Orchard Hill and Honeypot after large migration last night

American Redstart, Orchard Hill UMASS Amherst, Sept 16, 2012

Tennessee Warbler (best shot I could get of three present),Orchard Hill UMASS Amherst, Sept 16, 2012

Nashville Warbler, Orchard Hill UMASS Amherst, Sept 16, 2012

Common Yellowthroat, Orchard Hill UMASS Amherst, Sept 16, 2012

House Finch, Orchard Hill UMASS Amherst, Sept 16, 2012

With the expectation of some great migration last night I headed over to orchard hill to meet up with Ian Davies. We spent about four hours on the hill and had a nice selection of birds including at least three Tennessee Warblers, two Cape May Warblers, several Scarlet Tanagers (one of which sang 20 minutes before sunrise when the temperature was 42 degrees!), all six expected woodpecker species, at least 27 Purple Finch, Merlin, etc...the numbers were not as high as expected given the large migration event overnight but the diversity made up for the lower numbers overall.  My eBird list for the day is here:

http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S11593088

Scott Surner caught up with us here and we birded with him (and another UMASS student) for the last couple hours there.

Monarch, Honeypot, Hadley, Sept 16, 2012

After orchard hill we headed over to the honeypot in Hadley.  Although not as productive as some of our past trips there it was still good with several species of sparrow including Lincoln's, Field and Savannah Sparrow plus junco.  Still an Indigo Bunting there as well as Bobolink.  We also had three American Pipit.  There were quite a few raptors moving by late morning including Red shouldered, Broad winged, Red tailed, Cooper's and Sharp shinned Hawks as well as American Kestrel.  I'll bet it was a good day to be at a hawk watch site but the extensive blue skies probably made it difficult to spot some of the birds.  I'm also willing to bet some of the hawk watch sites will report good numbers of Blue Jays migrating today as we had quite a few of them everywhere we went.

http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S11593087

Oilve sided Flycatcher, Jabish Canal, Belchertown, Sept 16, 2012 (iPhone shot through binoculars)

Once I got home I picked up Wilson and we went on a walk along the Jabish Canal.  Highlight there would be an Olive sided Flycatcher hunting from the dead snags in the swamp.  I attempted a photo through the binoculars with my iPhone.  Not the best but perhaps with a little imagination you can see the bird.