Our first official birding excursion!

Lighthouse Point Park 

New Haven 

Connecticut 

USA

How is it that one goes on an official birding outing or just happen to see birds when you're out and about?

Not much I guess, but a kicker might be that you are guided by a re-known birder and all around nice guy that I will call Chris, because that is his name.

How do you become re-known? Well, years of experience in the birding community, acting as President of New Haven's Bird Club and leading many of the Audubon's bird walks.

Birding is something Cheryl and I had an interest in, but never had we gone with someone who knew what they were doing. But we both have become fascinated with the water birds around New Haven and now all the eagles and Ospreys.

First off, getting a private birding walk with an expert was not on our radar at all. Cheryl and I were lucky enough to get this tour by Chris from an auction at our local Creative Arts Workshop, via gift from Cheryl's mom. And we had that gift certificate for maybe 6 months before we could get together for our virgin bird walk.

Birds Love Lighthouse Point Lots!

Lighthouse Point Beach

Lighthouse point lies on the eastern side of New Haven Harbour, and is also a large beach/park/super splash pad/carousel/boat launch. Lighthouse park is also on the Migratory routes of may species of birds that migrate south and back. Or vice versa. The park is a designated "Hawk Watch" site, where volunteers sit with binoculars, scopes and their keen know how to count all the species that soar overhead.

Official "Hawk Watchers"

Normally, the drive to Lighthouse is about 5 to 10 minutes, through the sleepy borough of Morris Cove. We were to meet Chris at 10:30 so we left with a couple extra minutes.

Good thing, when we got to the road that leads to Lighthouse to be all backed up to the gate, a huge line even for holidays in the summer. Unbeknownst to all of us, there was a walk for Alzheimer's at the park. So we are here to meet Chris and his wife, and there are thousands of people! Luckily Chris had the fore sight to stand near the entrance, and he had a tripod with scope making him recognizable.

After brief introductions, we walked to the beach near where a little river runs from a marsh. We see at first some ring billed gulls, in abundance here. 
Chris began to explain that many birds are migrating through and you don't know what you may or may not see. However, when we went in October 2014, the "Hawk Watchers" were out in full force. So chances would be good to see something.

The first bird we see is a Great Egret fishing for his raw sushi breakfast!

Google Autoawesome!

(Google takes your photos, if you store with them, and puts shots in a burst together.)

Juvenile Black Ringed billed Seagull

More black ringed gulls

Great Egret Posing!

Beautiful bird.

So cute, you want to just hug them.

More Fishing!

Makes it look easy.

Not too much happening on the beach. Chris told us about the ring billed seagull and how to identify them and the juveniles. Seagulls are lot like Hawks, there are so many different kinds that look alike. But now we know one for sure! 

On the way to a path that follows the river into a marshy area, much like a place you would find a cranberry bog. We passed a tree where I saw a dove sitting, but at least I got a nice bif shot (bird in flight)

Mourning Dove

But not far into this trail, did Chris spot a bird that was not so easy to see in the brush.

Yellow Rumped Warbler looking for a spider delight!

Yellow Rumped Warbler

Is this bird mooning me?

Shot of the Day

Yellow Rumped Warbler

Cheryl and I were impressed so far, neither has ever seen one before, and this little guy just put on a show for us. 

Meanwhile, Chris had a bird in focus on a tree across the river. With my 400mm lens, I could not even see a bird. When I got a chance to look? Well, make another bird off the lifetime list. Since I could not find it with the camera, here is an image from wikipedia.

Belted Kingfisher

Seeing a bird like this through Chris's scope was worth the price of admission. It literally blew Cheryl and I away. An amazing bird that I would love getting a photo of fishing! I hope I will be able to feature in a future post!

Lighthouse Point Park also has a trail along the river and marsh. They even have bird feeders and a thriving butterfly garden.

As we walked on the path he explained to us the difference between an American Crow and a Fish Crow. Basically, listening to the crows call, Chris could tell which was which. The American Crow goes caw caw caw and the Fish Crow goes more of an uh uh. And of course there were dozens of sparrows that were always flitting ahead of us. We have lots of Song, House and Tree sparrows. Telling them apart can be tricky! There's an app for that! Go to itunes or the Play store and download Merlin ID, from the Cornell School of Ornithology. A pretty handy tool in your pocket as well as a pocket guide and paper and pencil to jot down your birds. Or be like me, take a cajillion pictures so you have a document of the trip.

Great Blue Heron flew by

And I just barely got this either Marsh Hawk

or a peregrine falcon. 

This one I knew...

Bluejay with peanut

We also saw Flickers, Cow Birds and some

flycatchers that were to far off.

When we looped back to the parking lot

after about an hour, this American

Kestrel came migrating through...

American Kestrel

Birding doesn't have to be expensive. Many parks are free, (Lighthouse has parking fees in the summer) and a good pair of binoculars are really all you need. A nice scope with a tri light carbon tripod will fill out your gear nicely. 

And it's all good exercise. Even in a city, we saw all these birds. So fear not if you live in a city and commune with nature on a more intimate level. 

And it's fun, something that Cheryl and I can share. Our four eyes are pretty keen and one of us will see something.

We are finally warming up to the 40s in New England.

Our spring is about 2 weeks behind according to farmers. Our Osprey and Eagles are all back on their nests just over the New Haven Line in Hamden.

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Birds Rule!

Squirrels are cute too!