It's Not What You See But How You See It

This time of the year the Connecticut shoreline is a great place to find sea ducks. Based on difficulty of finding one, my duck of the day was the Long-tailed Duck but....................

......I would forfeit my sighting of the Long-tailed Duck in favor of the beautiful view I had of this Red-breasted Merganser!

eBird Target Species Add Fun To Common Birds

 As I mentioned before, finding foy (first of year) birds for your year list adds a little excitement to seeing some of the more common birds in your area.I spent a little time walking around the border of the old brownstone quarries.

I try to make a habit of entering my local bird sightings on eBird. Under the explore button of eBird there is a link called target species hich allows you to generate a list of birds that you haven't recorded yet for the year.You can also generate a wish list of birds you have never seen in your lifetime.I use it to keep track of county birds. It made this common Song Sparrow a real prize for the day!

If Robins Can Take It Then So Can I?

We had a couple of days when the temperature reached 10 below zero with the wind  chill factor. Along with it we had an ice storm which dropped a lot of branches and knocked out power.

Some people think that robins disappear to return in the spring. Actually, they are around all winter eating mostly berries. They are pretty tough to endure this kind of weather but I wonder if this one is looking forward to warmer days?

If the robins can take it then I guess I owe it to them to go out and find them even if it is belowww zzzzero!

Skunkheads At The Shore

 I'mve managed to get out for short trips on the weekend. This is at Saybrook point.

Some call these Surf Scoters "Skunkheads". It was pretty windy so getting distant photos was tricky.