Hermine update and some other odds and ends the last several days

Post Tropical Storm Hermine projected path as of 11AM, Sep 5, 2016 (courtesy of NHC)

Hurricane Hermine weakened to a tropical storm after hitting Florida and then continuing northeast up the coast before arriving a few hundred miles off the coast of the Delmarva Peninsula. It lost its tropical characteristics and became a post tropical storm a few days ago. The storm has slowed down considerably and has meandered for a few days and continues to meander slowly off the coast. The storm is forecast to regain some strength to near hurricane strength and remain that strong through Tuesday before it finally moves off to the northeast and away from the United States. It is a very unusual storm in the amount of time it has spent (and will continue to spend) off the coast with very little movement. It appears at this point that the impact here will be minimal with just some occasional showers and some breezy weather.  Perhaps coastal areas will get something unusual blown in on the sustained strong winds.  There is still the chance of something unusual showing up here but the chances are fairly low.  

The storm did bring some unusual birds with it and I have included a few links below to some noteworthy sightings. The first is from the day when the storm from coming ashore in Florida and the radar captured the birds caught in the eye of the storm...link to story from the Washington Post regarding this here:  https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/capital-weather-gang/wp/2016/09/02/thousands-of-birds-got-trapped-in-hurricane-hermines-eye-really/?postshare=8981472863798533&tid=ss_fb-bottom

The next is an eBird checklist from Alachua County in Florida on Friday:  http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S31377378

Killdeer, Honey Pot, Hadley, MA, Sep 2, 2016

Killdeer, Honey Pot, Hadley, MA, Sep 2, 2016

Eastern Coyote, Honey Pot, Hadley, MA, Sep 4, 2016

I only managed to make very brief stops on my way to work on Friday and Sunday and I tried my luck at the Honey Pot and I found between 19-21 Killdeer each morning plus a flyby peep on Sunday morning as far as shorebirds were concerned.  I also had an Eastern Coyote laying down in one of the fields on Sunday morning.

Great Egret, Arcadia, Northampton, MA, Sep 5, 2016

Great Egrets and Great Blue Herons, Arcadia, Northampton, MA, Sep 5, 2016

After work on Monday morning I hit a few spots before heading home starting at Arcadia where I checked out the Oxbow (which contained just over thirty Ring billed Gulls but nothing unusual in among them) and the area where waders have been congregating and found nine Great Egrets and eight Great Blue Herons still there.  A brief check at Lower Mill Pond turned up just two shorebirds with a single Killdeer and a Solitary Sandpiper.  I then had to decide if I should continue down to the Holyoke Dam in search of additional waders and perhaps an unusual gull or instead head back across the river to check some fields in Hadley for shorebirds.  I decided on Hadley and made my way over to the Honey Pot where I had the best bird of the day with a flyby Black bellied Plover heading southwest toward the East Meadows.  The plover became species #215 for the county so far this year.  The only other shorebird around was a single Killdeer.  I then stopped along North Lane where I had three Great Egrets in the river as well as a single Greater Yellowlegs and at least half a dozen peeps that were just too far away to ID but they looked fairly large.  I then headed back to the Honey Pot to try to get a better view of the shorebirds but by the time I made it there the birds were gone.  As I was getting tired and hungry I headed for home but not before a brief stop at the wind swept Winsor Dam which didn't produce much but there were about a dozen gulls around but they were all Ring billed Gulls.