Raven, Butterfly, Goldfinch And August Is Over!

I took a bike ride through some agricultural fields near the Connecticut River in Rocky Hill. It used to have open gates to drive your car through but now that the gates are closed a bike is the best option to cover the 5 mile treck. It can be a good shorebird spot but on this day it was a raucous raven that caught my attention. Boy can they squawk!

 Zinnias are great if you're looking for attention from birds and butterflies! This swallowtail looks like it needs to get to the wing repair shop soon.

Goldfinches are on them every day! Every year I try to add more perennials and rely less on the annuals but I'm planting Zinnias every year no matter what.

Looking at birds in the garden, a trip down to the shore and one bike ride through the farm fields is about all the birding I did in August. I looked at the calendar today and realized that August has already come to an end!

Milford Point Has Nice Viewing Platforms

I stopped by the Milford Point Nature Center. They have some nice viewing platforms on the back of their nature center that overlook the marsh.  I saw a lot of shorebirds further out with my scope including a Red Knot but it was easier to get a photo of some waders that were much closer to me. The first one is a Yellow-crowned Night Heron.The second one is a Snowy Eget. 

Milford Point, Hammonasset, and Sandy Point are 3 very accessible coastline spots to get in some easy birding.

I didn't do a lot of birding this month but plan to pick up the pace in September. I enjoy just sitting on a nice hill looking for migrating hawks to pass through. Very Peaceful!

Not A Chicken Of The Sea

One type of bird I don't see too often are rails. They're usually secretive, maybe just popping out of a marshy area for a quick look around before disappearing again. Birders more often just hear them and identify them by sound. This is a Clapper Rail which are more common along the shoreline. 

They are often described as chicken-like but they are not related to chickens, other than the fact that chickens and rails are both birds. They belong to the family: Rallidae which includes rails, coots, and gallinules. They are within the order Gruiformes which also include cranes. Anyway, I'm glad I was lucky enough to see one out in the open!

Spear Thistle: Beautiful And Useful But Invasive!

During a recent walk I came across this plant that I thought was really eye-catching! I found out that it is called Spear Thistle. It is an attractive nectar source for bees and butterflies. It is a food source for finches and according to what I've read, it can be consumed by humans. Even the stems can be used as a celery substitute if the spikes are removed (don't take my word for this, just what I read).

It is native to Europe, Asia, and North Africa but considered an invasive weed in the United States because it outcompetes other native plants. It has a long tap root and a sharp spiny stem making them difficult to eradicate. It's too bad because I thought they would look good in the backyard but the negatives outweigh the positives.