More migrants the last couple days including a Connecticut Warbler

 

Connecticut Warbler, Honey Pot, Hadley, MA, Sep 18, 2015

Connecticut Warbler, Honey Pot, Hadley, MA, Sep 18, 2015

Connecticut Warbler, Honey Pot, Hadley, MA, Sep 18, 2015

Savannah Sparrow, Honey Pot, Hadley, MA, Sep 18, 2015

Vesper Sparrow, Honey Pot, Hadley, MA, Sep 18, 2015

Merlin, Arcadia, Northampton, MA, Sep 17, 2015

Northern Harrier, Arcadia, Northampton, MA, Sep 17, 2015

Scarlet Tanager, Arcadia, Northampton, MA, Sep 17, 2015

Yellow Warbler, Arcadia, Northampton, MA, Sep 17, 2015

Palm Warbler (western), Arcadia, Northampton, MA, Sep 17, 2015

The last couple days have featured very similar weather conditions with foggy cool mornings that turn into sunny and warm days in the 80's. Thursday morning was very foggy and it did not burn off until after 10 AM. Luckily this morning it burned off a little earlier which makes finding stuff much easier. On Thursday I headed over to Arcadia and stayed there through late morning figuring the fog would lift at any moment. Despite the fog I still had some good stuff around.

Arcadia:  http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S25071976

Today I headed back over toward the river (with a brief detour to Winsor Dam to try to turn up a whip poor will but had no luck). I spent most of my time at the Honey Pot and had some really good stuff including another flyby Dickcissel which was flushed up by a Cooper's Hawk and was last seen heading to the southwest from the area of the dike. I also had some great looks at a Connecticut Warbler which I found at the edge of a corn field. I was not expecting to find this species there but it popped up and showed well and I managed to get a few decent photos (decent for this usually tough to photograph species). Mike L. was driving by right after I great looks of the bird but our efforts to make it pop back into view for Mike were unsuccessful.  No luck finding the Grasshopper Sparrow again but I did have a total of seven species of sparrows including seven Lincoln's, a few Field and a Vesper Sparrow among the other more typical species. I also made a stop over to Arcadia to try my luck again at finding the American Coot there or the Lesser Black backed Gull but I came up empty. A brief stop at Lower Mill Pond turned up a continued Great Egret as well as a few shorebirds (one each of Killdeer, Spotted Sandpiper and Least Sandpiper). Overall a nice when to end my vacation week.

Honey Pot: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S25082467
Arcadia: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S25082473
Lower Mill Pond:  http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S25082470