Biking For Shorebirds At The Meadows

There is a dirt road that passes through miles of agricultural fields near the Connecticut River in Rocky Hill and Wethersfield. It can be a good spot for certain species of birds. September, especially, can be good for shorebirds after rain leaves behind some puddles and fresh sod is pulled up. I gave up on this area when they decided to lock the gates. I just didn't have the patience to walk out there every time. 

I finally invested in a bike rack and decided to bike my way out through the fields.

It was a rainy morning on Sunday but there wasn't a lot of bird activity. I did, however, enjoy some nice views of this Semipalmated Plover.

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!