Hello, birders. I spent much of the day birding. I first went to Lake Quassapaug in Middlebury, which is near my parents' house. I didn't get to the lake until 10am, which is too late. It seems that early morning or before sunset are the best times there because you can catch the waterbirds coming or going They seem to spend the night on the lake. During my visit, 2 COMMON LOONS were on the water and an OSPREY flew low over the W edge of the lake. Also, a few gulls were present. It was still drizzling at this time and the wind was strong out of the NW. In early afternoon I went to Lighthouse Point Park in New Haven with hope that I could spot a Red-headed Woodpecker. I found none. Songbirds were scarce. The Sound and Harbor appeared empty of waterbirds. With the company of the friendly hawkwatchers and the raptors passing overhead, however, it was a pleasant visit. There were usually raptors in the air, mostly accipiters. I'll let the others give you the numbers. Man, it was really windy, esp. along the water. On the way back to my parents' place, I stopped at the big field at the corner of Rte. 121 and Rte. 34 in Orange. I drove onto the gravel drive, which quickly turns to dirt, and I parked by the big weed covered mound. This is about 30' from the road. I birded this area for 45 min. By this time, the wind had started to die down. I couldn't remember where the Clay-colored Sparrow had been seen and I never did see one. But the birding was really good. As I pulled up, several sparrows flushed. I spotted an imm. BALD EAGLE and a RED-TAILED HAWK soon after. A dark looking small falcon that must have been a MERLIN flew by. Other raptors present were an accipiter, 3 imm. NO. HARRIERS and an AM. KESTREL. The latter was perched on one of the distant new houses for several minutes. There were about 25 SAVANNAH SPARROWS, 1 SONG and 1 imm. WHITE-CROWNED near the big mound. I tried to turn a couple of sparrows into something uncommon but I couldn't see them well enough to ID. A flock of CROWS, mostly AMERICAN but also one FISH, hung out on and near the distant huge dirt piles. Also, a flock of about 15 AMERICAN PIPITS fed on mostly bare ground not far from the sparrows. This is a neat spot and it really does seem to have potential for all sorts of birds to show up. Connecticut birders, get there now before the whole thing is covered with houses. It proved to be too dark to ID much when I paid a visit to Lake Quassapaug a little after sunset. I'm going to try again early tomorrow morning. Scott Baron Fairfax, Va. (Middlebury, Conn. for now) ____________________________________________________________________________________ Boardwalk for $500? In 2007? Ha! Play Monopoly Here and Now (it's updated for today's economy) at Yahoo! Games. http://get.games.yahoo.com/proddesc?gamekey=monopolyherenow