Rufous Hummingbird on Sunday Afternoon

Hard to resist taking another photo of sugar maples... [along the road, Somers, CT, Sue's photo]

Chickadees, Crows and Bluejays here.

and marshy places ringed with red and yellow... [Shenipsit State Forest, Stafford, Sue's photo]

Juncos, White-throated Sparrows and Song Sparrows here.

and quiet ponds reflecting more autumn color... [Shenipsit State Forest, Stafford, Sue's photo]

Yellow-rumped Warbler, Belted Kingfisher and Downy Woodpecker here.

And it's very hard to resist chasing birds who show up in our state only in the fall...

This is Bob and Linda Dixon's female Rufous Hummingbird, Selasphorus rufus. [Sterling, CT, Jorge's photo]

female Rufous Hummingbird, Selasphorus rufus. [Sterling, CT, Jorge's photo]

She has been a most cooperative yard bird for the Dixons, and for all of us strangers who were welcomed to venture into the back yard for a glimpse of this diminutive beauty. The hummingbird has been frequenting a standard sugar-water feeder for about a week and a half now, but takes natural nectar from the nearby honeysuckle flowers as well.

View looking down on the hummingbird's preferred feeder, and one of several trellises and gardens. [Sterling, CT, Jorge's photo]

The vantage point for above photo is a platform that Bob has built, eight feet off the ground, against a small outbuilding in the middle of his yard - a good place to scan the skies or do a "big sit", he explained.

The Dixons have made their back yard into an oasis for birds - and by virtue of this, for themselves as well. Gardens, shrubs, trellises, vines, feeders and nest boxes fill every corner and curve. A lovely path loops back into the woods, with an observation blind, more nest boxes - and, where you discover that you have a warbler's-eye-view of treetops growing up from the wetlands below. Fantastic habitat - no wonder they have 164 yard birds!

Karen and Sue chat with Bob in between visits of the Rufous Hummingbird.

A big thank you to Bob and Linda Dixon for welcoming us, and many other birders, to enjoy views of the hummer and their beautiful yard.

I was so fixated on the hummingbird that I may not be able to recreate an accurate list of other birds we saw there.

Mourning Dove
Northern Cardinal
Bluejay
Tufted Titmouse
Black-capped Chickadee
Dark-eyed Junco
White-throated Sparrow
Purple Finch - many!
American Goldfinch
Downy Woodpecker
Hairy Woodpecker
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Sharp-shinned Hawk
American Crow

On the way home, in the very last light of the afternoon, we stopped at the little pond in Mansfield Center [the one with the boy scout bird blind, behind Mansfield's restaurant]

Karen and Sue calling it a day.

Here I had good looks at a Marsh Wren, Cistothorus palustris, with its dark crown, strong eye stripe and streaky back. The taped wren call brought in only a Song Sparrow, but the wren could be heard from within the marsh grasses - just didn't show itself again for a photo!

And a post script.
This is the first time we've seen the Rufous Hummingbird - which makes it a lifer - except...
The bird was identified in the hand through a series of measurements. This is a bird that cannot be positively identified in the conditions under which we saw it in the Dixon's backyard - a female, of a western species, in October, in Connecticut. We take the word of those who took the measurements.

Back to Fenton-Ruby

Taylor Pond with Rosa multiflora in foreground

On a beautiful sunny Sunday afternoon, we made for one of our favorite spots - the Taylor Pond Trail at Fenton-Ruby Park in Willington.  We weren't alone - lots of folks were out enjoying the woods.  Despite the "crowds" we managed a list of sixteen species of birds within the park, and two more on the drive home.

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

Red Maple, Acer rubrum, filtering the sun

Today's birds:
1. Wild Turkey
2. Mourning Dove
3. Downy Woodpecker
4. American Crow
5. Blue Jay
6. American Robin
7. Gray Catbird
8. Black-capped Chickadee
9. Tufted Titmouse
10. White-breasted Nuthatch

Yellow leaf of Red Maple, with needles of White Pine, Pinus strobus

11. Golden-crowned Kinglet
12. Ruby-crowned Kinglet
13. Yellow-rumped Warbler
14. Palm Warbler
15. Black-and-white Warbler
16. Rufous-sided Towhee
17. Song Sparrow
18. White-throated Sparrow

And a few stray reports

On a recent Thursday afternoon (September 23rd) we hightailed it over to Rocky Hill after work, to pick up a few more birds from the Connecticut River Meadows. A flock of American Golden Plover, Pluvialis dominica, had been reported on Connecticut Birds the day before, along with their precise location, and it didn't take us long to find them.

Sorting through the crowd of Killdeer, Charadrius vociferus, we eventually counted seven goldens - elegant large plovers, feeding in the freshly turned soil. In amongst the flock was another other pretty special little shorebird - two Buff-breasted Sandpipers, Tryngites subruficollis. And given how hard we were studying the flock, it was no surprise that we turned up another species - one Pectoral Sandpiper, Calidris melanotos.

A very exciting outing, because the Buff-breasted is a new bird for me, and tho' it sounds mushy, but I was left breathless by the wildness and elegance of the Golden Plovers. Checking my life list back at home, I discovered that I had already recorded this species as "NH - 1970's". Probably something spied on a coastal birding trip with my father and Arthur Borror -- "see that one, second from the right, at the edge of the flock of Black-bellied's? -- that's the Golden" -- so my twelve-year-old's tick mark on the list wasn't even a memory, just a tick mark. I'm so glad we made the hasty trip down to the meadows!

Seeing those two species for Jorge was bittersweet - they're on their way south - all the way to Argentina and Uruguay. A large percentage of the world population of Tryngites subruficollis winters in Uruguay. [if you follow this link to Bird Life International, look for the Important Bird Areas heading, and click the link to the map - I couldn't make a proper direct link to the map].

The American Golden-Plover, Pluvialis dominica, has one of the longest recorded migratory routes of any bird. Nesting in the Canadian Arctic, when they head south, they make coastal landfalls along the eastern US to feed, before the long flight to northern South America. Here they pause to fatten up again, before heading over the Amazon forests en route to sites in Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay.

After all of that migratory shorebird drama, one final not-to-forget bird is a solitary little Savannah Sparrow, Passerculus sandwichensis, seen in the yard at home on Wednesday afternoon last week, September 29th.

Weekend birding at home

Red-breasted Nuthatch, Sitta canadensis and Black-capped Chickadee

We headed down for a walk around the cornfield Saturday afternoon, to enjoy the bright blue sky and see if there were any birds about. Sebastian took a guess that we'd see ten species, Max called out fifteen, and Jorge said nine. Karen, Jorge and I were halted pretty quickly by a mixed flock in the pines, and the boys took off for a game of hide-and-seek amongst the cornstalks.

A big foraging group of Chipping Sparrows, Black-capped Chickadees, and the first Dark-eyed Junco of the season started off the list. Blue Jays screamed overhead, a Yellow-rumped Warbler flitted high in an oak, and Seba came running back shouting Mourning Dove!

Around the next bend was an Eastern Phoebe and more chickadees, and we heard an American Robin call from within the woods. Returning along the far edge of the cornfield, and nearing the barn we found Gray Catbird and Northern Cardinal.

Along the woods path heading back to the yard we had a White-breasted Nuthatch and a Downy Woodpecker. And then something was SINGING in the top of still-leafy tree. To my ear it was some sort of flycatcher, but Karen recognized it right away as a vireo. It flew off before any of us could get binoculars on it, but reviewing the songs on the ipod, it must have been a Yellow-throated Vireo!!

We pursued the vireo back out to the cornfield, and as Jorge tried playback, I was distracted by movement in the nearby brambles. Trying to ignore the pair of catbirds, I finally focused on a small sparrow - a Lincoln's! I called Jorge away from the vireo quest - since not only was this a new Yard Bird, it would be a lifer for him! Lincoln's Sparrow - a delicate-looking, quiet fall visitor.

To round out the afternoon, with its now fading light and falling temperature, a male Red-winged Blackbird flew up out of the cornfield to alight in a tall hickory tree, White-throated Sparrows chipped from the brush near the barn, and a young Cedar Waxwing made its presence known in the very highest branch of an ash tree, alongside another Yellow-rumped Warbler.

And that was just Saturday!

Sunday morning, Karen and I went out to try for the vireo again - with no luck - but added American Crow, Broad-winged Hawk, Northern Flicker and Song Sparrow to yesterday's list. After a typical Sunday of a trip to the dump, a trip to campus and various and sundry errands we had just settled onto the living room couch to relax when I saw bird activity at the new feeder.

A Red-breasted Nuthatch was making quick trips back and forth from the big white pine, in the company of many chickadees, and then there were TWO. And wait, what's that larger bird silhouetted on the low branch of the pine? A female Purple Finch... she flew in to the feeder with a another, and they both settled in to occupy the tube for a good while - keeping the nuthatches and chickadees away.


female Purple Finches, Carpodacus purpureus

To finish up the weekend of birding, I saw a Cooper's Hawk fly through, and Jorge found a Hairy Woodpecker in the cherry tree. A small flock of Yellow-rumped Warblers joined the numerous Chipping Sparrows, titmice and chickadees foraging around the edges of the yard. So, the migrants are still out there!

This weekend's birders: Karen, Sue, Jorge, Sebastian and Max,
and the birds for the weekend of October 2nd and 3rd:

Broad-winged Hawk
Cooper's Hawk
Downy Woodpecker
Hairy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Mourning Dove
Eastern Phoebe
American Crow
Blue Jay
American Robin
Cedar Waxwing
Gray Catbird
Black-capped Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
White-breasted Nuthatch
Red-breasted Nuthatch - new yard bird
Northern Cardinal
Purple Finch - new yard bird
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Song Sparrow
Chipping Sparrow
Lincoln's Sparrow - new yard bird, and LIFER for Jorge
White-throated Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
Red-winged Blackbird

Well, there won't be too many more weekends with a count of twenty five species in our own yard!