Coastal birds

On Sunday I had the opportunity to go out with New Haven Bird Club.  We started in Westbrook, CT and walked along the beach to a productive mudflats at low tide.  Lots of fun !!   Semi-Palmated Sandpipers have gathering by the 100's on the mudflats in many places.  Common and Least Terns were flying over,  Ruddy Turnstones and American Oystercatchers were foraging, Black-bellied and Semi-Palmated Plovers were gathering as well.  3 species of Gulls (Ring-billed, Herring, and Great Black-backed), Little Blue Herons and both Egrets were the major attractions.  Viewing thru spotting scopes, we watched a dark adult Little Blue Heron fly into the rookery tree and feed a white juvenile.  The juveniles hold their immature plumage for a year, acquiring adult plumage by the end of their 2nd year.

 Top photo:  Ruddy Turnstone with Black bellied Plovers.  A Semi-palmated Sandpiper is barely in view.
2nd photo:  American Oystercatcher

A Semi-Palmated Plover foraging as the tide comes in.

Royal Fool

Aflac has made a royal fool out of me.  They said job in Customer Service.  I said OK, I will do the training.  It turns out this is nothing but a SALES GIG.  I am so embarrassed, I told everyone I had a job and it really isn't.  Its just cold calling on businesses, and walking into businesses who don't want you there. I would be conscripted to days of endless cold calling.  I have been kicked around enough already, I am not going to intentionally put myself in places where I will be thrown out.  I am very disappointed in myself that I fell into their trap.  I spent all this money to move to Milford, all to no avail.

On a happier note,  in early July I was invited to come with my sister to Mt Desert Island, Maine. She and friend Dorie were attending the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators summer event in Bar Harbor.  Dorie's friend owns a lovely little cabin on a lake on Mt Desert Island.  We were so lucky to be able to stay there.  It was foggy for half of our drive north, and most of  Thursday.  Friday and Saturday were just beautiful. Friday Sue let me use her car to drive around Acadia NP and the island.  very pretty place.  Saturday the artists (and me) were taken by bus and ferry to Swan's Island.  Again, a very pretty place.  I took so many photos, and will post only a few.

Sailboat at a mooring

 Boardwalk along Upper Hadlock Lake,  Mt Desert Island

Rocky coast of Acadia National Park

Settling into CT

I had been in CT for a week when I received an invitation from the Aflac insurance company to attend a group interview.  I had never considered working for an insurance company,  Things moved along, I was accepted for training, and will be appointed to the Milford office.  Its been a great deal of on-line training and a few days of office training.  There will be more office training soon.
    As much as I love my sister and her family here, I really don't like commuting long distances every day.  I have rented a room in a house in Milford and will be moving in a few days.  Its good to get all the boxes out of the truck.  Silver truck probably thinks so, too !!
    Photos from rambling around CT.      Cardinal was taking a bath in a rain puddle.
There has been alot of rain in the northeast.  Warm and humid.  While the western part of the country is having drought conditions and a big heat wave, I have been photographing flooding along the Willimantic River and tributaries.


 Osprey nest at Milford Point is raising chicks.

 Railroad Creek.  CT is so green.

      Song Sparrow in a Cedar tree singing.

June

I have been in Connecticut for a few weeks.  I will share some recent photos.

Baltimore Oriole at an orange.

                                Lady Slipper Orchid

 Rose-breasted Grosbeak singing

                          Fenton River in NE Connecticut

The afternoon of photographing hummingbirds, this is a female Ruby-throated

May across the country

It finally stopped snowing and I was able to start driving east.  In Illinois I stopped at a county park reported to have Henslow's Sparrows.  It took me awhile, I finally found one singing in a tree.  Hurray for Sparrows !!   I found another Henslow's Sparrow the next morning just across the border into Indiana. Boblinks and Grasshopper Sparrows, too.
    I spent a few days in NW Ohio at the boardwalk at Magee Marsh.  It is truly an amazing place, filled with warblers of every color and species.  And the people you meet !!
   I drove across Kentucky, horse country, and West Virginia, really pretty place.  This is one beautiful country we live in.
    My brother, Ken, arranged a family reunion and 80th Birthday celebration for our Mom at his house in Virginia.  ALL of us came, all my siblings, nieces and nephews.  We have not done that for several years.  Hurray for family !!   Big thank you to Ken and Laurie for hosting all of us.
    Leaving Virginia, I spent some time driving across Pennsylvania and New York.  Birding in the mornings and driving in the afternoons, I sampled some very green leafy areas.  Today I arrived in Connecticut.  Its been raining on and off for several days, grey clouds are dripping, dripping.

 Top photo,  backroads of West Virginia.  2nd photo, a Baltimore Oriole enjoying an orange.

 Photo to the right:  Redbud tree in bloom, along the Tippecanoe River in Indiana.

This was amazing !   I was standing on the boardwalk at Magee Marsh watching 2 Yellow Warbler males fighting.  I did not know warblers were so aggressive.  The bird on the left is trying to drown the one on the right.  Fortunately both birds survived.

May snowstorm

It snowed all afternoon and into the evening. The next morning Dolphin was completely covered.  The beautiful little flowers we saw on Wednesday's walk in the woods must be cold and wilting.

into May

Weather for the past 3 weeks has been cold, wet, grey, and windy.  Farmers have delayed planting crops for 3 weeks, and birds have delayed migration.  One or 2 days per week we have seen sun and blue sky.  With all this dreary weather I have had alot of indoor time for job searching.  You would think with all the effort I have put into this, I would at least get a phone call or an email.
     Highlights of my time in Madison were attending a wonderful show by Madison Ballet, visiting the Picasso exhibit at Chicago Art Institute, and watching a performance of the opera Don Giovanni presented by Madison Opera.  Such marvelous voices, oh my, it was beautiful music.  The Picasso exhibit was fascinating. He had so many more phases of his art than I knew about.  We also toured the Impressionist exhibit with paintings by all the famous names.

 

 While raking leaves in my aunt's yard I uncovered the sprouts of Bloodroot.  A week later they were blooming.

    In between the raindrops and bundled up against the cold wind, I did do some birding.  Eastern Towhees returned, Hermit Thrushes came back but are not singing yet, Juncos finally left, Chipping Sparrows arrived, and Field Sparrows were trilling in a field.  In a flooded field near Lake Kegonza south of Madison I found over a dozen Snipe, a pair of Blue-winged Teal, 3 Sandhill Cranes, a few Yellowlegs, and 2 large Sandpipers.  At first I thought maybe White-rumped; later on a local expert told me its too early for them.
 ?? maybe they were Solitary Sandpipers.

Top photo is a White-throated Sparrow.
Right now, its snowing.  May 2 and its snowing. This is crazy weather.