This morning, my short walk with my son from Simsbury Drive to Northeast Elementary School revealed more migrants than I've ever found before in hundreds of trips along this route. I had no optics (stupid of me), but I heard a CAPE MAY WARBLER, a few BLACKBURNIAN WARBLERS, a BLACK-THROATED GREEN WARBLER, a YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER, and a NORTHERN PARULA, plus an AMERICAN REDSTART in our yard (probably a first for us). My son and I also saw a singing SCARLET TANAGER in a lone tall tree in a lucky person's yard.
Yesterday after the rains in Sapsucker Woods, I walked around a bit and found two SWAINSON'S THRUSHES (East Trail and Wilson/West intersection), eleven warbler species, and the BARRED OWL (south of map stand at T intersection of Wilson and Severinghaus Trails, directly south of Podell Boardwalk). I saw a Red-tailed Hawk flying high through the canopy, carrying what appeared to be a writhing muskrat. Imagine the terror for a creature that had previously known only wet earth, still water, and concealing cattails... I also had a two-second view of a gigantic first-year accipiter, brightly spangled above and heavily streaked below, barreling through the treetops. I didn't pick up any definitive field marks, and recognizing my past history of mistakes, I don't want to venture anything close to a conclusive ID. But I still have a strong sense that it was too different-looking and especially much too big to be a Cooper's Hawk. Mark Chao -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
