Ted Gilman, education specialist at Audubon Greenwich, is the point man for two February national events for bird lovers. On Thursday at Cos Cob Library Gilman will address the significance surrounding National Bird Feeding Month and also how to participate in the Great Backyard Bird Count that takes place in Greenwich from February 17-20. For
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If you build it, they will come. That’s the hope of these folks who tramped around the soggy salt marsh in 14 degrees, bundled up against bone-chilling winds at Hammonasset Beach State Park last Sunday morning. For more on this story, visit: An aerie: Volunteers build nesting platform for Osprey at Hammonasset – News –
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Scientists say they’re especially concerned about a national decline in one duck species — the scaup — which may be linked to habitat change. The latest Connecticut scaup count was 1,000, down from 5,400 last year. For more on this story, visit: Connecticut mid-winter survey finds fewer ducks along Atlantic Flyway migration route | The
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Razorbills are showing up on Long Island Sound up and down the Connecticut coast. They were a welcome addition to the coastal Christmas Bird Counts in Connecticut. I was lucky enough to see two of them yesterday off the coast of Stamford.

If you are a beginning birder, you can join a group that includes an experienced birdwatcher. If your home is within the boundaries of a Count Circle, then you can stay home and report the birds that visit your feeder once you have arranged to do so with the Count Compiler! Naturally, fun.

Armed with drills, hammers and scissors, Connecticut College students recently spent an entire Saturday helping cadets from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, officials from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and members of Audubon Connecticut build 200 nesting boxes for endangered roseate terns. The boxes will replace those that were destroyed during Tropical Storm Irene
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As part of a national-level program to reduce the massive and growing number of bird deaths resulting from building collisions in the United States, American Bird Conservancy (ABC), the nation’s leading bird conservation organization, today announced the availability of a new, national publication, American Bird Conservancy’s Bird-Friendly Building Designs.

The Connecticut DEEP announced the results from the 2011 piping plover and least tern nesting season. Fifty-two pairs of piping plovers nested along the Connecticut coastline during the 2011 breeding season; nine more than last year. The number of young that fledged (reached flying stage) was 71; 11 less than the 82 plovers that fledged in 2010.

On Saturday, about 60 people – Coast Guard cadets and staff, students from Connecticut College and the New London Science and Technology Magnet School and volunteers with Audubon Connecticut – built 200 new nesting boxes during a daylong project at the Coast Guard Academy. For more on this story, visit: The Day – Volunteers build
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Ordinarily, you would rarely see a black tern in Connecticut and only along the shoreline. A Leach’s storm-petrel is a seabird that stays out in the Atlantic entirely. It does not frequent Litchfield County lakes. But after Irene, there were dozens of black terns in the state. Read more here: EARTH MATTERS: Robert Miller Ill
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Anhingas are up to 3 feet tall, and they are typically found in southern Georgia, Florida and the Gulf Coast, as well as Cuba, Central America, South America and elsewhere. It’s not terribly uncommon for them to drift up to New Jersey, but a sighting in Connecticut is very rare. Read more here: Rare Bird
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Town Conservation Department and Wildlife Service officials say they hope the haven will create more local interest in avian conservation efforts.

Each of the osprey nests that were active last year are active again this year. There are also an additional two active osprey nests in Westport, bringing the total number of known active osprey nests in Westport and Norwalk to 16.

When the colonists settled here, they cut down the trees to build homes. But the forests grew back. In the 1700s, the growth of farming brought more trees down. Again, the forests came back as farming declined from 1840 to 1940.

But the forests are no longer growing back, and that’s a major concern of the Connecticut Audubon Society in its “Connecticut State of the Birds 2011.”

Tina Green, a member of Greg Hanisek’s Newington Adult Education birding class,  spotted a alcid on the water off the West Beach pavilion at Hammonasset Beach State Park in Madison recently. They assumed it would be a Razorbill, a very nice find, but realized the bird was not a Razorbill but a murre. via Talking
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Friday’s annual midwinter bald eagle survey resulted in a record-breaking number of birds spotted, with the largest number reported at the Quabbin Reservoir.

At least 102 birds were spotted throughout the state, breaking the state record of 81 set in 2009, said Richard K. Sullivan, secretary of energy and environmental affairs. Thirty-three bald eagles were spotted at the Quabbin.

Sunday’s Stratford-Milford Christmas Bird Count went on despite the weather forecast.

Birders have been flocking to Bradley International Airport since Airport Operations Manager Rollin Tebbetts spotted a Mountain bluebird there Tuesday and took these great photos.

Tebbetts said part of his job is wildlife management at the airport, which has about 2,000 acres of land. At first he thought it was an Eastern bluebird, but Paul Fusco, who works with the DEP confirmed from Tebbetts’ photos that it was indeed a Mountain bluebird.

The state has been unstoppable when it comes to very rare birds since the White-tailed Kite showed up on August 1.

Patrick Comins, Director of Bird Conservation for Audubon Connecticut, the state organization of the National Audubon Society, appeared on BirdNote recently.