Buff breasted Sandpiper and Upland Sandpiper!

Buff breasted Sandpiper, Honeypot, Hadley, MA, Sep 7, 2014

Buff breasted Sandpiper, Honeypot, Hadley, MA, Sep 7, 2014

Buff breasted Sandpiper, Honeypot, Hadley, MA, Sep 7, 2014

Buff breasted Sandpiper, Honeypot, Hadley, MA, Sep 7, 2014

Upland Sandpiper, Honeypot, Hadley, MA, Sep 7, 2014

Upland Sandpiper, Honeypot, Hadley, MA, Sep 7, 2014

Upland Sandpiper, Honeypot, Hadley, MA, Sep 7, 2014

Upland Sandpiper, Honeypot, Hadley, MA, Sep 7, 2014

Cooper's Hawk, Honeypot, Hadley, MA, Sep 7, 2014

I spent the morning birding with Jacob and what a great morning we had.  It started out a bit slow as we worked our way through the East Meadows.  We had high hopes with the rain of yesterday and good migration conditions overnight that we would find some good stuff with the focus being on shorebirds.  We scanned though several fields in the East Meadows but all we could come up with were three Killdeer in the field they have been in my last few stops down there.  Several hundred swallows moving through including loads of Tree Swallows and lesser numbers of Bank and Barn.  Without much luck so far we had to decide where to go next to try to find some shorebirds so we decided on the Honeypot, which turned out to be a great decision!  We checked a few fields when we arrived there with much luck until I picked out a Buff breasted Sandpiper in a field close to the dike.  We got great looks at this bird as it fed out in the open and occasionally stopping and crouching down when a raptor (and a cormorant!) came by.  After scanning around and watching the bird for some time we headed deeper into the Honeypot but not before getting an early flyby American Pipit that was calling (Jacob managed some shots of the bird).  We then came across our next great bird of the day when we heard an odd call that we could not identify.  A few minutes the call repeated and then we saw a bird in the air.  First impressions were of a large shorebird with a small bill, small head, large body and long tail.  I thought 'Upland Sandpiper' but I had never heard the call before.  The bird headed south and then east calling the entire time.  We managed lots of distant shots but nothing great.  We puzzled over the bird for a few minutes until listening to the flight call of an Upland Sandpiper...dead on match!  Only my second county record of this species and the first in seven years.  A very unusual species in western Massachusetts away from its breeding area at Westover ARB to our south.  We searched for the Upland Sandpiper in several fields to the east but could not find it again.  The Buff breasted Sandpiper remained in the area we had seen it in earlier and some other birders arrived and we were able to get them on it (a life bird for some).  The one individual was joined by a second Buff breasted Sandpiper after we left the area.  I managed to add two new species for Hampshire County this year with our stop at the Honeypot...Buff Breasted Sandpiper (#224) and Upland Sandpiper (#225).

Lesser Yellowlegs, Connecticut River, Hadley, MA, Sep 7, 2014

Solitary Sandpiper, Connecticut River, Hadley, MA, Sep 7, 2014

Spotted Sandpiper, Connecticut River, Hadley, MA, Sep 7, 2014

Least Sandpiper, Connecticut River, Hadley, MA, Sep 7, 2014

We then took a quick spin through the Aqua Vitae Road area but no shorebirds due to all the fields being full of unharvested corn.  We didn't strike out completely here as we had a Dickcissel calling over and over for a couple minutes from a corn field along with Indigo Buntings and Chipping Sparrows.  Our final stop for the morning was along the Connecticut River in Hadley where we added four more species of shorebird including two Spotted Sandpipers, three Solitary Sandpipers, a Lesser Yellowlegs and a dozen Least Sandpipers.  Ended the morning with seven species of shorebirds...certainly a day of quality and not quantity...typical for the valley when it comes to shorebirds.

At home the warblers started to heat up late in the afternoon with both Bay breasted and Blackpoll Warblers in the yard.  After dark I went out to check out the migration and had quite a few flight calls as well as birds moving past the moon at a rate around 8-10 a minute.  Here are a few links to video of moon passing birds:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/54277284@N05/15181395572/in/photostream
https://www.flickr.com/photos/54277284@N05/14995292947/in/photostream/