The last few days of mid September

Palm Warbler, Arcadia, Northampton, MA, Sep 18, 2020        

                                             Lincoln's Sparrow, Arcadia, Northampton, MA, Sep 18, 2020  

 Great Egrets, Arcadia, Northampton, MA, Sep 18, 2020  

After northerly winds last night I held out hope for some great arrivals but the forecast of light winds in the AM was way off and I arrived at Arcadia to a steady north wind that made finding birds very tough.  It even rained a bit for about 15 minutes.  I almost left but decided to stick it out in the hopes of finding something good.  The best I could come up with was a flock of ten Great Egrets that arrived around 7:30 along with some Great Blue Herons.  I searched through the flock fighting the wind in the hopes of an unusual egret but no luck (last year around this time I had a Snowy Egret arrive with a group of Great Egrets).  I also had at least three Swainson's Thrushes feeding together and a slightly late Yellow Warbler (among some nine species of warblers for the morning...not bad giving the conditions and the poor showing of warblers so far this fall). 

Red breasted Nuthatch, Quabbin Park, MA, Sep 17, 2020

Philadelphia Vireos, Quabbin Park, MA, Sep 17, 2020

                                                      Black Bear, Quabbin Park, MA, Sep 17, 2020

On Thursday I stayed close to home with a few stops in Ware and Belchertown including a too short visit to Quabbin Park.  The density of Red breasted Nuthatches have increased and I'm sure with a little more time I would have gotten well into a triple digit count once again for the species.  Red Crossbills and Purple Finches were also around in decent numbers.  Beyond the birds I had a close encounter with a rather pissed off Black Bear at Quabbin Park. I also had at least two Eastern Whip Poor Wills still singing before dawn at Quabbin Park...getting late but still not my latest date ever for the species in the county which is Sep 25th.

                                                  Black bellied Plover, Hadley, MA, Sep 16, 2020

                                 Traill's Flycatcher, Silvio Conte NWR-Fort River, Hadley, MA, Sep 16, 2020

On Wednesday I started my morning at Silvio Conte NWR-Fort River in the hopes of finding a Connecticut Warbler (I had no luck with that species).  I was joined for part of my time there by Sebastian.  Highlights for the morning there included a Traill's Flycatcher (Alder or Willow), a couple Philadelphia Vireos, a Veery and several Wood Thrushes and Northern Parulas.  After parting ways with Sebastian I made brief stops at the Honey Pot and then at the Huntington Road access to the CT river.  A scan at the river turned up a Black bellied Plover (that was apparently previously found by Mike L).  

Palm Warbler 'yellow', Arcadia, Northampton, MA, Sep 15, 2020

                                        Palm Warbler 'western', Arcadia, Northampton, MA, Sep 15, 2020

                                              Yellow Warbler, Arcadia, Northampton, MA, Sep 15, 2020

                                        Swainson's Thrush, Arcadia, Northampton, MA, Sep 15, 2020

On the ides of September I spent a few hours in the morning at Arcadia where I had 59 species including my first White throated Sparrows and Palm Warblers of the season as well as the continued Dickcissel.  Overall it was rather slow considering the date and the good migration conditions.

Yet another update on the incredibly busy tropics which has already used all the typical names for tropical systems and is now into the Greek alphabet with both Alpha and Beta being named today.  The biggest immediate threat to land is major Hurricane Teddy which is forecast to make a very close approach to Bermuda and then head north and impact Atlantic Canada around Tuesday of next week.  TS Wilfred should exhaust itself well east of the Lesser Antilles.  Post tropical storm Alpha made landfall in Portugal today and TS Beta is in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico and is forecast to reach hurricane strength by Monday and then meander around the gulf just off the south Texas coast as a tropical storm. There are two more areas that may develop in the next five days including an area around the Azores and another wave coming off of Africa.  A truly record setting tropical season that still has several weeks ahead of it.  To give an indication on how busy this season has been we are about six weeks ahead of 2005 as far as named storms go and that year was a record setting year for storms.