Connecticut Warbler, Aqua Vitae Road, Hadley, MA, Oct 6, 2020
Dickcissel, North Hadley, MA, Oct 6, 2020
Pectoral Sandpiper, Aqua Vitae Road, Hadley, MA, Oct 6, 2020
Swamp Sparrow, Hadley, MA, Oct 6, 2020
Palm Warbler 'yellow', Honey Pot, Hadley, MA, Oct 6, 2020
I was not sure where I would head this morning as the forecast called for thick fog along the river and I really didn't want to deal with it. In addition there were a few pockets of showers and after deciding to head over near the river again I changed my mind a few times as the rain started to pick up as I drove west. In the end I decided to deal with the light rain and fog and work a few areas along the river from North Hadley to Aqua Vitae Road in Hadley. Despite the fog I turned up a lot of sparrows and a Dickcissel in a weedy field but failed to find any shorebirds when I checked the river. As I worked south I stopped at a few spots but nothing too unusual was around. My final stop at Aqua Vitae Road proved to be the best stop despite it starting to rain not long after I arrived. I was about to leave when I heard a shorebird calling and flying past which turned out to be a Pectoral Sandpiper. By this point it was raining harder so I started leaving only to run into a feeding flock in a tree line that featured mainly Yellow rumped Warblers but after picking through the bird for awhile I saw a late Cape May Warbler. I tried to get a photo but failed. As I was looking for the Cape May Warbler I heard the distinctive call of a Connecticut Warbler and after waiting awhile I managed to see it and got a few distant photos (only my third record of the species for the fall for me and the first one I was able to get photos of). More on warblers for the first week of the month can be found at the link. So far for the month I have found 117 species in the first six days which is just a few behind my best ever October in the Hampshire County when I was at 120 on this date in 2018 (a year that had a record 152 species for the month of October in the county)
White crowned Sparrow, Arcadia, Northampton, MA, Oct 5, 2020
Blackpoll Warbler, Arcadia, Northampton, MA, Oct 5, 2020
Great Egret with neck issue, Arcadia, Northampton, MA, Oct 5, 2020
Great Egret with neck issue, Arcadia, Northampton, MA, Oct 5, 2020
Magnolia Warbler, Arcadia, Northampton, MA, Oct 5, 2020
Northern Parula, Arcadia, Northampton, MA, Oct 5, 2020
Prairie Warbler, Arcadia, Northampton, MA, Oct 5, 2020
Red breasted Nuthatch, Belchertown, MA, Oct 5, 2020
On Monday I headed to Arcadia for a good portion of the morning and had a fairly productive morning with 68 species with highlights among them being a couple Great Egrets (one with some type of issue/injury to its neck), eight species of sparrows (with a noticeable increase in Swamp Sparrows as well as others) and nine species of warbler including a late Prairie Warbler. It was nice to finally have a morning that was not foggy (although there was a persistent layer of clouds that didn’t clear out until about the last hour I was there. I took a few shorter walks later in the morning but didn’t find anything unexpected.
Yellow rumped Warbler 'myrtle', East Meadows, Northampton, MA, Oct 4, 2020
Swamp Sparrow, Silvio Conte NWR-Fort River, Hadley, MA, Oct 4, 2020
Purple Finch, Silvio Conte NWR-Fort River, Hadley, MA, Oct 4, 2020
Hermit Thrush, Silvio Conte NWR-Fort River, Hadley, MA, Oct 4, 2020
On the fourth of the month I returned to the East Meadows looking for sparrows and to get a better handle on the number of Yellow rumped Warblers in the area. I covered just a small portion of the meadows and still managed my fourth best day in the county for Yellow rumped Warblers (and probably could have added many more if I stayed and covered a larger area)..more on the warblers at the following link.. I had an interesting shorebird that quickly and silently flew past after being flushed by a Merlin. There were also a few Northern Harriers in the area that kept the smaller birds on their toes. It was another foggy, cool morning with a slight breeze which made for less than ideal conditions for photos. After the meadows I made a quick stop at Silvio Conte NWR-Fort River but didn’t find anything too unusual although I did see my first male Purple Finch of the ongoing irruption (until now all the birds were flyovers calling or females that were down in the trees feeding).
Palm Warbler 'western', Arcadia, Northampton, MA, Oct 3, 2020
Palm Warbler 'yellow', Arcadia, Northampton, MA, Oct 3, 2020
House Wren, Arcadia, Northampton, MA, Oct 3, 2020
Bobolink, Arcadia, Northampton, MA, Oct 3, 2020
With a full morning available on the third I headed to Arcadia where I spent over four hours checking the meadows for birds and turned up a number of notable species including the American Coot that had shown up in the Oxbow in late September, more Purple Finches and Pine Siskins (a common theme throughout the week as these two species continue to irrupt into the area), nine species of sparrows and seven species of warbler including a late Yellow Warbler. It remained foggy and cool the entire time I was at Arcadia which certainly kept activity down a bit. I also made a quick run through the East Meadows in search of shorebirds and found four American Golden Plovers, a couple Semipalmated Plovers and Killdeer. I also had lots of Yellow rumped Warblers in the corn and overhead while I was there. There was a Nelson’s Sparrow seen in the East Meadows the day before but I decided to not bother trying to find it that day as many others had already tried and failed.
Bonaparte's Gull, Oxbow, Northampton, MA, Oct 2, 2020
American Golden Plovers, East Meadows, Northampton, MA, Oct 2, 2020
I was not able to get out as much as I wanted to on the first two days of the month as I had to work on the first and then had to be home to meet a contractor at the house early on the second so only had time for very brief walks on each of those mornings (plus a little time later in the day on the second). Nonetheless I still caught up with some decent birds including Bonaparte’s Gulls and a late Least Flycatcher.
The tropics continue to be active and there is now a Cat 4 hurricane moving toward the Yucatan in Mexico where it is expected to hit the area hard before moving out into the Gulf of Mexico where it will then head north and impact Louisiana. The remnants of the storm may make it into the local area in the early/mid week time frame next week.
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