All morning birding from Quabbin to the Connecticut River

Yellow rumped Warbler, home, Belchertown, MA, Apr 25, 2016

Brown Creeper, home, Belchertown, MA, Apr 25, 2016

Palm Warbler, home, Belchertown, MA, Apr 25, 2016

Black and White Warbler, Quabbin Park, MA, Apr 25, 2016

Yellow throated Vireo, Quabbin Park, MA, Apr 25, 2016

American Kestrel, Honey Pot, Hadley, MA, Apr 25, 2016

Vesper Sparrow, Honey Pot, Hadley, MA, Apr 25, 2016

Greater Scaup, Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, MA, Apr 25, 2016

Great Blue Heron at nest, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Apr 25, 2016

Despite the forecast for occasional rain the day turned out fine with the sun even making an appearance from time to time. I covered a lot of area this morning starting and ending at Quabbin and covering various locations along the river in between. A total of 90 species was quite good given the slow trickle of migrants compared to the last few years on the same date. I managed to find eight new species of the the county list for the year including Sora (#134), Solitary Sandpiper (#135), Bank Swallow (#136), American Pipit (#137), Greater Scaup (#138), Black throated Green Warbler (#139), Yellow theater Vireo (#140) and Chimney Swift (#141).


Highlights included the following.

Winsor Dam: Greater Scaup and two Eastern Whip Poor Wills

Lake Wallace: Four Great Blue Herons (with one on nest), a Virginia Rail and a Sora

CT River in Hadley: six Green winged Teal and a Solitary Sandpiper

Honey Pot: Northern Harrier and five Vesper Sparrows

Arcadia: two Wilson's Snipe, five Bank Swallows, two Vesper Sparrows and a Rusty Blackbird

East Meadows: two American Pipits and a flock of 145+ Horned Larks

Beaver Lake: 8 Bufflehead

Quabbin Park: Chimney Swift, a somewhat early Yellow throated Vireo and a Black throated Green Warbler.


Tomorrow looks to feature some cold, damp weather with a cold rain and temperatures that won't make it out of the low 40's...it will be tough for insectivores.  It will be interesting to see if the weather produces anything unusual that gets put down by the rain...perhaps waterfowl and gulls?