The remnants of Hurricane Ida moved through the area starting on Wednesday and continuing into early Thursday (ending prior to sunrise). Ida came ashore in Louisiana as a Cat 4 hurricane and then headed north and then northeast. We received between 3-5 inches of rain in the local area with much more in areas to the south where major flooding occurred. I hade hopes the weather would ground some migrant shorebirds or entice them to stop following the rain with all the flooded areas. I had to work on Thursday morning so only had a limited amount of time to bird and I debated on where to spend my time and decided on the Honey Pot over the East Meadows as I figured access would be limited in the East Meadows due to muddy conditions. I checked many flooded fields in the Honey Pot that looked perfect for shorebirds but came up totally empty. I had a feeling birds would show up somewhere but without time to check other areas it would be up to others to find them. The first text I got was from Mary letting me know she had an incredible selection of shorebirds including a first county record for Red Knot, Baird's Sandpiper and White rumped Sandpiper. More and more birders arrived and more and more shorebirds showed up with other notables including Buff breasted Sandpiper and American Golden Plover. All of the above mentioned species would be new for me this year with the Red Knot being a potential new species for me in Hampshire County (or for anyone else as it appears to be a first county record). It really killed me to not be able to try to get the Red Knot but I was stuck at work. Typically shorebirds take off after dark if the migration conditions are decent and last night was perfect for the birds to continue their journey south and those trying the next day are usually met with disappointment. Nonetheless I had plans to try my luck this morning after work.
As soon as I got out of work I headed over to the East Meadows with a little bit of hope that at least some of the rarities decided to stick around. I initially tried the area just south of the red barn but the light made viewing tough and there was not too much to see. I noticed a few cars on the opposite side of a large potato field so decided to head in that direction as at least the sun would be behind me and made viewing easier. A note on trying to find shorebirds in the large potato fields in the area...it is damn frustrating and difficult as the keep furrows can retain water (and birds) but make viewing the birds damn near impossible unless they pop up. Moving just a few feet along the farm fields can open up new areas to view and completely block others. It can be really tough to keep moving birds in view as they drop into the dips to feed. I made it over to the eastern side of the field and started scanning and turned up a number of species fairly quickly including Baird's Sandpiper and White rumped Sandpiper (which was really tough to keep track of) as well as multiple Semipalmated Sandpipers and Least Sandpipers. The birds would occasionally flush and some would return with others seeming to head out to other locales. During the two plus hours I spent there birds would drop in and leave from time to time while other stuck around for the duration of my stay. I eventually turned up ten species of shorebirds but I failed to find the rarest birds that apparently took advantage of the great migration conditions overnight. I was certainly happy to turn up at least some Baird's and White rumped Sandpipers but it was tough to miss out on the Red Knot, Buff breasted Sandpiper and American Golden Plover. I have now missed out on at least five species in the last couple weeks due to work that I almost certainly would have had otherwise for the year. Even with these huge misses I still stand at 233 species for the year which is my highest ever total for the year at this point with the closest being a total 223 by September 3rd in 2020, 2018 and 2015. I also checked a few other fields for shorebirds on my way home with the Honey Pot producing just a few Killdeer and a single Lesser Yellowlegs. A nice addition for the year was a flyover Dickcissel.
The question is if the shorebirds were forced down by the weather or if they showed up to take advantage of the decent feeding habitat courtesy of all the rain. I suspect it is a mix with most probably taking advantage of the good habitat which would help explain why more and more birds turned up over the course of the day yesterday. In addition the rain was extremely heavy overnight and started prior to dark on Wednesday night so many birds were likely not airborne to be grounded by the weather.
The tropics continue to be active with two more storms since Ida that made it to tropical storm status before fizzling out in the Atlantic (Julian and Kate). Hurricane Larry is currently about midday between Africa and the Lesser Antilles. The storm is expected to become a major hurricane but should continue northwest before curving harmlessly out to sea although Bermuda could see some impacts.
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