I decided to try something a little different this year for what looked to be the peak of migration (at least as far as overall diversity of passerines are concerned). Usually I try to hit new areas each morning but this year I decided to visit the same area for three consecutive mornings to get a real feel for the turnover of species with multiple nights of great migration conditions. The area I chose was Arcadia and I was not disappointed with my choice. Each morning was a bit different and all featured some great birds (and thankfully fewer mosquitoes than has been the case lately). Today was the last of my three mornings there and the composition of birds changed a bit from the previous day with a noticeable increase in sparrows and a reduction in warbler numbers and diversity. The weather was also tougher for finding birds this morning with dense fog that did not lift until a bit after nine. The early fog made viewing a bit of a challenge with visibility so low at times it was tough to see the tops of the tallest trees in the area. Once the fog lifted I was treated to yet another crystal clear sky with low humidity and light breezes. Overall for the morning I found a total of 83 species with the highlights including at least half a dozen American Woodcocks (more on the species below), a continued Least Flycatcher, four species of vireos, a dozen House Wrens, a large incursion of sparrows including high counts of White throated, Lincoln's and Swamp Sparrow and a dozen species of warbler including some high counts and late species (see imbedded eBird list above).
On Sunday at Arcadia I had my greatest diversity of warblers for the three mornings with a total of 18 species of warblers including my third Connecticut Warbler of the fall as well as high counts of Nashville Warbler and Northern Parula plus a nice early showing of 'yellow' Palm Warblers. When I arrived in the morning I got to witness the first of three mornings of watching multiple American Woodcocks leave their roosting spot in a cornfield and fly out to other locations for the day. I also had multiple birds flight calling overhead predawn with Swainson's Thrushes the most obvious. The weather was perfect with wall to wall sunshine and pleasant temperatures. With it being a weekend there were a fair number of birders around but thankfully there are spots to get away from the crowds. Other highlights for the morning included couple late flycatchers with a Least Flycatcher and Great crested Flycatcher, a Clay colored Sparrow (my 241st species in Hampshire County this year...crazy and way ahead of any previous year...more on that in a post at the end of the month), an influx of Lincoln's Sparrows and a flyover Dickcissel. I would have covered even more areas for the morning but a folk fest at Arcadia in the middle of peak migration put an end to those plans. Nonetheless it was still a fantastic morning with a total of 80 species.
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