to
be a Caspian Tern – new for my CT list. Thanks
Charla! I got this phonescoped picture
of the bird as it rested on the sandbar.
Although Caspian Tern is not a super rarity
in CT and is seen every year along the coast, I have never tried to chase after
one. The closest CT coastline is 2 hours
away from home, so even if I got news of a sighting in real time, it would take
me at least 2 hours to get to the right location. And in that time the tidal conditions would
have changed enough that the bird could well be long gone by the time I arrived. Similarly, just as with this CT bird, the
only Caspian Terns I’ve seen in MA and RI have been birds I’ve run into on my own
rather than chasing after. And I still
need this species for ME (see my statebird map below).
Just a couple minutes after spotting the
Caspian Tern all the birds suddenly took off, flushed by a Peregrine
Falcon. As the birds milled about
looking for spots to land I scanned through them hoping to re-find the
Caspian. At one point a good-sized flock
of shorebirds passed through my binocular field. The flock was mostly Black-bellied Plovers
and Dunlin, but then I noticed a larger bird with a white rump and black tail –
Hudsonian Godwit! Another new bird for
my CT statelist - #323 for my CT list. The
bird eventually came in pretty close, where I was able to get these phonescoped
photos.
It’s interesting that my pursuit of
Hudsonian Godwit in CT has been quite similar to Caspian Tern. The Godwit is rare but regular as a migrant
on the CT coast, but I’ve never chased after one in CT given the same time and
tide challenges that I’ve had trying to go after Caspians. I’ve now seen Hudsonian Godwit in 10 states
in the northeast (though I still need it in RI) as a fall migrant, 3 Plains
states as a spring migrant, in AK as a breeder, and in WA as a rarity.
Steve made some calls to local birders and
several were able to see the bird before nightfall, including ironically Tina
Green with whom I started my day in a failed attempt for the Painted
Bunting. Interestingly, the Caspian Tern did not stick around - another one that wouldn't have been chaseable. Sure didn’t think I would get
one, let alone two, new CT statebirds after missing my key target bird. And not bad for a little light birding late
in the day. Once again Milford Point
lives up to its reputation as one of my favorite CT birding spots.
And one last postscript on the day - although Painted Bunting is much rare than Caspian Tern and Hudsonian Godwit in CT, it is likely the easiest of the 3 to chase after. I just have to hope that one has an extended stay at a feeder somewhere in eastern CT.
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