End of April birding

Black and White Warbler, Covey WMA, Apr 30, 2013

Blue winged Warbler, Covey WMA, Apr 30, 2013

Yellow rumped Warbler, Covey WMA, Apr 30, 2013

Yet another sunny and pleasant day spent in the field catching up with more migrants. Still no huge influx but I did manage to add five new species today. I started off predawn at Covey WMA and Quabbin Park where I had at least three Eastern Whip-Poor-Wills calling. I then spent some time with Devin at Covey WMA where we ran across a few new birds including Ovenbird (#163), Spotted Sandpiper (#164) and Blue winged Warbler (#165). 

 

American Redstart, Quabbin Park, Apr 30, 2013

 

After a long walk at Covey we headed over for a brief run through Quabbin Park where we had a few birds around including another new one, American Redstart (#166). We patted ways at this point and I headed home and got Wilson for a walk at the Belchertown Land Trust trail. The best bird here was a calling Prairie Warbler which became species #167. I also took a walk along Jabish Canal trying to find the woodpecker that sounded a lot like a Red headed Woodpecker. After a whole lot of looking I finally saw what was making the noise...it was an odd sounding Red bellied Woodpecker. Oh well, nothing too unusual but I'm still glad I finally chased it down to see what it was. Later in the day I walked a few west Quabbin gates but nothing too unusual was found.

A brief update as to where I stand in my quest to find as many species as I can in Hampshire County in a year. I'm currently at 167 species at the end of April. At this time last year I was at 130. It took me until May 5th to reach 167 last year (the big difference in just five days shows how fast and furious the bird arrive this time of year). I will add quite a few species over the next month as more migrants move in. By the end of May last year I had a total of 185 species. Who knows where I will stand at the end of this May...perhaps I will break over 200 species before the month ends?