More cloudy, cool, rainy weather starts

Swallows feeding over the Quabbin, Winsor Dam, Apr 29, 2014

Winsor Dam, Apr 29, 2014

Today the weather continued to be less than ideal for migrants this spring as it was cloudy with occasional drizzle all day and temperatures in the upper 40's to low 50's and a breeze out of the northeast to east. Tomorrow promises to be even worse with rain, sometimes heavy, with temperatures struggling to get to the mid 40's and a fairly strong wind out of the east. The rain should be heaviest in the late afternoon through evening with up to two inches possible. Thursday morning should find rain still coming down but it is suppose to taper off fairly early and the winds should switch to the southwest and the temperatures should shoot up into the upper 60's which should get some birds moving (and may result in some thunderstorms and additional showers).  Hopefully some birds will move on Thursday night into Friday...time will tell.  This evening I stopped by Winsor Dam briefly in the hopes of finding something interesting and I had 325+ swallows feeding low over the water trying to find insects in less than ideal conditions.  Most where Tree Swallows but I also had the four other expected swallow species in small numbers.  Perhaps something unusual will show up among the more common species.  Below are a few links to video of the swallow feeding frenzy:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/54277284@N05/14070311784/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/54277284@N05/14046700026/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/54277284@N05/14066608482/in/photostream/

 

On Monday I took advantage of a sunny day to take an early morning walk at the Silvio Conte NWR. The biggest surprise of the morning was finding no warblers at all. Very unusual to not find a warbler in great habitat on a sunny (but cold) morning on April 28th. Hopefully I will be out looking on the day the flood of birds finally arrives!