November review and birding this morning

Rough legged Hawk, Hadley, MA, Nov 25, 2018

Northern Shrike, Arcadia, Northampton, MA, Nov 14, 2018

Cattle Egret, Rt 116, Hadley, MA, Nov 12, 2018

Cattle Egrets, Barstow's Farm, Hadley, MA, Nov 3, 2018

Palm Warbler 'yellow', Silvio Conte NWR-Fort River, Hadley, MA, Nov 28, 2018

Ruby crowned Kinglet, Arcadia, Northampton, MA, Nov 14, 2018

Rusty Blackbirds, Silvio Conte NWR-Fort River, Hadley, MA, Nov 7, 2018

Now that November has come to an end I'll take a quick look at what birds the month produced.  I had a total of 110 species for the month in the Hampshire County, which fell just short of my best November ever (record is last year with 113 species).  Among the species were three new species for my Hampshire County year list (Common Redpoll, Northern Shrike and Rough legged Hawk).  The Rough legged Hawk broke my previous best year in the county becoming species #239 for the year.  The month started off with the biggest arrival of Cattle Egrets I have ever had with at least half a dozen noted starting on the 3rd and some continuing until at least the 12th.  There were a number of lingering species including Brown Thrasher, Ruby crowned Kinglet and multiple warblers (more on warblers for the month at the following link). The month was overall colder than normal with multiple record breaking cold days plus multiple bouts of snow and lots of rain (a record setting month for precipitation).

Common Redpoll, Silvio Conte NWR-Fort River, Hadley, MA, Nov 30, 2018

Common Redpolls, Silvio Conte NWR-Fort River, Hadley, MA, Nov 30, 2018

Northern Shrike, Arcadia, Northampton, MA, Nov 30, 2018

To end the month I went out birding with Devin primarily in search of any species that would put Devin up over the 200 mark for the year in Hampshire County.  We had several possibilities to reach that goal with the first being a continuing Northern Shrike at Arcadia.  We arrived there just before dawn and after a bit of walking along the hedgerows we found the shrike perched on some telephone lines overlooking a bunch of sparrows.  We didn't want to bother the shrike too much as looked intent on hunting so we did not approach it too closely and instead took some shots from a distance.  The next two plus hours spent at Arcadia also proved quite productive with 38 species total seen or heard.  I'm sure if the forecast for a sunny day ever came to fruition we could have added a few more but we were both happy to see the stuff we did see.  We then headed back across the river to Hadley in search of the Rough legged Hawk seen hunting the fields south of the mall a few days ago.  No luck with that hawk but there were a number of other raptors around.  As we still had some time left we stopped over to Silvio Conte NWR where we got great looks at a flock of ten Common Redpolls feeding happily, adding another species to Devin's list for the year.  Overall a productive end to the month.

Black capped Chickadee with leg bands, Home, Belchertown, MA, Nov 16, 2018

The camera set up continues to capture a number of species including multiple leg banded Black capped Chickadees.