The Connecticut River is the only principal American River without a port at its mouth.  This fact means that the area where the river empties into the Long Island has remained largely wild and it an excellent place for birding.

On a bird outing today, I spotted the following birds:

Horned Grebe (If you look closely, you can see it has a red eye)

Gadwall

American Black Duck

Red Shouldered Hawk

Other sightings included: mature Eagles, juvenile Eagle, Rough-Legged Hawk, Common Golden-Eye, Ruddy Duck, Common Loon, Red Breasted Loon, Hooded Merganser, Red Headed Merganser, Sanderling, Surf Scoter, Mute Swans, Great Cormant and the Bufflehead.

My favorite bird of the day was the Surf Scoter (Picture below was taken by David Leahy)