Author: Mona Cavallero (Page 1 of 16)

Hartford Crow Roost Trip Report, Dec. 6, 2025

We met at 4 pm on Saturday, Dec. 6, outside the Walmart in the Flatbush Ave. shopping center across from the ramps to Rte. 84.  Binoculars around our necks helped us to find one another, a convivial group of about 20, among the Christmas shoppers.  Crows were flying over us from the northeast, under a mostly cloudy sky, with the temperature near freezing and not much wind.  We circled up to exchange names and decided to drive a couple of blocks south to the Hartford Housing Authority, where the crows seemed to be heading.  When we got there, we stood near the back of the building to see crows landing in the nearby trees: thanks to Celeste Echlin for the great photos that follow!

A German shepherd, I thought, walked out along the edge of the lawn (why had someone brought their German shepherd?)

Oh… not a German shepherd!  Thank you, Celeste!

We had a good look at the coyote, and vice versa!

From the overlook in front of the building, we could see a very long line of crows continuing to fly in from the northeast.  Large groups of crows were also flying in from the south and west to land in trees west of Newfield Avenue.  We moved on to our next stop, at the intersection of Dexter and Reed Avenues, a block west of Newfield.  Crows from the east, south, and west landed by the hundreds on the ground next to industrial buildings, and by the thousands in the tops of trees along the length of Reed Avenue.  Periodically, large groups of crows started cawing loudly in the trees, and then flew up, cawing, to circle overhead, only to land again in the same trees, joined by newly arriving crows.  Crows were still flying into the area as dusk fell; our count along Reed Ave. was about 7,500 crows.  When we left, crows were gone from the Hartford Housing Authority trees; some may still have been in trees along the South Brook Park River, but it was too dark to have seen them.

Many thanks to everyone who joined us and helped to enjoy the spectacle!

A little background, and updates from the Christmas Bird Count and yesterday (Feb. 6):

Crows assemble from dispersed foraging locations to sleep (roost) in large groups in winter, in part for protection from predators like Great Horned Owls. A large group has many sets of eyes and ears to detect predators, groups may harass predators and chase them away, and even if the conspicuous group attracts predators that eat a few crows, most will escape predation: crow predators have large territories and are not very social, so there won’t be a nearby waiting group of hungry predators!  The exact roost area may shift from night to night, so it is likely that incoming crows look and listen for where other crows seem to be gathering, and the crows that fly up calling from trees and circle the roost area near dusk are signaling incoming crows to join them.  Roosting in groups may also help hungry crows to find food the next morning, by following other crows that leave the roost rapidly, flying in a consistent direction.

Since I began watching Hartford crows in the early 2000s, the winter roost has been near Rte. 84, in locations between downtown Hartford and eastern West Hartford.  Large numbers of crows are roosting together between about mid-November and mid-March, when crows that migrated from farther north start to head back to their breeding areas.  Jay Kaplan leads the crow roost count for the Hartford Audubon Christmas Bird Count, and has a wealth of historical knowledge, including that the roost has been as far from its current location as the Copaco Shopping Center/Plaza in Bloomfield.  I thank Jay for teaching me crow-counting techniques: 1) it’s helpful to count a flying flock as they pass an easily defined location like a light pole; and 2) to estimate  large numbers of crows in flight or in trees, first count crow by crow to figure out what 10 crows looks like; then count by groups of 10 to know what 100 looks like; and then count by 100s to know what 1000 looks like.  Over the last 20 years, the estimated number of crows in the Hartford roost has ranged from 6,000 (in 2007) to 28,000 (in 2012); numbers often fluctuate considerably from year to year.  In 2024 we estimated 21,000 crows in the roost, while in 2025, only 12,000 (more than on December 6, likely in part because more observers at more vantage points were watching crows flying into the roost).  There may have been a second roost in 2025 that included some of the crows we counted in 2024, perhaps near Newington; on early mornings in January 2026, I saw groups of crows flying over Newington both from the east, the direction of the Hartford roost, and from the west, possibly from another roost.

In recent weeks, the roost seems to have moved southwest, closer to New Britain Avenue and New Park Avenue.  On the night of February 6, many thousands of crows were flying back and forth across New Britain Avenue after sunset. Many settled along Brixton Street on rooftops of low West Hartford Public Works buildings, and in nearby trees, but hundreds to thousands were still in the air when it got too dark to see them.

Hoping you can join us on the crow roost trip, and on the Christmas Bird Count crow count, next December: all are welcome!

Submitted by Sylvia Halkin, Trip Leader, with credit and thanks to Celeste Echlin for the great photos, and to Celeste, Sam Walker, and Roberta Gowing for submitting e-Bird checklist and report S287590180.

Cape Ann/Newburyport, Massachusetts
January 17th and 18th 2026

Attendees Wendy and Roy Parsons,Deana Smith, and her mother Carol ,Erin Mahoney, Bill Kelly and his daughter Tilly, Sarah Faulkner,Will and Gabrielle Bugden, Annette and Bill Pasek .

Saturday morning started off cold and cloudy 30°. It warmed up to 34°. We started our morning in Rockport Massachusetts. We went back to the hotel for lunch then off to Gloucester Massachusetts, the afternoon. We had light rain starting around 2 o’clock in the afternoon. We continued around Gloucester until around 3:30. We saw the following Birds.
Common Loon, red breasted merganser, long tailed duck, black scoter,common Eider, surf scoter,rock doves, American Black  Ducks, purple sandpipers, mallards, Canada geese, American Crow, turkey, double crested cormorant, greater Cormorant, white wing scoter, Harlequin, Cardinals, Blue Jays, song sparrow, Ruddy duck, white throated sparrow, Towhee, greater black back gull, lesser black back gull, Bufflehead, common golden eye, Gadwalls, northern Mockingbird, Carolina wren, herring gull, ring bill gull, bald eagle, Brant, dark eyed Junco, black cap chickadee, white breasted nuthatch.

Sunday we went to Newburyport, Massachusetts. It was cold and cloudy like Saturday 34°. we we saw the following Birds.
House finch, mourning dove, northern Harrier, Sanderlings, starlings, razorbill, robin, Cedar waxwing, yellow rump warbler, American Widgeon,
Eurasian Widgeon, tree, sparrow, bald eagle and a snowy owl.
Due to the weather forecast, people decided to leave around 2 PM. Bill Kelly and his daughter Tilly decided to go to Salisbury Beach to look for the long eared owl that was being reported there. They were successful!

Great birding weekend, a total of 51 species.

Wendy, Parsons

A.W. Stanley Park trip report, October 19, 2025

At 9:30 a.m. 14 of us met up at A.W. Stanley Park, and after brief introductions and Robert Rickman generously volunteering to keep track of and submit the e-bird list for our trip (thank you, Robert!), we heard “chuff” calls from the trees at the back of the parking lot.  Oho, a Red-bellied Woodpecker was moving around on bare upper branches of a tree.  It stayed there long enough for us to practice our bird-location-describing skills, to do some comparisons of binoculars, and to have us looking in the right direction when a Pileated Woodpecker flew by, white wing spots flashing.

We walked along the west edge of the marsh and stream, and saw a Ruby-crowned Kinglet, a Yellow-rumped Warbler, Song Sparrows, American Robins, a Northern Flicker, and perched and flying Mourning Doves and Blue Jays.  We heard Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers, another Red-bellied Woodpecker, and a Carolina Wren. We also got quick looks at sparrows we couldn’t identify, and two gulls high overhead.  In an open area with cattails and grasses in the middle and trees on the edges, a Blue Jay chased a calling Pileated Woodpecker back and forth in our full view (probably not the same one we’d recently seen, as it had flown off in a different direction: it’s an unusual treat to get good looks at one Pileated Woodpecker, let alone two!).

In the orchard area we saw at least 10 Cedar Waxwings eating berries in a Juniper = Eastern Red Cedar tree.  Tracey noticed that one of them, instead of the usual yellow band across the tail feather tips, had a bright orange band.  Thank you for guiding us all to see that bird!  The most likely cause of the orange coloration is thought to be Cedar Waxwings eating the red berries of Morrow’s honeysuckle, an introduced ornamental species, as their tail feathers are growing; red pigment from the berries is then deposited as the feather tips grow, along with the normal yellow pigment.

Near the bridge over the spillway between the marsh and the pond, a group of 30 or more Cedar Waxwings were quite actively flying within and between juniper trees.  All the Cedar Waxwings I saw looked like young of the year, with mottled or somewhat streaked breasts, and lacking red waxy tips on their wing feathers.  The Birds of the World species account reports that in central New York, adults may migrate south a month before young of the year, a likely explanation for the absence of adults in our sightings.  Cedar Waxwings without active nests seem to move around widely at all times of year to find fruit crops. They can be found in Connecticut year-round, but are in the northern part of the species range (which extends into Canada) only in the breeding season, and in the southern part (from the southern U.S. through Central America) only at colder times of year; they don’t reliably return to the same breeding or wintering sites, so not much seems to be known about whether the birds we saw are likely to have been hatched locally, or are staying for the winter, or were just passing through on migration.

At the pond, we heard a Belted Kingfisher and saw a group of 2 white adult and 4! grayer young-of-the-year Immature Mute Swans, Mallards, a Black Duck, and a Ring-necked Duck, as well as sunning turtles.  Those in our group who could stay longer got to visit the Traprock Ridge cliff overlooking the pond, and to spot a flyover Red-tailed Hawk.

Other birds we saw or heard well enough to identify were a flying Cooper’s Hawk, at least one Canada Goose in flight, European Starlings, Black-capped Chickadees, Tufted Titmice, House Sparrows, White-throated Sparrows, and a Northern Cardinal.  We had a total of 28 bird species, including the (likely Ring-billed) gulls.

The wind was calm, temperatures ranged from the upper 50s to mid 60s, and cloud cover varied, with some sunny stretches.  We had a good time sharing what we were seeing with one another: I am grateful for the excellent bird spotters and location-describers who were with us, and for everyone’s congeniality!

Submitted by Sylvia Halkin, Trip Leader

After a minor hiccup involving an incorrect street address, twenty intrepid birders gathered on a spectacular fall morning, their vehicles nearly filling the tiny parking lot of Raymond Brook Preserve. What a turnout, from both participants, and Mother Nature!