Little Blue Heron this morning at Lake Wallace

Little Blue Heron, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Aug 16, 2020

Little Blue Heron, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Aug 16, 2020

Little Blue Heron, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Aug 16, 2020

Little Blue Heron, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Aug 16, 2020

Little Blue Heron, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Aug 16, 2020

Little Blue Heron and Green Heron, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Aug 16, 2020

Great Blue Heron, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Aug 16, 2020

Green Heron, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Aug 16, 2020

I started off a rather cool and cloudy morning by visiting Quabbin Park where I had at least three Eastern Whip Poor Wills still calling and singing plus a drumming Ruffed Grouse.  I then headed over to nearby Lake Wallace primarily looking for waders and waterfowl.  I started panning around the lake with the scope and found a variety of interesting species including at least 14 Green Herons and three calling Virginia Rails as well as both Barred Owl and Great Horned Owl.  I then noticed a white heron that flushed up when a Red tailed Hawk came by.  I quickly got on the bird and found it to be a juvenile Little Blue Heron.  After perching in a tree for a few minutes it dropped down into the marsh and began to actively hunt.  I got the word out quickly and over the next couple hours a few other birders showed up to see what is a less than annual visitor to Hampshire County.  Mid to late summer is the typical time frame for dispersing post breeding waders to show up and a group of species to certainly have in mind when out this time of year.  All of my records for Little Blue Herons have been juvenile birds in August (with the exception of an adult in April in 2012 at Arcadia).  My August records for the species include one along the Connecticut River in 2014, one that stayed around for over a week at the Holyoke Dam in South Hadley in 2016 and one that showed up at Fitzgerald Lake in 2017 (initially discovered by someone else there in late July).  There have been a few present just to our south in Hampden County in the last few weeks but this is the first one this far north in western Massachusetts this year.

August has so far been a great month for rarities and I'm on a record setting pass for the month with 139 species at the mid month mark (with 123 of these in the first week).  My best August ever was 143 species in 2018 so it looks quite likely I will break that record with half the month still to go.  Although I'm not trying for a big year in the county I'm at 221 species for the year which puts me a couple species ahead of my previous high total for this date so who knows where the final year end total will end up.