Orchard Oriole, Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Milford Point, 6/28/19

Both Orchard Orioles and Yellow-billed Cuckoos were singing around the CACC today, and both eating caterpillars.  We're trying to discover if they're nesting here.  The ORORs have been around for well over a onth, and both sexes are present; the Cuckoos have also been present, but they're more common now.  Both could possibly nest, and perhaps the OROR already has.

Orchard Oriole singing, 6/28/19

Yellow-billed Cuckoo eating, Milford Point 6/28/19

Yellow-billed Cuckoo eating, Milford Point 6/28/19

Black Tern, Milford Point, 6/27/19

A lone adult Black Tern joined 63 Common Terns, 20 Least Terns, and 1 Forster's on the western part of the main sandbar at Milford Point on 6/27/19.  A Video and a few photos below:

Black Tern adult, Milford Point, 6/27/19

Black Tern with Common Terns, Milford Point CT 6/27/19

Common Terns, one either a first year bird or a non-breeding adult, Milford Point 6/27/19

Leps, Bent of the River, 6/22/19

John Himmelman's Bent of the River CBA walk yielded moths in addition to butterflies:

Spring Azure, "marginata" morph?

Summer Azure

White-striped Black Moth

White-striped Black

Black-bordered Lemon (Marimatha nigrofimbria), tiny 10-12 mm

mystery

Three-spotted Fillip

Bird-dropping Moth, perhaps Olive-shaded (Ponometia candefacta or Small  P.erastrioides

White-marked Tussock Moth caterpillar

Eastern Comma

June 2019 local nesting birds: PIPL, AMOY, Killdeer,

Monarch caterpillar, on backyard milkweed

AMOY, Milford Point, band T1

Common Terns, Milford Point, 6/18/19--flock of 35-40

AMOY, Milford Point, band T3

Killdeer fledgling, Silver Sands, 6/19/19

June 2019 birds.  At Silver Sands, where a nest on the main beach was exclosed,  only one adult remains with a single chick: below it broods the chick on a cool, misty day west of the Tombolo.  Also possible re-nesting (show lining nest scrape with shell fragments) at Milford Point.

Piping Plover adult brooding chick

Sandy Point PIPL adult, 6/6/19

PIPL chick, Sandy Point 6/6/19

PIPL adult brooding 2-3 chicks, Sandy Point 6/6/19

PIPL adults, female/male, perhaps re-nesting, Milford Pt, 6/18/19

PIPL adults, female/male, perhaps re-nesting, Milford Pt, 6/18/19

adult sheltering PIPL chick, Milford Pt, 6/17/19 (Francis St spit)

PIPL chick, Milford Pt, 6/17/19 (Francis St spit)

Bridled Tern, Great Gull Island, 6/12/19

A few photos of the Bridled Tern at great Gull Island (photos taken Captain by Ian Devlin).

Bridled Tern, Great Gull Island, 6/12/19

Bridled Tern, Great Gull Island, 6/12/19

Harris' Checkerspot (6/15/19), mating Roseate Terns (6/13/19)

Southern Cloudywing, Ward Pound Ridge Reservation, 6/15/19

Southern Cloudywing, Ward Pound Ridge Reservation, 6/15/19

Harris' Checkerspot (6/15/19), mating Roseate Terns (6/13/19).  Harris's Checkerspot is no longer found in CT, but it persists in Ward Pound Ridge Reservation in Westchester county, NY, just west of the CT border.  Also there, Southern Cloudywing and Viceroy.

Harris's Checkerspot, Ward Pound Ridge Reservation , 6/15/19

Viceroy, quite fresh, Ward Pound Ridge Reservation , 6/15/19

Roseate Terns, Great Gull Island, 6/13/19

Roseate Terns, Great Gull Island, 6/13/19

banded Roseate Tern, Great Gull Island, 6/13/19

2 Rosete, 1 Common Tern, Great Gull Island, 6/13/19

June Blackburnian, Cerulean

June Blackburnian, Cerulean.  A few excursions to northwest CT yielded Blackburnia WA (Mohawk Mt--New Haven Bird Club led by Greg H) and Cerulean Warbler (Kent, River Road).  These NW locations have breeding populations of many warblers.

Cerulean Warbler, Kent, 6/7/19

probable Louisiana Warbler, Kent, 6/7/19

Eastern Wood Pewee, Kent, 6/7/19

Eastern Pine Elfin, Mohawk Mt 6/5/19

Blackburnian Warbler, Mohawk Mt 6/5/19

Blackburnian Warbler, Mohawk Mt 6/5/19

Cerulean Warbler (male), Kent CT, 6/5/19

Cerulean Warbler (male), Kent CT, 6/5/19

Sandy Point, West Haven, 6/4/19, 6/9/19 . AMOY, Saltmarsh SP and more

Photos mainly from Summer Count, 6/8/19 and 6/9/19.  Willets, Saltmarsh Sparrows, LETE, terns all nesting.

Eastern Willet, breeding, Sandy Point WH, 6/9/19

Saltmarsh Sparrow, Sandy Point WH, 6/9/19

Saltmarsh Sparrow, Sandy Point WH, 6/9/19

Sandy Point, West Haven, 6/4/19, 6/9/19 . AMOY and more . At Sandy Point banded AMOYS included T5, N14, and N17.  With Milford Point's T1, T2, T3, and T4 that makes 7 banded AMOYs at Sandy Point and Milford Point.

American Oystercatcher chick

AMOY,  Sandy Point 6/9/19, banded N17

AMOY,  Sandy Point 6/9/19, banded N14