Bird-a-thon and other odd and ends

American Coot, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, May 12, 2018

Great Egret, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, May 12, 2018

Bufflehead, Quabbin Park, MA, May 12, 2018

Magnolia Warbler, Quabbin Park, MA, May 12, 2018

The annual Mass Audubon bird-a-thon occurred last evening and continued through today and I provided some assistance to the team from Arcadia.  I stayed local throughout the event covering Quabbin Park and a few other spots in Belchertown and had a productive time in the field.  Last evening was sunny and a little breezy but today was much cooler with highs just in the low 50's with a cold rain starting late morning.  Thankfully the rain held off for the first few hours of the morning allowing me to track down some birds that typical are tough to find when it is rainy and cool.  Some decent numbers of several species of migrant passerines but nothing too unexpected.  The most unusual species during my time at Quabbin Park was a male Bufflehead.  Just before the rain really started coming down Wilson and I took a walk at Lake Wallace and turned up a Great Egret (we returned later and found the egret still there as well as a rare for the county American Coot that was found by another observer).  Once the rain started we headed over to Winsor Dam in search of migrants put down by the weather and we were not disappointed with several unusual species showing up including three Lesser Scaup, a Long tailed Duck, three Red breasted Mergansers, a Horned Grebe and several Common Loons and Double crested Cormorants plus five species of swallows.  Overall for the day I ended up with 102 species and 104 species for the entire 24 hour period.

Worm eating Warbler, Skinner SP, Hadley, MA, May 8, 2018

Cerulean Warbler, Skinner SP, Hadley, MA, May 8, 2018

Brewster's Warbler, Sweet Alice Conservation Area, Amherst, MA, May 8, 2018

Northern Waterthrush, Pelham, MA, May 8, 2018

Black and White Warbler with nest material, Skinner SP, Hadley, MA, May 8, 2018

Nashville Warbler, Quabbin Park, MA, May 9, 2018

Eastern Towhee, Quabbin Park, MA, May 9, 2018

Canada Warbler, rail trail, Amherst, MA, May 10, 2018

Ovenbird, Quabbin Park, MA, May 10, 2018

Yellow Warbler, Quabbin Park, MA, May 10, 2018

The previous few days have all been quite pleasant with mostly sunny skies and average to above average temperatures for highs, cool morning lows and low humidity (feeling more like September then May).  On Wednesday I spent most of the morning at Quabbin Park trying to see how many species I could find and managed a total of 96 species there.  My other mornings have been spent covering various spots from Quabbin over to Hadley and seeing quite a few migrants moving through.  The Brewster's Warbler continued through at least May 8 in Amherst but I could not locate it after that despite a few visits.

Red Fox kit, Home, Belchertown, MA, May 8, 2018

Red Fox  adult with kit, Home, Belchertown, MA, May 9, 2018

Red Fox adult getting egg, Home, Belchertown, MA, May 8, 2018

Red Fox kit, Home, Belchertown, MA, May 9, 2018

The Red Fox family continues to be seen around the yard most days and I have captured lots of images of various motion cameras.  I left out a couple of unhatched merganser eggs several days ago and they finally found them on Wednesday.  Sadly it appears my second nest in my duck boxes was unsuccessful as the eggs have still not hatched and I have never found a duck sitting on the eggs plus the date for hatching is well past at this point.  I assume something happened to the adult bird and she never returned to finish incubation.