Since I was waiting for the paint to dry on a decoy I am working on, today turned out to be a good day for birding. I started the day at 8:00 at the Windsor landfill expecting good fortune with a host of rare Gulls! Well, that didn't happen. In fact it was slow! I actually left after two hours...not much there and I had never seen it so slow! But I did see 2 Redtails, 1 Bald Eagle and a Sharp-shinned diving into a ball of Starlings! From Windsor, I drove to Long Wharf (arriving 11:00 am) hoping to find the Snowy Owl again on the end of the Amistad pier, but it wasn't there. Over to the West Haven boat ramp I found 13 REDHEADS mixed in with the Scaup near the pilings out in front of the New Haven yacht club. There were huge numbers of Scaup and Brant everywhere but the fog made it hard to get a good idea of how many. I next stopped at Long Beach in Stratford and found 2 Kumlien's Gulls (1st cycle and the adult) standing near each other on the last jetty to the east on the point. The much discussed "possible" White-winged Gull hybrid was in its usual place at the jetty at the end of the parking lot. In the middle of the marsh was a single SNOWY OWL perched on a snag of driftwood. At Frash Pond, were a handful of Canvasbacks. In the cove south of Short Beach was the continuing drake EURASIAN WIGEON. Back to New Haven Harbor (3:00 pm) I made a quick stop at Bradley Point and there were over 300 Goldeneye in scattered small rafts from Bradley Rock to the seawall behind Jimmy's Restaurant. I didn't stop to look through them, but if anyone is in the area they may want to do so .....there may be a Barrow's or two mixed in. I have seen both drakes and hens here before. At the West Haven boat ramp the sky was finally clear and you could see Scaup and Brant covering the entire harbor from the outer breakwaters to way up by Lenny and Joes at Long Wharf. My conservative guess would be 1200 Brant and 6000+ Scaup. I did notice that Lesser Scaup were numerous in every group and raft. I only spotted 5 Redhead this time by the pilings. Back to Long Wharf- no Snowy Owl. My last stop was at Circle Beach (4:00 pm) and the continuing adult Kumlien's Gull ("FC") was feeding in the East River marsh with a bunch of other Gulls. I didn't take the time to search through them. Keith Mueller