November ends after a long series of rarities and a total of 113 species in the county

MacGillivray's Warbler, Honey Pot, Hadley, MA, Nov 14, 2017

Snowy Owl, Hadley, MA, Nov 18, 2017

Red throated Loon, Arcadia, Northampton, Nov 21

Cackling Goose, Arcadia, Northampton, MA, Nov 29, 2017

Red headed Woodpecker, Arcadia, Northampton, MA, Nov 28, 2017

White eyed Vireo, Arcadia, Northampton, MA, Nov 13, 2017

Red eyed Vireo, Arcadia, Northampton, Nov 20, 2017

Yellow rumped Warbler, Arcadia, Northampton, MA, Nov 27, 2017

Common Yellowthroat, Arcadia, Northampton, MA, Nov 28, 2017

Clay colored Sparrow, Arcadia, Northampton, MA, Nov 15, 2017

Baltimore Oriole, Arcadia, Northampton, MA, Nov 15, 2017

I spent the last day of the month once again exploring Arcadia and I found a very respectable 51 species total with several continued rarities and high counts of other species for the end of November.  Highlights included at least 66 Wood Ducks, the Red headed Woodpecker, a Common Yellowthroat, two Yellow rumped Warblers, several hundred Red winged Blackbirds and four Rusty Blackbirds.  Full list from the morning here: Arcadia 11/30

Now that November has come to an end I will take a look at all the rarities and late staying species I had this month.  It was a really great month for birding around here with a way above average total for the month for me, coming in at a very impressive 113 species (impressive for me anyway).  Looking at my eBird data for the last five years (easily viewed with the eBird app) this month beat my previous best November back in 2014 by 13 species.  I typically total in the mid 90's for species for the month.  Although I had slightly lower diversity of waterfowl than typical I didn't spend as much time looking and the warm weather has kept areas to the north ice free so some species have yet to be forced south.  Other families were around in greater variety with three species of shorebirds, six species of owls, seven species of woodpeckers, two species of vireos, four species of warblers and ten species of sparrows.

The list of unusual and/or late lingering species included the biggest highlight being a MacGillivray's Warbler (Nov 13-15), plus multiple Cackling Geese, at least four individual Red throated Loons at three different locations, American Woodcock (through Nov 22), Snowy Owl (Nov 18-20), Short eared Owl (Nov 23), Red headed Woodpecker (Nov 27-end of month), White eyed Vireo (Nov 13), Red eyed Vireo (Nov 20), Gray Catbird (through mid month), Yellow rumped Warbler (through end of month), Common Yellowthroat (through end of month), Clay colored Sparrow (Nov 15) , White crowned Sparrow (through Nov 21), Baltimore Oriole (Nov 15) and Pine Siskin (Nov 19).

A more in depth look at my late dates (and early dates) for warblers in Hampshire County can be found at the following link (if one is so inclined to look at more bird nerd data)...Late and early dates for warblers.