A little more Slaty

Slaty-backed Gull - Windsor Landfill, CT. Nov 28th. Thought to be fourth-cycle. Potentially the first state record.

This fourth cycle Slaty-backed Gull at Windsor in Connecticut inspired much discussion on the ID-Frontiers listserve, especially concerning the bird's back color. By coincidence, the Ujiharas have just posted more fabulous shots of Slaty-backed Gulls on their wonderful Japanese Gull-site. They include this amazing image set of the same bird taken within a two minute period and have not made any adjustments to the images regarding brightness or contrast - the images are rather revealing. Enjoy!

On the same theme, here's an earlier post that I made on Slaty-backed Gull upperpart tones;
http://pioneerbirding.blogspot.com/2008/12/murky-shades-of-slaty.html

Rusty Blackbirds and more, Hadley - 12/14

A final batch of images from the excellent Northampton CBC in the company of Scott Surner, Brian Kane and Lisa Rock. A group of over 40 Rusty Blackbirds was certainly another highlight from the count, these birds were also at Hadley Cove. We also managed good views of two Eastern Screech Owls (one gray phase, one red phase) in a predawn owling session in Amherst.

Eastern Screech Owl - 'red' phase. Amherst. Digibin record shot taken using a relatively 'soft' spotlight and no flash.

Eastern Screech Owl - 'gray' phase. Amherst, Umass Campus. Digibin record shot.

Rusty Blackbirds with some Red-winged Blackbirds, Hadley Cove.

American Tree Sparrow - Hadley. Plentiful in much of our count area.

Lapland Longspurs - Two birds seen well along the Aqua Vitae Road, Hadley.

Canada and Snow Geese - part of the dense mass of c. 2,000 Canada Geese resting on the Connecticut River at Hadley Cove. The Snow Geese can just be made out behind the main body of the flock.

Greater and Lesser Snow Geese, plus Greenland White-front , Hadley - 12/14

Another highlight from the Northampton CBC. For most of the morning we were blessed to have a huge mass of Canada Geese coming and going from the Hadley Cove area on the Connecticut River. At peak some 2,000 Canada Geese must have been present. The party of four Snow Geese turned out to be quite interesting with a family group (1 adult, 2 first-winter) of 3 Lesser Snow Geese (C.c. caerulescens) providing a striking and excellent comparison with a first-winter Greater Snow Goose (C.c. atlanticus).

Lesser Snow Goose (C.c. caerulescens). Adult.

Greater Snow Goose (C.c. atlanticus). First-winter.

The Greater White-fronted Goose, showing characteristics associated with the Greenland race flavirostris, was a fine pick up by Brian Kane who'd been sorting through the Canada Geese resting in a well hidden part of Hadley Cove where much of the viewing was obscured by trees.

Rough-legged Hawk, Hadley - 12/14

Rough-legged Hawk - dark morph juvenile, Hadley, MA. Dec 14th. Digiscope image of a distant hovering bird. Can be aged as a juvenile by the rather diffuse grayish terminal band to the tail and diffuse band along the trailing edge to the wings. An adult would show a much more contrasting black trailing edge to the wings and black banded tail. Wheeler (2003) mentions that juveniles of this plumage type are common in males and very uncommon in females.


An unexpected bonus for our Northampton CBC team (Scott Surner, Brian Kane and Lisa Rock), good close views of a dark-morph juvenile Rough-legged Hawk which spent several minutes quartering and hovering over the fields on Aqua Vitae Road, Hadley. The bird alighted briefly before being harassed by crows and heading off West toward Northampton.

The first two images in the sequence are digiscoped shots, followed by a series of digibin images. I was pleased with the digiscopes as the bird was about 250 meters away and just hovered long enough for me to make a digiscope attempt worthwhile. I rarely have success when trying to digiscope flying birds and usually resort to digibin shots, no matter how distant the subject might be.

Anyhow, this was one of many highlights from a highly productive morning in Hadley, part of the Northampton CBC.

A few more Turner's Falls Gulls - 12/11

Lesser Black-backed Gull - adult, Barton Cove, Dec 9th.

Gull numbers still remain pretty low at Turner's Falls, with no more than 400 large gulls coming into roost on the ice at Barton Cove. I viewed from the Gill side of the river on Dec 9th and 11th and found a similar selection of species on both evenings with 1 Lesser Black-backed and 2 Kumlien's Iceland Gulls on the 9th, and 2 Lesser Black-backed and 4 Kumlien's Iceland Gulls on the 11th. About 600 Ring-billed Gulls remain in the area. Viewing conditions at Barton Cove are not that great. The proximity of viewable ice fluctuates all the time and it was much receded on Dec 11th. It's also difficult to get really close to the birds which I much prefer when 'gulling', but................

More exciting gull news just in from Connecticut - Nick Bonomo found an adult Thayer's Gull on the Windsor Landfill today (Dec 12th). Although only in view for a few minutes, Nick captured some excellent images which he's just posted on his blog. Nice job Nick!

Five species of gull - Barton Cove, Gill. Dec 12th. This shot contain no less than 3 Kumlien's Iceland Gulls (all first-cycle), an adult Lesser Black-backed Gull, plus American Herring, Great Black-backed and Ring-billed Gulls. A single click will enlarge the image.

Lesser Black-backed Gull - adult with American Herring and Great Black-backed Gulls. Barton Cove.

Kumlien's Iceland Gulls - two first-cycle birds in the foreground.

Geese - Five species, but only just - CT 12/10

This morning I headed South into Connecticut hoping to have at least a morning at the Windsor Landfill before the forecast heavy rain really set in for the day. Although mild, squally showers really hampered observations and by 11:30hrs I had little to show for my time and decided to call it a day on gulls. When I left, some 2,500 gulls were present, all American Herring and Great Black-backed apart from 2 Ring-billed Gulls.

A nice selection of geese had been consistently reported from East Wallingford, just south of Meriden so instead of heading for home I decided to try my luck hoping that I'd find at least some birds close to the roads and thus prevent a repeat of the soaking that I got at the landfill. Well, I did find some birds, though it wasn't quite as straight forward as I'd hoped and I to work hard to eventually find the much reported Barnacle Goose which flew into a fog bound MacKenzie Reservoir when just about all the light had gone! This bird has present in the area for about a month and you can seen some fine images on Nick Bonomo's blog. Here's a pictorial log of the species seen today.

Pale-bellied Brant - juv/first-winter. (left most bird in both shots). Whirlwind Hill Road, E. Wallingford. New Haven Co.

Richardson's Cackling Goose - (left). This was the second of about 4 seen today. All were in fields on Whirlwind Hill Road, E. Wallingford. Nice stout bird with pale breast and rather 'frosted' appearance to upperparts, especially secondries and tertials.


Richardson's Cackling Goose - (left most bird in both shots). This was the third of four seen today. All were in fields on Whirlwind Hill Road, E. Wallingford. Smallish bird with 'tawny' breast and again frosted appearance to upperparts, especially secondries and tertials. This bird also had a weak neck ring at the base of the black neck-sock.



Greater White-fronted Goose - Interesting bird, almost totally lacking any pale fringing to the upperpart feathers, especially on the tertials and wing coverts. This combined with a thin flank stripe and a rather bright orange bill would point to this bird being of the Greenland form - flavirostris. MacKenzie Reservior, E. Wallingford.


MacKenzie Reservoir at dusk - the scene just before the Barnacle Goose arrived. Two American Coots in the foreground whilst the mist is hiding hundreds of Canada Geese.


Barnacle Goose - (center). Extreme digiscope at 16:33hrs. Nearly all the light had gone. The light gathering quality of my Swarovski scope was pretty remarkable in the case, giving decent views even when it was close to darkness. The bird is breast on and you can just about make out the cream face and the black breast (compare the white breasts of the surrounding Canada Geese).

Barnacle Goose - (center). 'Extreme' digiscope at dusk - 16:35hrs. Same as above. The bird is breast on, facing slightly left. This shot has been 'tweeked' for light and contrast with photoshop and has actually brought out the color of the cream face. The black breast is more striking in this shot as is the bright white flank. MacKenzie Reservior, E. Wallingford, New Haven Co.

Kumlien's Gulls - Turner's Falls 12/07

Numbers of Kumlien's Iceland Gulls are increasing locally with at least four at Barton Cove this afternoon. In fact, each recent visit to Turner's Falls has produced at least one bird (three last Sunday Nov 30th), either on Baton Cove or on the power canal, and to date all have been first-cycle birds. On the other hand, numbers of other large gulls remain rather low at Turner's with a combined total of less than 150 American Herring and Great Black-backed Gulls roosting at Barton Cove so far this month. Quite a contrast to the Windsor Landfill in Connecticut last week which harbored up to 5,000 large gulls but had relatively few of the scarcer species (2 Glaucous, 1 Kumlien's Iceland and 3 Lesser Black-backed Gulls). At Barton Cove, the bulk of the gull flock is still composed of Ring-billed Gulls with about 600 present most evenings.

A few other notes for the weekend. Yesterday, in addition to the Cackling Goose on the power canal, one Kumlien's Iceland and 1 adult Lesser Black-backed Gull, plus 45 Hooded Mergansers at Barton Cove. Today, a nice little yard surprise in Amherst in the form of a late Ruby-crowned Kinglet off the rear balcony around noon. Also, 2 White-throated Sparrows and about 20 Junocs present all day.

Lesser Black-backed Gull - distant adult, Barton Cove from Gill. 12/06/08.

Hooded Mergansers - Nice flock of 45 present on Barton Cove, 12/06/08.

Richardson's Cackling Goose, Turner's Falls - 12/06

Finally a Cackling Goose at Turner's Falls! Despite frequent checks of the rather large numbers of loafing Canada Geese on the power canal throughout the fall, I didn't see a single Cackler until today. Had I not stayed until a bit later than planned, it could have been missed altogether and I only picked it up on my third scope scan of the 750 Canada Geese present. Most of the flock had been roosting or facing away from me, making life difficult to say the least for spotting Cackling Geese. Luckily the bird perked up and ended up swimming down river, right towards me. Clearly a different individual to the recent bird frequenting UMass Amherst, with a lighter breast, narrower white cheek, and much more obvious white tips to the greater coverts forming a nice bar on the folded wings.






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Nice flock of Common Goldeneyes present as well. No Barrow's yet.