Last day of September

Savannah Sparrow, Honeypot, Hadley, Sep 30, 2013

Savannah Sparrow, Honeypot, Hadley, Sep 30, 2013

White crowned Sparrow, Honeypot, Hadley, Sep 30, 2013

Swamp Sparrow, Honeypot, Hadley, Sep 30, 2013

Swamp Sparrow, Honeypot, Hadley, Sep 30, 2013

Vesper Sparrow, Honeypot, Hadley, Sep 30, 2013

Northern Harrier being chased by crows, Honeypot, Hadley, Sep 30, 2013

Killdeer, Honeypot, Hadley, Sep 30, 2013

Northern Flicker, Honeypot, Hadley, Sep 30, 2013

 

Indigo Buntings, Honeypot, Hadley, Sep 30, 2013

Palm Warbler (yellow), Honeypot, Hadley, Sep 30, 2013

I started out the final day of September at the Honeypot in Hadley.  I almost turned around and headed back home as I ran into really dense fog on the way over but I decided to push on anyway and was rewarded with less fog right along the river.  Another productive morning there and I have included the entire list below:

 

Honey Pot

Canada Goose  5
Great Blue Heron  1
Northern Harrier  1     Hunting the fields and occasionally being harassed by crows
Cooper's Hawk  2     together
Killdeer  11     near that a plenty farm
Mourning Dove  4
Belted Kingfisher  1
Downy Woodpecker  2
Hairy Woodpecker  1
Northern Flicker  16  
American Kestrel  1
Eastern Phoebe  3
Blue Jay  12
American Crow  33
Fish Crow  2
Horned Lark  2
Black-capped Chickadee  4
White-breasted Nuthatch  1
House Wren  2
Carolina Wren  3
American Robin  6
Gray Catbird  4
Northern Mockingbird  1
American Pipit  64     largest group of 55+
Cedar Waxwing  5
Common Yellowthroat  16
Palm Warbler (Western)  1
Palm Warbler (Yellow)  21     Minimum
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle)  8
Chipping Sparrow  1
Vesper Sparrow  3     Minimum
Savannah Sparrow  98     likely undercounted
Song Sparrow  48
Lincoln's Sparrow  11     Minimum
Swamp Sparrow  23
White-throated Sparrow  16
White-crowned Sparrow (Eastern)  9     Some singing
Northern Cardinal  1
Indigo Bunting  6    
Red-winged Blackbird  15
American Goldfinch  28

Jabish Canal marsh, Sep 30, 2013

Wilson, Jabish Canal, Sep 30, 2013

A walk with Wilson along Jabish Canal late morning produced more sparrows and a few warblers plus an Osprey, American Kestrel and a Winter Wren among other species.  A nice day out enjoying some nice fall weather.

 

 

As the month of September comes to an end I'll take a minute to review the year up until this point (at least as far as Hampshire County is concerned anyway). I currently stand at 227 species as of today. During my previous best county year (2012) I was at 206 species to begin October. This is a bit misleading as far as how many birds I could potentially add as I have already found many species that I got later in the year in 2012. Nevertheless it looks good that I will beat my previous best year total but you never know until it happens. To get to 227 last year it took me until mid December. The number of rarities and vagrant birds over the next couple months will be the big deciding factor on the overall total for the year. Just a couple more likely species to add (Surf Scoter and Northern Saw whet Owl being the most likely).  I also want to add in what a great month of birding September turned out to be with a total of 153 species in Hampshire County alone with some really impressive numbers of normally tough to find species (such as Cape May, Bay breasted and Tennessee Warblers).  I look forward to seeing what other birds turn up over the final quarter of the year.