Prescott Peninsula and stats so far this year

Yellow Warbler, Prescott Peninsula, May 31, 2014

Chestnut sided Warbler, Prescott Peninsula, May 31, 2014

Blackburnian Warbler, Prescott Peninsula, May 31, 2014

Blackburnian Warbler, Prescott Peninsula, May 31, 2014

Canada Warbler, Packardville Rd marsh, Pelham, MA, May 31, 2014

Moose, New Salem, MA, May 31, 2014

I decided to head up to Prescott Peninsula to scout out my whip poor will survey route to see if the road is passable all the way down to my first survey stop before trying the route some upcoming evening (I'll save you any more suspense, the road is not passable) plus I wanted to start some of my field surveys. I made it up to New Salem a little before six and just before heading in I came across a very cooperative Moose that crossed the road right in front of me and then stopped just off the road to feed in a marsh....always nice to see (as long as they don't cross in front of me on rt 202). I spent about three hours on the peninsula and had some good numbers of various breeding species although my counts are certainly minimum counts as I didn't spend a lot of time exploring in great detail. As mentioned above my survey route needs a little work as the road is blocked by a large tree a couple miles short of my first survey stop. I will let the powers that be about the tree and hope they can get it removed soon. No luck finding any crossbills on my trip in this time but the breezy conditions made it tough to hear any that might be around. The Prescott Peninsula is one of the few places in the state that this species has been known to breed so it would be nice to come across them again. I have included the eBird list for Prescott below:
http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S18631501

On my way home to get Wilson I made a brief stop at the Packardville Rd marsh and had a few cooperative Canada Warblers among the other species present. The rest of the day continued to be breezy with a mix of clouds and sun and occasional showers.

Now that May has come to an end I will take a look at the bird numbers and stats for the month.  Overall I found a total of 175 species in Hampshire County just this month which I believe is probably my highest May total...a very good month!  I stand at 213 species for Hampshire County so far this year which is three ahead of last years record setting pace (I reached 213 last year in mid June).  Even though I had no intention to try another big county year I have been having such a great year in the county so far I figured I would try again although the chances of beating my record last year of 236 are slim for a variety of reason (at least without a well placed tropical system and some winter irruptives)...but more about that another time perhaps.