As August comes I managed to find a total of 165 species in Hampshire County, which puts me in the number two spot for the most species I have ever had for the month in the county (just one species behind my best total in 2023, when I had 166 species). I have been concentrating hard on warblers (as one would expect) and I have found a number of early arrivals for the month with an especially good showing of Bay breasted Warblers and Cape May Warblers. I managed a total of 26 species of warblers for the month. Beyond warblers the last few days of the month have had a few rarities including a couple of Sanderlings at the Holyoke Dam yesterday and a extremely distant phalarope at Winsor Dam today plus an very early Red necked Grebe. In addition there seems to be a bit of an incursion of Red breasted Nuthatches ongoing as well as slowly increasing numbers of Red Crossbills and Purple Finches...hopefully the beginning of a good season of irruptives to come. The end of August (the 28th to be exact) brought the 14th anniversary of the arrival of Hurricane Irene into the area and with it some of the most epic birding ever. The tropics are quiet right now but we are rapidly approaching the peak of hurricane season and perhaps this year a tropical system will once again impact the area...we shall see. The models are hinting at some activity coming up.
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