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Annual Migration Festival, Lighthouse Point Park, New Haven
September 15, 2019 @ 8:00 am - 3:00 pm
This festive event is sponsored by the New Haven Department of Parks, Recreation and Trees; the NHBC; and other fine organizations. There will be hawk watching, bird banding, live raptor demonstrations, bird walks, and more. Chris Loscalzo will lead a walk at 8 a.m., Mike Horn will lead a 9:30 a.m. walk, and Flo McBride will lead a kid’s walk at 9:30 a.m. Meet at Lighthouse Point Park, 2 Lighthouse Road, New Haven.
A more detailed schedule for the day courtesy of Linda Broker
Birds and Conservation
Linda Broker
The fall migration is well underway. On September 15, join nature enthusiasts at the Annual Migration Festival, Lighthouse Point Park, New Haven. Located at New Haven Harbor, Lighthouse Point Park is one of the premier locations in Southern New England for observing migrating raptors as well as a wide variety of song birds. When weather conditions are favorable, you may be able to see hundreds of hawks in flight over the park.
Time: 8 am – 3 pm
Place: Lighthouse Point Park, 2 Lighthouse Road, New Haven
8 am Bird walk led by Chris Loscalzo. Neotropical migrants, including flycatchers, vireos, swallows, thrushes, finches, orioles, wood-warblers, tanagers, and grosbeaks. Coastal birds include geese, ducks, loons, cormorants, gulls, terns
9:00 – 10:00 Hawk Watch and Raptor workshop. Observe raptors as they pass overhead and close by in fall migration. You’ll learn how to identify the various buteos (red-tailed hawks, red-shouldered hawks), accipiters (sharp-shinned and cooper’s hawks), northern harriers, eagles, vultures, and falcons that breed in or migrate through Connecticut.
9:30 Bird walk led by Mike Horn. A second opportunity to find and learn about migrating birds.
9:30 Children’s bird walk led by Florence McBride. Flo provides instruction for children with accompanying adults, focusing on the identification of birds, their behaviors, and their preferred habitats.
Through the course of the day, migrating song birds captured in mist nets are brought to a banding station where qualified experts will place US Fish & Wildlife Service bands on them. Migration Festival observers have the opportunity to see birds in the hand. Banding continues to be an important tool for learning about migration patterns.
The results of the Lighthouse Point Park hawk watch are an important contribution to the New England Hawk Watch. During the watch period (September 1 – December 1) volunteers assemble on a daily basis to monitor and record the number of hawks, eagles, vultures and falcons seen. Any interested person is welcome to join a daily watch for all or part of the day.
Leader: Dan Barvir, 203-946-6086 or dbarvir@newhavenct.net