June begins

Orchard Oriole, Silvio Conte NWR, Hadley, MA, June 2, 2014

With southerly winds all last night I had hopes of possibly finding a late migrant this morning but no luck during my short time looking at Winsor Dam and at the Silvio Conte NWR.  A decent selection of breeding birds but nothing out of the ordinary.  It does indeed appear that the migration season is coming to a rapid close (but I have not given up hopes of finding something good).  Here is the morning list from Silvio Conte NWR: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S18658108

Winsor Dam, June 1, 2014

Spotted Sandpipers, Winsor Dam, June 1, 2014

Spotted Sandpipers, Winsor Dam, June 1, 2014

Winsor Dam, June 1, 2014

Yesterday evening I headed over to Winsor Dam to take in a great sunset and perhaps find some birds.  I arrived there around 8:10 and a few minutes later noticed a stream of Common Nighthawks moving to the northeast quite a distance away.  I eventually counted 26 in about five minutes which is a great number for spring, especially on the somewhat late date of June 1^st.  It really made me wish I had gone over sooner and perhaps gotten an even higher count…oh well.  Beyond the nighthawks I had at least five Spotted Sandpipers on the rocks right in front of the admin building with four very close together  (video of them at this link: https://www.flickr.com/photos/54277284@N05/14333133645/in/photostream/).  I also had an Eastern Whip Poor Will start calling around 8:35.  The list from Winsor Dam was a bit of a milestone as it became my 14,000^th eBird checklist and I have included that list below: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S18654901

I then headed south checking a few stops on my whip poor will survey route and had a few more whips calling at various stops.  Always nice to get two goatsucker species at the same time in western mass…now to just find a Chuck-Will’s-Widow around here!