Patrick Comins

I work as the Director of Bird Conservation for Audubon Connecticut and currently serve as the Chairman of the Friends of the Silvio O. Conte National Fish and Wildlife Refuge.  I've  always been fascinated by weather and read voraciously on the topic as a child.  This interest has only grown with time, especially since I've become an avid birder.  The weather has a huge influence on bird movements and migration.  Southbound migrants ride cold fronts to their wintering grounds, making the passage of each cold front from August to November the time to look for migrating hawks, songbirds or shorebirds.  Cold weather to our north can herald the arrival of migrant or wintering waterfowl as lakes freeze to our north.  A warm front that stalls over the coast on a spring morning can produce amazing fallouts of colorful warblers along the coast, or a warm sunny morning in May can make for a great day of birding inland.  Easterly winds can push uncommon vagrants into Long Island Sound, southwesterly winds in the fall can bring western vagrants and a tropical system can send seabirds well inland or carry tropical birds our way.  Here we will explore implications of weather patterns for birds and birding and I will attempt to make birding forecasts based on weather conditions.  I hope you enjoy them and wind up seeing some good birds in the process. 

Latest Articles

  • WXedge Contributor Featured on CT Style
    I was honored to be invited to participate in WTNH's Connecticut Style Magazine today.  The show will air on Tuesday at 12:30 PM.  Featured with me are two of our bird ambassadors from...
  • Share the Shore, Watch for Rare Birds
    Weather might not be great this weekend, but if you do go to the beach please be mindful of the birds.  Memorial Day Weekend is a vulnerable time for beach nesting birds.  Plover and oystercatcher...
  • Super Rare Bird Sighted
    Details are sketchy at this time, but I was forwarded the above photo by biologist Kevin Rogers of the US Fish and Wildlife Rhode National Wildlife Refuge Complex.  It is a Brown Booby that was photographed...
  • Rare Birds and Great Diversity Evident in Big Weekend
    The big weekend is over and the tallying is nearing completion.  Last weekend Audubon Connecticut staff and volunteers and birders fanned out across the state to see how many different kinds...
  • Big Weekend Off to a Great Start 161 Species!
    We kicked off our Big Weekend Bird-A-Thon today as part of the annual Donal O'Brien Bird-A-Thon.  Mr. O'Brien was formerly the chairman of board of the National Audubon Society and has been raising...
  • Big Birding Weekend!
    It's May!  In the birding world that statement doesn't need much clarification.  May is simply the best month of the year for birding.  Migration is at its peak, the birds are in full breeding...
  • Butterfly Season Warms Up
    Spring is here and the butterflies are starting to fly.   I found these swallowtails yesterday in the parking lot at my office at the Audubon Center at Bent of the River in Southbury, CT.  The...
  • Aurora Borealis Possible Tonight
    A sunspot named AR 1917 had a major flare and directed a wave of solar material and ion particles towards earth.   The sunspot can be seen the this photo of the sun from a few days ago above and to...
  • Help Beach Nesting Birds Next Week!
    Volunteers are needed to help CT DEEP Wildlife Division and Audubon Alliance staff and volunteers to protect areas for threatened beach nesting birds and help to preserve public access to these sensitive...
  • Comet Still a Beautiful Sight in Western Sky (With Binoculars)
    Comet Panstarrs didn't end up being as bright as originally predicted, but it is still a beautiful sight in the fading twilight of the western sky.  Binoculars are needed to find it, unless you have...
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