July 4th birding produces rails and a crossbill...plus an update on Hurricane Arthur

Sora, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, July 4, 2014

Sora, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, July 4, 2014

Sora, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, July 4, 2014

Sora, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, July 4, 2014

Virginia Rail, Land trust trail, Belchertown, MA, July 4, 2014 (I include it as it is the only time I have managed to get photos of two rail species in western mass on the same day)

Hooded Merganser, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, July 4, 2014

Winsor Dam early AM, July 4, 2014

Although my main thoughts today were on finding storm related birds (more a dream really) I instead had some decent non storm related birds including some of my best looks at rails I have ever had in western Massachusetts. I spent well over an hour at Lake Wallace and among the nearly fifty species seen or heard I had a calling Virginia Rail and a calling Sora that I eventually had fantastic looks at. It took a lot of time of waiting around for the Sora to appear but eventually it did and provided me with great views. It actually flew around a bit and eventually crossed from the main marsh to a smaller marsh and walked right across the trail perhaps twenty feet away. It seems like a great spot for the species to breed but no confirmation of that today. My other close encounter with rails occurred when I was out on a walk with Wilson at the land trust trail. I had an adult and at least one juvenile very close tom us moving between two marshes and vocalizing. Wilson was quite interested in the strange little birds but I wouldn't let him investigate too closely. My other bird of interest today occurred as I spent some time at Winsor Dam checking out what might be out and about. A Red Crossbill flew over calling several times. By the time I got the camera out and started trying to capture some audio the bird was too far away to pick up. It sounded different compared to the Type 10 bird I had last week up on Prescott so really wished I was able to get some audio to type the bird but it was just not to be today! The crossbill became species #215 for Hampshire County this year.

 

Hurricane Arthur peaked as a category 2 storm with winds of 100 MPH as it moved through the outer banks and has since lost a little strength but continues to be a hurricane.  Arthur is still forecast to travel northeast and move offshore of the cape and islands. As far as conditions here it will mainly be a rain event with little other impact. There is still a long shot chance of something unusual showing up but the chances are quite low around here. I did see some reports from coastal North Carolina of a frigatebird, a Sooty Tern and Bridled Tern yesterday plus another Sooty Tern in coastal New Jersey but I have not seen anything for today. It will be interesting to see if anything odd turns up from the cape or islands or up in Nova Scotia.  I think the best chance for oddities would be up in Nova Scotia assuming the storm holds together.