Saturday afternoon at Fenton Ruby Park

The Fenton-Ruby Park and Wildlife Preserve comprises 305 acres of forests, fields and wetlands in the town of Willington, Connecticut. The lands were acquired by the town in two transactions, between 1994 and 2001, and are managed by the town's Conservation Commission.

The park has over four miles of hiking trails through mixed hardwoods, and a small pond quite suitable for kayak exploration, largely bordered by cattail marsh.


This afternoon four of us spent about two hours birding along the Taylor Pond Trail, and by the Fenton River and adjacent beaver pond. Sunny, with a temperature in the mid-50's, and no wind, it was a pleasant day to be in the woods.
As usual, we challenged each other to guess the species total for our outing, the guesses ranged from 12 species to 16. The final tally was fifteen for the park, with an additional five after we left.

Today's birders: Jorge, Sue, Sebastian and Max:

Today's birds, in the order of seeing them:
1. American Crow, Corvus brachyrhynchos
2. Blue Jay, Cyanocitta cristata
3. Dark-eyed Junco, Junco hyemalis
4. Tufted Titmouse, Baeolophus bicolor
5. Black-capped Chickadee, Poecile atricapilla
6. American Robin, Turdus migratorius
7. Hermit Thrush, Catharus guttatus
8. White-breasted Nuthatch, Sitta carolinensis
9. Hairy Woodpecker, Picoides villosus
10. Golden-crowned Kinglet, Regulus satrapa
11. American Goldfinch, Carduelis tristis
12. Downy Woodpecker, Picoides pubescens
13. Northern Cardinal, Cardinalis cardinalis
14. Red-winged Blackbird, Agelaius phoeniceus
15. White-throated Sparrow, Zonotrichia albicollis

Dragonfly: Ruby Meadowhawk, see previous blog post.



After leaving Fenton-Ruby Park:
16. Mourning Dove, Zenaida macroura
17. European Starling, Sturnus vulgaris
18. House Sparrow, Passer domesticus
19. House Finch, Carpodacus mexicanus
20. Ring-billed Gull, Larus delawarensis

Sebastian's View

As we walked on Taylor Pond trail we saw some amazing birds. My favorite bird was the red-winged black bird. I went with Sue, Max and Jorge. I had a tree with lots of branches that I could climb. There was a beautiful lake with a beaver house. Taylor Pond trail was .9 miles and we hiked about two hours.

The funny thing is WE ONLY SAW TWO MAMMALS!! a red squirrel and a regular one. I collected 2 pieces of long bark and a piece of birch bark but I lost the birch. Then finally I found a fort out of a big bush.
by, Sebastian

Look at this picture of my fort!!

All bird photos by Jorge de Leon.

White-breasted Nuthatch

White throated sparrow

Hermit Thrush

Golden-crowned Kinglet