Weekend birding



Vesper Sparrow, Honey Pot, Hadley, MA, Apr 25, 2015

Vesper Sparrow, Honey Pot, Hadley, MA, Apr 25, 2015

Vesper Sparrow, Honey Pot, Hadley, MA, Apr 25, 2015

Brown Thrasher, Silvio Conte NWR-Fort River, Hadley, MA, Apr 25, 2015

Eastern Coyote, Mitch's Way, Hadley, MA, Apr 25, 2015

Eastern Coyote, Mitch's Way, Hadley, MA, Apr 25, 2015

Wood Ducks, Mitch's Way, Hadley, MA, Apr 25, 2015

I spent a rather cool weekend heading out each morning to try to catch up new migrants.  I did find some but the migration continues to be slow and somewhat delayed due to the weather conditions.  Yesterday I headed over to the Amherst/Hadley area, making several stops along the way.  I began along the rail trail near Hop Brook where I had the highlights of eight Green winged Teal, an Eastern Kingbird and a Black and White Warbler.  The area is currently under construction as they repair the trail so birding there this spring will be quite difficult.  I then headed over to Silvio Conte NWR-Fort River where I three Brown Thrashers, 3 Field Sparrows, half a dozen Savannah Sparrows and a couple Eastern Meadowlarks.  A brief stop along Aqua Vitae Road produced 26 Wood Ducks and 10 Green winged Teal plus other waterfowl in the remaining flooded areas.  Although it looked great for shorebirds I only had a trio of Killdeer and a single Wilson's Snipe...a slow shorebird season so far.  The nearby Honey Pot produced at least two singing Vesper Sparrows among the other expected species.  My final stop in the area was down to Mitch's Way which produced 16 Wood Ducks, another Black and White Warbler and two Louisiana Waterthrushes.  Also had an Eastern Coyote running through one of the fields along the river.  I also had a number of Blue gray Gnatcatchers, Ruby crowned Kinglets plus Yellow rumped and Palm Warblers at most stops during the morning.  Overall around 65 species for the morning which is below what I would expect given the date and areas covered.

Tree Swallows, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Apr 26, 2015

Tree Swallows, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Apr 26, 2015

Common Loons moving north, Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, MA, Apr 26, 2015

Today I stuck close to home with stops over to Quabbin Park and over to Lake Wallace.  Highlights at Quabbin included 22 Wild Turkeys (all in small groups of one to four), a dozen Common Loons with eight of those migrating north, 14 Yellow bellied Sapsuckers, an early male Scarlet Tanager and at least 8 Purple Finches.  A total of seven species of waterfowl, four raptor species and only three warbler species.  Lake Wallace featured 7 Ring necked Ducks, three kingfishers, 280+ Tree Swallows plus a few each of Bank and Barn Swallows, 8 Palm Warblers and 2 Yellow rumped Warblers among the nearly forty species.