Today I went to Milford Point for my birthday with 3 of Connecticut's top birders, Frank Gallo, Greg Hanisek, and Nick Bonomo. It was a very successful day.
Weather:
Sunny and windy. At least 91 degrees (Fahrenheit).
Overview:
We met in the parking lot. While we were waiting for Frank to come Greg and I headed up to the Wheeler Marsh viewing platform. Greg spotted two Spotted Sandpipers (a new year bird for me) and I spotted a Least Sandpiper. Then Nick spotted a juvenile Northern Harrier. We took a look at the young Ospreys that had just left the nest. They were flapping their wings. As we walked onto the sandbars we saw a bunch of peeps and few Semipalmated Plovers. We moved onto the next spot where we studied some Calidris. We saw a lot of Semipalmated Sandpipers, a Sanderling or two, Piping Plovers, and a few Semipalmated Plovers. We watched them for about 10 minutes coming into the sandbars. After that we moved onto to see the tern colony. While we were walking I found a little fledgling Piping Plover. Then Frank quickly found the continuing juvenile Black Tern. He let me take a quick look at it with his scope. As usual the terns flew away, but I was very lucky to get a shot of the Black Tern in flight. We headed to the sandbar that the terns flew to and Frank re-found the Black Tern. Nick and Frank found a few Roseate Terns. They taught me a few things about tern ID, like that Common Terns lose the black tip of their bill. They also taught me a few things about Roseate Tern ID. We stayed at least an hour looking at the terns. Then Stefan Martin joined us while we walked back to the parking lot. When we got to the parking lot we all said goodbye.
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| Juvenile Common Tern |
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| American Oystercatcher |
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| Black Tern |
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| Black-bellied Plover |
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| Great Egret |
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| Purple Martin |
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| Sanderling (back left), Semipalmated Plover (front left), Semipalmated Sandpiper (right) |
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| Semipalmated Sandpiper (back left) and Piping Plover (front right) |
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| Semipalmated Plover |
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| Semipalmated Sandpiper |
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| Common Tern flyover |
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| Least Sandpiper |
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| Least Tern |
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| Molting female Northern Harrier |
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| Recently fledged Osprey |
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| Piping Plover |
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| Piping Plover chick |
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| Juvenile Piping Plover |
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| Female Purple Martin |
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| Ruddy Turnstone |
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| Semipalmated Sandpiper |
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| Snowy Egret |
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| Me (left) and Nick (right). Taking a birdwatching selfie. |
