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| Upland Sandpiper, Hatfield, MA, Aug 2, 2018 |
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| Upland Sandpiper, Hatfield, MA, Aug 2, 2018 |
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| Snowy Egret, Holyoke Dam, South Hadley, MA, Aug 2, 2018 |
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| Snowy Egret, Holyoke Dam, South Hadley, MA, Aug 2, 2018 |
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| Snowy Egret, Holyoke Dam, South Hadley, MA, Aug 2, 2018 |
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| Green winged Teal, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Aug 2, 2018 |
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| Great Egret, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Aug 1, 2018 |
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| Green Heron, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Aug 1, 2018 |
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| Great Blue Heron, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Aug 1, 2018 |
August has started off with continued hot and humid weather but with some great birds too. I have managed to find a total of 105 species without too much effort including some nice rarities. Yesterday I had an Eastern Whip Poor Will still calling at Winsor Dam before dawn and then added my first Great Egrets of the fall at
Lake Wallace (plus the continued Marsh Wren). The egrets yesterday where part of a push of post breeding egrets into the area which included several reports of multiple Great Egrets and a group of eight Snowy Egrets in Hampden County (one of the largest groups of this species I can ever remember hearing about in Western Mass). Today I had even better luck with rarities starting off with an Upland Sandpiper in
Hatfield (only my fifth county record). The bird was quite wary (probably due to the hawks and eagles crisscrossing the area). It only settled out in the open a couple times and was last seen flying out to the west-southwest. My good luck with shorebirds that started at the
end of July appears to be continuing into August as I have already had six species of shorebirds despite there being little decent habitat for shorebirds among the mainly full farm fields and a very high Connecticut River. I checked a few other areas on my way to the Holyoke Dam and didn't find too many noteworthy sightings. Once I arrived at the
Holyoke Dam I found a single Snowy Egret among a small group of gulls below the dam. I also had another Great Egret a little bit further downstream. I would not be surprised if an even rarer egret or heron shows up in the next several days given the incursion so far. My last stop for the morning was to
Lake Wallace where I once again had the Marsh Wren and a Green winged Teal.
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