The trickle of birds continues

Palm Warbler, rail trail, Amherst, MA, May 6, 2013

Palm Warbler, rail trail, Amherst, MA, May 6, 2013

Cliff Swallow, rail trail, Amherst, MA, May 6, 2013

Blue gray Gnatcatcher nest building, rail trail, Amherst, MA, May 6, 2013

Blue gray Gnatcatcher nest building, rail trail, Amherst, MA, May 6, 2013

Yet another morning with little migration but at this point it is almost to be expected!  Perhaps tonight will finally bring a big push of migrants but I'm not holding my breath. The birds do continue to trickle in and I added two new species today but it is still very quiet compared to typical for this time of year. I started out at UMASS and almost immediately got a Blue winged Warbler, Northern Parula and Red eyed Vireo (#176) so I figured it would be a great morning there. Just not the case but there were some birds around but just not large numbers. The predicted patchy fog turned out to be low clouds that hung on until almost 10am. I caught up with Ian after a bit of searching around we headed to another part of campus but that area was quiet as well. We decided to try our luck once again at Mitch's Way but that area was also quiet. A brief stop at the bottom of Skinner SP did not produce any hoped for Worm eating Warblers. I dropped off Ian and decided to head to the rail trail. The highlight here was another new species, a Cliff Swallow (#177) feeding over the marsh at Hop Brook along with three other swallow species. I also ran across a pair of Blue gray Gnatcatcher building a nest on a horizontal branch out in the open.  It will be interesting to see if the nest is successful in such a location.  Later morning and early afternoon walks at the Belchertown Land Trust trail and gates on the west side of Quabbin were equally quiet. Although quiet I still ended up with 16 warbler species (including the first Palm Warblers I have seen in several days), three vireo species and five swallow species for a total of 77 species today. An interesting non avian sighting was a 10" catfish I saw thrashing along the shore of a marsh along the rail trail. I could not figure out what was going on until I looked closer and noticed a Northern Watersnake biting into its mid section...very cool to see (not so much for the catfish I'm sure!).

Quabbin at sunset, May 6, 2013

In the evening I headed over to Winsor Dam to try to catch up with an early Common Nighthawk but no luck with that.  The waters were very calm which made for some great views.