Summer Summary, So Far

I haven't posted in a long time, mainly because I've been away (at the beach, mostly, see photo), and not birding very much either way. Early July is a tough time for birding, because the usual breeding birds have been around long enough to be routine, there are no migrants in sight, other opportunities for interesting birds are somewhat limited (shearwaters don't show up in any numbers until a bit later, vagrants are all long gone...). 

However, I have done some birding since summer began, most notably on a Connecticut Young Birders Club field trip a few weeks ago to the Hartford Area, where we saw grassland birds, including Bobolinks, Eastern Meadowlark, Upland Sandpiper, and Grasshopper Sparrows. The latter two were life birds, and very nice ones too.

 Right now I am doing a bird survey at the Bronx Zoo as part of a research project, and anticipating an excellent August, with two weeks at the beach (finally getting my Manx Shearwater, perhaps?) at the start of the month, and 10 days in Paris and Northern Spain (Wallcreeper and Griffon Vulture, perhaps?) at the end of the month. So a few weeks without too many birds won't kill me. Shorebirds will be here soon, anyway. Happy Summer!