American Bittern...Finally!

American Bittern, Cummington, MA, Apr 29, 2013

American Bittern, Cummington, MA, Apr 29, 2013

I woke up early once again so I headed out early starting out at the Barrett Street marsh before dawn.  Yet again I had several Virginia Rails calling but nothing more unusual.  Given the south winds last night and the indication of quite a bit of migration on the radar I headed over to UMASS to see if indeed there was a large influx.  Yet again the birds were few and far between with little in the way of warblers around.  There certainly was some increase in numbers of species that had already arrived but little new stuff.  The only new bird for the morning there was a flyby Baltimore Oriole (#157).  With the lack of new activity at UMASS I decided to head back across the river and at the last minute decided to head up to Cummington to hopefully catch up with an American Bittern (#158).  This time I had success right away when a bird flushed and then settled down in the reeds and started calling...always fun to see and hear.  Somehow I missed seeing this species last year but I was not going to let that happen again!  The Virginia Rails were also quite vocal here. 

Rusty Blackbird, Arcadia, Northampton, MA, Apr 29, 2013

 

Rusty Blackbird, Arcadia, Northampton, MA, Apr 29, 2013

 

Great Blue Herons, Arcadia, Northampton, MA, Apr 29, 2013

I headed back down to the valley and decided to try my luck at Arcadia.  This proved to be a productive stop almost right away when I had a Chestnut-sided Warbler (#159).  I spent most of my time in the general area of the heron rookery trying to see if I could find any unusual herons/egrets among the 50+ nesting Great Blue Herons (nothing else besides a Green Heron).  During my walk around the area I had a number of Yellow rumped Warblers moving through but nothing unusual with them. There were several Yellow Warbler and Warbling Vireos in the area, with a few showing quite well.  I added Bobolink (#160) and then Least Flycatcher (#161) to my county list for the year.  Other notable sightings included a presumed pair of Eastern Meadowlarks chasing each other around the large field that typically hosts several pairs of Bobolinks and a Rusty Blackbird that called over and over as it fed.

With the morning rapidly coming to a close I headed home to pick up Wilson and head out for more walks.  We started at Jabish Canal and had a few expected birds here including a Red shouldered Hawk.  The most unusual bird was one I never got a look at but certainly kept me looking for quite some time.  It sounded a lot like a Red headed Woodpecker but I was never able to see what species was actually making the sound.  I recorded the call but not sure that will really solve the ID mystery.  It could have been an odd sounding Red bellied Woodpecker but I really would have liked to have seen the individual making the call.  After our walk along the canal we decided to take one more short walk along the land trust trail.  This walk produced one more new species for the year when we ran across a couple Bank Swallow (#162)

Banded Canada Goose, Belchertown, MA, Apr 29, 2013

Banded Canada Goose, Belchertown, MA, Apr 29, 2013

I also ran across a dead Canada Goose along the train tracks near the Jabish Canal.  I reported the federal band on the bird and found that the bird was a female banded in Belchertown on 6/30/2011 and was hatched prior to 2010.  I presume the bird was hit by a passing train.