Today Dan Fournier and I did a quick scouting trip for our Audubon CT Weekend trip this coming Sat where we covered all the planned stops from start to finish in one day - starting around Stafford Springs to New Haven to Stonington - getting a feel what migrants are back, check timing between locations, etc - actually very little birding and lots of driving. However our very 1st stop we did bird a little and what excitement immediately - singing Northern and Louisiana Waterthrushes, several Palm and Yellow-rumped Warblers, then a male Blk& Wht Warbler, Blue-headed Vireo, then Pine Warblers, many Ruby-cr Kinglets and Blue-grey Gnatcatchers at every stop, add to this a Veery and Hermit Thrush in the dirt road, several Towhees, 4 woodpecker species, Sapsuckers, Broad-winged Hawk plus all the expected species like Titmouse, Wht-b Nuthatches, Chipping Sparrows, etc - we found all these species with minimal birding because we knew we had to keep moving along to cover all the locations - hated to leave all these migrants & others but the plus is that these migrants are coming or are here!!Other locations we quickly visited had Warbling Vireos, C Yellowthroat, Virginia Rails,Rough-w Swallows, many Swamp and Wht-thr Sparrows, Blue-w Teal, N Pintail, Wood Ducks, Blk Vulture, Snowy & Common Egrets, Sharp-shinned Hawk - several spots we didn't get out of the car, just listened & moved on - net result that our quick 1st stop bodes well with still a week of more migration before the weekend trip - where each stop we will bird slowly enjoying all the beautiful songs that surrounded us this morning. Strickland Wheelock Uxbridge MA
