Bird of the Month: October 2022

Smith's Longspur, Photo by Bill Rankin

Smith’s Longspur Honorable Mention: Gray Kingbird State Year List for Connecticut 2022 By the end of the month of October 2022, Connecticut had recorded 329 species on eBird.  Five new species were added during October (see the image below, which is an eBird SYL list sorted by date), and Smith’s Longspur was the 327th species … Read more

Bird Of The Month: June 2022

Black Rail by Julio Mulero in Martinez CA 03.2015 flickr

Black Rail STATE YEAR LIST for 2022 During June 2022 our eBird “State Year List” added  only THREE additional species for the year:  Common Gallinule, Red Crossbill, and Black Rail (this rail was reported to eBird but is NOT even shown on this eBird listing below because eBird classifies it as a “Regionally Sensitive” species … Read more

Bird of the Month: May 2022

Arctic Tern Photo credit: Arctic Tern (Sterna paradisaea) Bantam Lake, 05.13.2022 Larry Master www.masterimages.org STATE YEAR LIST for 2022: During May birders reported FORTY-FOUR additional species, bringing the state year list up to 295 species. During January birders reported 175 bird species, which initialized this year’s eBird CT “state year list.” FOUR species were added … Read more

Bird of the Month: April 2022

Mandts Black Guillemot. Photo by Joe McNally

Black Guillemot (Cepphus grylle) The photo above by Joe McNally is from the COA 2022 Annual Meeting keynote talk by George Divoky about a study of the subspecies Mandt’s Black Guillemot in Alaska. No photo of the Connecticut bird is available. STATE YEAR LIST, for Connecticut, for 2022: During January birders reported 175 bird species, … Read more

Bird of the Month: March 2022

Photo above: Short-billed Gull, March 20,2022. Long Beach, Stratford, CT. Photo for eBird by Frank Mantlik Short-billed Gull (Larus brachyrhynchus) During January 175 bird species were added to initialize this year’s eBird CT “state year list”.  Four species were added in February, and in March EIGHTEEN additional new species were added to our state year … Read more

Bird of the Month: February 2022

Common (Kamchatka) Gull During January 175 bird species were added to this year’s eBird CT “state year list”, and in February only four new species were added to our state year list (bringing the state year list up to 179 species). Here are those four species, in the proposed rank order of noteworthiness (regardless of how … Read more

Bird of the Month: January 2022

Thick-billed Murre.01.17.2022 Patrick Dugan

Thick-billed Murre The top Bird of the Month (BOTM) bird for January 2022 was Thick-billed Murre (two different individual birds –and now a third one at Harkness on February 2). One was spotted and photographed on Jan.17 by Patrick Dugan (at Cove Island Park) and the second was spotted and photographed at the other end … Read more

COA’s 2022 Workshops and Events Schedule (Preliminary)

American Redstart, Photo Steve Morytko

Here is Connecticut Ornithological Association’s preliminary 2022 Workshop and Events Schedule. All dates, leaders, presenters, and topics are subject to change. Watch the COA website (https://www.ctbirding.org) for updates. Currently, all workshop presentations and meetings are expected to be by Zoom, with guided field trips for seasonal birding workshops. Participants in public gatherings are encouraged to … Read more