From Steve Broker (Cheshire):
03/15/11 - Woodbridge, Konold's Pond (viewed from West Rock ridge top):
With Konold's Pond completely ice-free following the recent period of
warming, migrant and resident waterfowl continue to accumulate on the
pond.  Conservatively, there are 200 Ring-necked Ducks today.  A more
careful count could turn up an additional 50 to 100 individuals.
American Black Duck and Mallard numbers are growing, and there are at
least several dozen Wood Ducks, 7 Green-winged Teal, two pairs or
more of Buffleheads, five drake Common Mergansers, and several pairs
of Hooded Mergansers.  Scoping from the shore likely would turn up
other species, such as American Wigeon and the Redhead reported
recently.  Mute Swan numbers will increase from the present 5
individuals to the mid-30s before dropping down to one or two
breeding pairs.  The Ring-necked Ducks are widely scattered around
the pond as individuals or in clusters.  A single, narrow scope view
can hold as many as 25 birds.  The Wood Ducks favor more protected
areas among the shoreline shrubs and the clumps of grasses (northwest
and northeast edges of the pond and up the West River inlet).  The
teals observed were in the northeast "cove".  All in all, not bad for
a shallow puddle of impounded water.

Two mated pairs of Great Blue Herons continue to do their thing,
joined today by a fifth, presumably unmated migrant.  The second pair
has been tucked away in the northeast corner of the pond for the last
few days.  A colony of two (successfully) nesting pairs was first
established here in 2009, just six miles from Long Island Sound.
Things have changed dramatically for this species since "Connecticut
Breeding Bird Atlas I" confirmed breeding Great Blue Herons in 19
atlas blocks, limited almost entirely to Connecticut's northwest and
northeast uplands.  (Let's get giddy and assume that CT BBA II is
just around the corner.)  The Great Egret continues fishing in the
northwestern part of the pond, generally adjacent to Warren Road (off
Route 69) and north to the extreme northwest corner.  Belted
Kingfisher is patrolling, and Red-shouldered Hawk is screaming from
the red maple swamp north of Konold's.  For other, early-nesting
species, all goes well on the western front.

At least 4-5 birds peenting, displaying or flying about.  One bird flew over another bird that was peenting and as it did I heard a call I have not heard before. It was a chatter, stutter type call of about 6 or so notes. I was wondering if either it may have been an interested female or annoyed male.  First for me!

Jayne

Jayne Amico
Southington, CT
www.mvssanctuary.org

Dendroica is a website recently released by Environment Canada and the USGS Breeding Bird
Survey office- it's one of the most comprehensive audio- and visual-ID
guides I've seen for North American birds.It was designed to help
students, volunteers, and professionals improve their bird ID skills to
conduct more accurate surveys for avian monitoring and research.

On the Dendroica website, you'll find several pictures of each North
American species along with many examples of each species' calls and
songs.You can create a list of only the MBW species, if you'd like to
study these in detail, or you can browse through all of the species
found in the U.S.

You can find the website here: /www.natureinstruct.org/dendroica
http://www.natureinstruct.org/dendroica .//You'll be asked to create a
user name and indicate what survey program you're affiliated with- and
then you'll be able to browse through hundreds of bird songs and pictures!/

Forwarded from Veremont Center for Ecostudies.