After a few days of strong southernly winds, the winds switched around to northwest after a front moved through yesterday and last night featured some decent migration conditions. I decided to start my morning at Arcadia where I arrived to find somewhat clear conditions with fog visible very close by. The American Woodcocks once again put on a show early on as they left their roosting location around dawn. Unfortunately dawn also brought in the fog that stuck around for a bit before finally burning off. There was also a good showing of Wood Ducks right around sunrise with at least 44 passing by. Other notables for the morning included a still singing Yellow throated Vireo, a number of thrushes calling early with multiple Swainson's and Wood Thrushes, a good showing of sparrows with continued high numbers of Lincoln's Sparrows and a dozen species of warbler including large numbers of Tennessee Warblers with at least ten present as well as my first Orange crowned Warbler of the fall. As the crowds started showing up at Arcadia I decided to spend the rest of my available time in the East Meadows. I had a few shorebirds including four Least Sandpipers and a few Killdeer as well as a flyover shorebird species that may have been a Dunlin but I was never able to get on it or get a recording...oh well. I also checked a weedy field for sparrows but could not find anything too unusual but I did turn up at least three Yellow Warblers as well as a brief look at a Marsh Wren.
The last few days featured some strong southerly winds and some heavy rain yesterday. With the south winds migrants were not moving in from the north and I had to be content with catching up with birds that were already in the area. Yesterday was rainy for most of the morning and eventually the rain let up in the middle of the afternoon and I had commitments at home that kept me from getting out too much.
On Thursday I initially planned to stay close to home with the forecast that showed little promise of new migrants. I started my morning at Lake Wallace where I had a Sora calling predawn. As the winds did not seem to be too bad I decided to head over to the East Meadows to check on sparrows and possibly locate the unknown wren species I heard there the day before. The wind unfortunately was blowing fairly hard when I arrived and did not let up much during my time there...at least the winds kept the mosquitoes down to a tolerable level. I had no luck relocating the wren species nor the Yellow headed Blackbird that has been seen sporadically in the area. Nonetheless I still found some good birds including at least four Yellow Warblers as well as other warblers and sparrows.
Wednesday started off for me at Silvio Conte NWR-Fort River where I found a ton of mosquitoes as well as a few birds including my first White crowned Sparrow of the fall as well as a small mixed flock. I then made a few stops along the river on the Hadley side of the river including at Huntington Road and the Honey Pot. The highlight of these stops was a distantly calling Great crested Flycatcher at Huntington Road. I then headed across the river to check the East Meadows and found a great bird at the first freshly tilled field I checked with a Buff breasted Sandpiper working the area along with a bunch of Killdeer and American Pipits...a really good fall for Buff breasted Sandpipers this year for sure. I also had a flyover American Golden Plover that I was never able to find on the ground. After letting a few people know about the shorebirds I spent the rest of my time checking out a large patch of weedy growth that has turned up some unusual sparrow species in the past. Although I didn't find any unusual sparrows I did find a decent number of more typical sparrows as well as multiple warblers including multiple Yellow Warblers as well as a flyover Dickcissel. I also had a wren species that sounded off just once from a wet, weedy field and I was never able to locate it or get a recording...the one that got away for the day.
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