With the rain that started last night and continued into the morning and intermittently through the day today I had hopes in finding some shorebirds (and perhaps other migrants) downed by the weather. I made it over to a very muddy East Meadows around dawn and started looking and listening. The shorebirds were around in good numbers and variety with a total of at least a dozen species present plus another individual I'm fairly certain was a Baird's Sandpiper but the bird flushed up with a bunch of others and I could never relocate it to confirm. Unusual shorebirds included a couple of flyby Black bellied Plovers and a Short billed Dowitcher and above normal counts of Semipalmated Plovers, Least Sandpipers (180+), Spotted Sandpipers and Solitary Sandpipers. I also had a single Sandhill Crane when I arrived that was working a large puddle along with a Great Egret and a few Great Blue Herons. Eventually the single crane started calling and was joined by three others. After my time in the East Meadows I headed across the river to the Honey Pot and added another shorebird species with three flyover American Golden Plovers that flew around for a bit but never settled down (got some decent recordings as they flew around). Not a bad morning with at least 13 and possibly 14 shorebird species. I also tried Quabbin in the hopes of finding a tern or gull of note but missed on that. Scott did find a Common Tern from Winsor Dam but multiple attempts by me later in the day to relocate it failed. The Black bellied Plovers and American Golden Plovers added both new species to the month and the year and I now stand at an amazing 162 species for August and 223 for the year...not bad for not trying for a big year in the county.
The previous couple morning I have concentrated on warblers and have had some great luck with a total of twenty species including more early arrivals with my first Cape May Warblers of the fall leading the pack. My stop at Quabbin Park yesterday was particularly productive with 16 species of warblers and other notables including a couple Yellow bellied Flycatchers, loads of Red eyed Vireos, a couple Red Crossbills collecting nest material and lots of Baltimore Orioles.
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