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/)

Bunburying

I'm sure you recall that in The Importance of being Earnest, Jack Worthing, so named because the gentleman who found him as a baby happened to have a first-class railway ticket to that "seaside resort" in his pocket at the time, likes to lead a double life.  When he wishes to escape from his social obligations in London, he goes by train to visit his fictional invalid cousin called Bunbury.  Hence Bunburying.

One of my favorite types of Bunburying is looking for abandoned railroad lines.  During the bridge tournament in Cromwell, I was able to spend a little time investigating the lines that formerly crossed in Cromwell, or rather just over the river in Middletown.  While I was working on that, I happened to be close to the extant line, the so-called Valley Branch of the NY, NH and Hartford R/R.  Quite fortuitously, a train came through just then and I was able to get a photograph using my handy iPhone (see above).

The time I spent must have been good for my brain because later that day, playing with Peter Matthews for the first time, we ended up 3rd overall and 1st in X in the two-session A/X pairs.  The field was quite strong although many of the top players were still in the knockouts.  Due to a technicality which occurred at another table, we were given 3rd place rather than 2nd equal.  This doesn't seem quite fair (it made a significant difference in masterpoints) but that's the way it's done.  If you're curious about this, you can read Den of Iniquity?

In any case, it was the best result I've ever achieved in a two-session open regional event.  Kim says I've been in a really good mood ever since.

Meanwhile, I've made my Western Connecticut railroad map almost completely accurate for the area around Cromwell.

Il Trittico

Kim and I celebrated my birthday in style with a trip to New York (and a stopover in Connecticut), staying with our friends Rob and Melissa.  The highlight was The Met performance of Puccini's Trittico, which I know so well from recordings but had never seen live.  It went way beyond my expectations.  From the moment that the curtain went up on the incredibly realistic barge on the Seine, the production was inspired and flawless.  Patricia Racette was in all three operas, as Giorgetta, Angelica and Lauretta, but her performance as the eponymous Suor Angelica was without equal in my experience.  Not just her voice, which is truly magnificent, but her acting was nothing short of amazing.  For more on this opera, see my later blog entry Aimez-vous Puccini.

After the opera we went to our first Hannukah dinner at Melissa's sister.  The food was absolutely delicious.

We also spent a little time in and around Bristol, Connecticut, staying at a very nice B&B: Chimney Crest.  We visited the nation's oldest, and New England's largest, bridge club: the Hartford Bridge Club.  It's a very interesting area around there, with the Providence, Hartford and Fishkill railroad literally winding its way through town and two museums: one for carousels, one for clocks and watches.  Bristol is also the home of ESPN of course.

Meanwhile, in news from Peru, Miranda has managed to get her image into the LAN airline magazine in (see above where she is facing us at the nearest table of Rafael's). Now we know how she spends her time there.  Just kidding :)