A very rainy July has now come to an end on a thankfully sunny note. We blew away the old record for the wettest July in the area with a total of 12.50+ inches of rain for the month this year! Despite the rain and less time spent outside looking for birds I still hit my second highest total species for a July in Hampshire County with a total of 139 species (falling short of my best July of 143 species in 2018). I spent the last morning of the month hitting a few spots after work mainly looking for waders and shorebirds. Always tough to find shorebirds this time of year as there is little in the way of accessible habitat. The best I could find were a few Killdeer and a single Solitary Sandpiper. I had a little better luck with waders with a decent gathering of a dozen Great Egrets in a small farm puddle in Hadley. The area may have held other smaller waders but the viewing conditions made seeing something smaller impossible. Also added multiple Great Blue Herons and Green Herons.
There is an ongoing influx of some southern birds with the the most notable species being Roseate Spoonbill. The last few weeks have seen multiple individuals show up into the mid Atlantic and New York and just in the last day or so individuals have been recorded in Connecticut and New Hampshire. I predict a sighting somewhere in Massachusetts within the next few days (possibly even somewhere in western Mass). Other species moving north include Wood Stork and Black bellied Whistling Duck (plus other more expected dispersing waders).
The camera on the water feature has been acting up a bit has still managed to capture a number of banded birds from both banding visits this year.
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