Morning looking for waders and a continued influx of Red breasted Nuthatches and Red Crossbills

Little Blue Heron, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Aug 19, 2020

Little Blue Heron, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Aug 19, 2020

Green Herons, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Aug 19, 2020

Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Aug 19, 2020

I had a full morning to bird so I decided to see how many waders (and perhaps shorebirds) I could find in Hampshire County.  I started my morning at Lake Wallace in the hopes of finding the continued Little Blue Heron.  I arrived before sunrise to catch the waders coming in from their overnight roost.  The gathering of Green Herons at this location in late summer is impressive and this morning I had at least 26 (not quite as high as the 37 I had back in 2018 but still a great morning!).  I also had a couple Great Blue Herons and at least one Virginia Rail still calling from the marsh.

Great Blue Heron, Holyoke Dam, South Hadley, MA, Aug 19, 2020

I next headed down to the south to the Holyoke Dam in search of the Glossy Ibis that had been present at the location a few days ago.  Unfortunately no luck turning up the ibis bit I did have 120+ Chimney Swifts, a few Spotted Sandpipers and eight Great Blue Herons.  I had thought about possibly going down to Fannie Stebbins in Longmeadow to try to turn up a night heron and/or check the sandbar but I decided to stay in the county instead.

Wood Ducks, Great Pond, Hatfield, MA, Aug 19, 2020

Spotted Sandpiper, Bashin area, Hatfield, MA, Aug 19, 2020

Great Egret, Bashin area, Hatfield, MA, Aug 19, 2020

Great Blue Heron and Great Egret, Bashin area, Hatfield, MA, Aug 19, 2020

After the dam I headed north and checked out Lower Mill Pond and then Arcadia with just a single Green Heron and a couple Killdeer at Lower Mill Pond and nothing too noteworthy at Arcadia.  The lack of Great Egrets around this year so far is surprising seeing how many have been present the last few years as well as the large number being seen just to the south in Hampden County. 

I next headed further north to Great Pond and then to the Bashin area of Hatfield.  Great Pond held at least 82 Wood Ducks, a briefly seen Virginia Rail and a few each of Green Heron and Great Blue Heron.  The Bashin area produced a half dozen Spotted Sandpipers along the muddy edge of the river plus my first Great Egret of the day.  I also made a brief stop at Lake Warner but didn't turn up anything noteworthy.  With the Great Egret I had found a total of four species of waders for the morning.  Shorebirds were not around in any great variety with just a couple species around.

Red breasted Nuthatch, Quabbin Park, MA, Aug 19, 2020

Red breasted Nuthatch, Quabbin Park, MA, Aug 19, 2020

With a little more time available after walking Wilson I headed over to Quabbin Park to try to turn up some passerines and came across a few groups of Red breasted Nuthatches plus at least one flyover Red Crossbill.  Both species seem to be undergoing a fairly large influx into the area since around the beginning of the month with nuthatches showing up almost everywhere lately.  More on the influx can be found at the following Birdcast link.


The hurricane season is entering peak time for storms and the tropics are getting busy.  Two weak tropical storms formed last week (Josephine and Kyle) and quickly fizzled out with no major impacts.  There are now three tropical waves moving across the Atlantic with two labeled as invests at this point (97L and 98L) and the third just coming off Africa.  Both invests are given a high probability of forming into a tropical system over the next several days and both need to be watched for impacts.  Neither is a direct threat here at this point but 98L will have to be watched carefully.