Birding at Hammonasset

In celebration of the transfer of ownership of the former Griswold airfield to the town of Madison, CT, a bird walk was arranged on the property.  This is the project that Kim was instrumental in making happen last January.  Kim and I were fortunate to be among the select group, which was led by Patrick Comins of Audubon Connecticut.  Patrick is one of those people who can recognize many birds by song alone, a very important attribute when seeking warblers and other small birds that don't make a show of themselves.

The day dawned fine and warm (actually, a little too warm) and we ventured out without even any bug spray!  The airport property is mainly grass, then "rare coastal woods", then salt marsh at which point ownership becomes the state, and so on towards the Hammonasset River.  I assume that because what water there is is brackish, the mosquitoes can't survive in the area. 

The day was truly memorable.  We saw around 50 different species of birds, including for me four lifers: willow flycatcher, salt-marsh sparrow (formerly the sharp-tailed sparrow and one of the area's signature birds), marsh wren and little blue heron.  Well, there were some monk parakeets too but they're not really a natural part of the ecosystem.  We all suffered somewhat from "warbler neck" by the day's end.  It can be quite tricky, and tiring, looking upward into the trees for small birds flitting about behind the leaves!  But they are so colorful: truly magnificent.  I had better views of redstart, chestnut-sided warbler, northern parula, for instance, than I've ever had before.  Including a short breakfast break, we were out a total of about 5 hours!

I really would like to thank Sandy Breslin and the Audubon Connecticut people for making it happen.

Here's a map of where we were birding:







View Hammonasset Bird Walk in a larger map

And here's a list generated by eBird of the sightings that I recorded, with my comments:



Location: Hammonasset Beach State Park
Observation date: 5/21/10
Notes: This walk was led by Patrick Comins. Most of the identifications were his or at least confirmed by him. We visited the old airport at Madison as well as three different sites at Hammonasset Beach State Park. I may have misremembered one or two of the sightings, but generally it is all accurate.
Number of species: 49

American Black Duck X
Mallard X
Common Loon 1
Double-crested Cormorant X
Great Egret 1
Snowy Egret 1
Little Blue Heron 1
Glossy Ibis 4 3 flying, 1 feeding.
Osprey X abundant
Northern Harrier 1
Killdeer X
Greater Yellowlegs 1
Willet (Eastern) X
Semipalmated Sandpiper X
Herring Gull (American) 1
Least Tern 1
Common Tern 1
Rock Pigeon X
Mourning Dove X
Monk Parakeet 4
Belted Kingfisher 1
Willow Flycatcher X several others heard
Blue Jay 1
crow sp. X american or fish?
Purple Martin X
Tree Swallow 1 Not 100% sure about this but that's what it looked like to me.
Barn Swallow X
Black-capped Chickadee 1
Marsh Wren X heard more than we saw.
American Robin X
thrush sp. X probably swainson's but not good enough view.
Gray Catbird X
Northern Mockingbird X abundant
Brown Thrasher 1
Northern Parula X
Yellow Warbler X
Chestnut-sided Warbler X
Magnolia Warbler X
Black-and-white Warbler 2 Or did we see blackpoll warbler? I forget.
American Redstart 2
Common Yellowthroat X
Canada Warbler X
Scarlet Tanager 1
Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed Sparrow X Saw about four. Heard many.
Song Sparrow X
Northern Cardinal 1
Red-winged Blackbird X abundant
Common Grackle X abundant
Brown-headed Cowbird X
Orchard Oriole 1 possibly a female northern oriole.
House Sparrow X

This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org/massaudubon/)