Friday, August 14, 2015

Morning stops this week produce some shorebirds and waders including a large number (at least 13) Great Egrets today

Solitary Sandpiper, CT River, Hadley, MA, Aug 10, 2015
Lesser Yellowlegs, CT River, Hadley, MA, Aug 10, 2015
Spotted Sandpiper, CT River, Hadley, MA, Aug 10, 2015
With the month of August almost half over the pace of migration should continue to pick up with the number of shorebirds increasing as well as a number of other species that migrate on the early side (as well as arrival of dispersal birds like herons and egrets). During the mornings this week I made stops each day at a variety of locations with somewhat mixed results. The weather was a bit changeable with sun on Monday, some heavy rain on Tuesday, sun and clouds on Wednesday with a west wind and sun with a northerly wind and sunny on Thursday and Friday. On Monday I made stops along the Connecticut River in Hadley and found five shorebird species. Also made a brief stop at the somewhat drawn down Paradise Pond and had a Great Egret among others.
 
Great Egret, Lower Mill Pond, Easthampton, MA, Aug 11, 2015
Tuesday I dodged some early rain showers before the deluge came and made stops along the river and then over to Lower Mill Pond.  Perhaps with a little more time and better weather I could have turned up more stuff but it was fairly quiet but I still found some good stuff including four species of shorebirds and three species of waders.
Shorebirds, Paradise Pond, Northampton, MA, Aug 12, 2015
With the heavy rain on Tuesday, the river was running too high Wednesday morning to have any exposed muddy edge so I headed instead to check out some fields at the Honey Pot and in the East Meadows. Although there were a few muddy pools and open fields I found absolutely no shorebirds at all. Without any luck with the few open fields I headed over to Lower Mill Pond again where I had a nice selection of waders (a couple Great Egrets as well as one each of Great Blue and Green Heron) plus three Solitary Sandpipers and a Spotted Sandpiper. The Arcadia marsh had higher water too so the only shorebird was a single Spotted Sandpiper. Paradise Pond once again had some good stuff around including a Great Egret, at least seven Green Herons, one each of Spotted and Solitary Sandpipers plus seven Least Sandpipers.

Lower Mill Pond: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S24586303
Paradise Pond: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S24586186



With the more northerly winds from Wednesday night into Thursday I had hopes of some shorebirds moving through the fields along the river in Hadley and Northampton but managed to find just a single Spotted Sandpiper along the river and three Least Sandpipers at Paradise Pond and no shorebirds in the Honey Pot.
 
Great Egret with dark upper bill, Arcadia, Northampton, MA, Aug 14, 2015
Great Egret with dark upper bill, Arcadia, Northampton, MA, Aug 14, 2015
Great Egrets (dark billed individual on left) and Great Blue Heron, Arcadia, Northampton, MA, Aug 14, 2015
Great Egrets, Arcadia, Northampton, MA, Aug 14, 2015
Least Sandpiper, Arcadia, Northampton, MA, Aug 14, 2015
Solitary Sandpipers, Arcadia, Northampton, MA, Aug 14, 2015
Great Egret, Lower Mill Pond, Easthampton, MA, Aug 14, 2015
Spotted Sandpipers and Least Sandpiper, CT River, Hadley, MA, Aug 14, 2015
Killdeer, CT River, Hadley, MA, Aug 14, 2015
Green Heron, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Aug 14, 2015
Great Egret, Quabbin Park, MA, Aug 14, 2015
Wilson herding some grasshoppers, Belchertown, MA, Aug 14, 2015
With the day off today I managed to cover more areas and check them out in more depth than I could the rest of the week and found some good stuff including a calling Eastern Whip Poor Will before dawn at Winsor Dam and a large number of Great Egrets around including my highest count I have ever had in the county in one spot with 11 Great Egrets at Arcadia (six in the marsh and five in the oxbow).  Among the Great Egrets at Arcadia I had a dark billed individual that is likely the same one I found in Easthampton last week.  I also had additional Great Egrets at a few other locations...makes me wonder the total number of Great Egrets roaming around western Massachusetts right now.  Also good numbers of Green Herons and Great Blue Herons to round out the waders.  Shorebirds were present at several locations despite the lack of large amounts of suitable habitat but I didn't have any luck finding anything unusual among the expected species.

The first Common Nighthawks of the season (two of them) showed up over the house this evening....with the whip poor will heard this morning it makes it a two nightjar species day.
 
 
 

 
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