Came Across A Kestrel At The Fairgrounds

Fall migration is in full swing so I've been keeping my eyes open for migrating hawks and increasing numbers of sparrows.

I found a few but my favorite surprises of the morning were finding a Northern Harrier which a dog scared off and this American Kestrel sitting on a post. Both Harriers and Kestrels sometimes hover while they hunt. Northern Harriers hover close to the ground while kestrels generally do it from a greater height.

One of the most peaceful and scenic places in Middletown is the Indian Hill Cemetery. Sowheag, who was a leader of the Wangunks in the 1600's, used to stand atop the hill here to get as bird's eye view of the wigwam settlements the in the surrounding area along the Connecticut River. You can read more in this Indian Hill Cemetery history page.

I like to find a comfortable spot on one of there benches and scan the surrounding areas for birds. Many times they will land on stones or monuments like this Northern Flicker and Eastern Bluebird did.

Flickers are woodpeckers that spend a lot of time feeding on the ground as opposed to other woodpecker species in the area which spend most of their time in trees. They also have a lot of interesting markings. Notice the moustache, black chest band, spots on the chest, and yellow under the back of the tail making this a yellow-shafted Northern Flicker.

They also have a heart-shaped marking on the back of their head. They are the second largest woodpecker in Connecticut behind the Pileated Woodpecker.

Zinnias Do A Good Job Attracting Butterflies!

I took a break from yardwork the other day and was pleased to see a couple of butterflies show up near the flower gardens which makes planting them all the more worthwhile! I noticed the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail kept landing on the hibiscus but didn't seem to be interested in feeding on the flowers.  It ended up on another plant with much smaller yellow flowers.Both the Monarch and swallowtail spent most of their time on the Zinnias. That seems to be the flower of choice for butterflies in my garden this year. 

Green Herons At the Pea Soup Frog Pond

I haven't been birding much lately but I had an interesting outing the other day. There is a little walking area about a 1/2 mile from my house that I go to do some casual birding on occasion. 

I usually stick to the open field areas where I typically see things like mockingbirds, goldfinches, Barn Swallows and Killdeer there. from above looking down I have always noticed there was a little pond below but it was too surrounded by woods to get to it but someone recently cleared a path around it with some heavy equipment. It's not a pond that i would want to drink water out of or swim in. It looks like someone just poured a giant can of pea soup in there but the frogs seem to like it.When you find a pond that has lots of frogs in the summer you have a good chance of finding the crow-sized Green Heron. It turns out there were actually 5 of them hidden in this little frog pond! They are crow-sized and blend in pretty well in wooded surroundings. It was interesting to see one in this position sort of postured more like a waterfowl than a heron.

Don't ever judge a habitat by how pretty it looks! Birders even find interesting birds in places like sewage treatment plants and dumps so green water won't doesn't discourage them a bit!