Birds over the last several days

Black Vulture (with Turkey Vultures), Moody Bridge Rd, Hadley, MA, Jul 8, 2020

This morning I headed out on a foggy, humid morning to several areas in Hadley and South Hadley mainly looking for species I have not yet had for the month plus trying yet again to find the Black crowned Night Heron that has been seen sporadically at Lake Warner (no luck again finding that bird).  I did manage to find several species new for the month over the course of a few hours but nothing too unusual.

Green Heron, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Jul 7, 2020

Pied billed Grebe, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Jul 7, 2020

Virginia Rail fledgling, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Jul 7, 2020

On Tuesday morning I made a stop over to Lake Wallace and had some good stuff including at least two juvenile Pied Billed Grebes continuing to show well plus a family of Virginia Rails working the edge of the marsh.  They were very interesting to watch as they quickly moved through the marsh disappearing and reappearing time after time.  I got some decent videos of them which can be found at the following links:
Virginia Rails video 1
Virginia Rails video 2
Virginia Rail video 3

In between long bouts at work over the weekend holiday I stopped at the Honey Pot on the morning of the fourth to follow up on a sighting of a Blue Grosbeak that Mary found on July 3rd.  There were a number of other birders already on site and after a bit of waiting the bird was heard singing multiple times very distantly.  Unfortunately it never came in close and all the land it was on is posted and could not be checked.  Very interesting to have this species back in the same general locations for two years in a row now.  Last year there were up to three present so there was certainly a good chance they bred last year and may be doing so again this year.

Other rarities around include multiple Least Bitterns in the area including one I heard at the Barrett Street Marsh in Northampton.  Others have been present (sometimes multiples) at Great Pond, Lake Wallace and along the rail trail in Amherst in Hampshire County and Fannie Stebbins and Blandford in Hampden County.  A really impressive incursion of this tough to find species into the lower Connecticut River valley of western Massachusetts this year.

There is the chance of a tropical system having an impact in the area from Friday into Saturday and if it looks to indeed take place I will post about it.