Snow in May!??!!?

Yellow rumped Warbler 'myrtle', UMASS, Amherst, MA, May 9, 2020

Blue gray Gnatcatcher, UMASS, Amherst, MA, May 9, 2020

Least Flycatcher, UMASS, Amherst, MA, May 9, 2020

Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, MA, May 9, 2020

Snow, Home, Belchertown, MA, May 9, 2020

The weird weather just keeps getting weirder.  The forecast for some overnight snow unfortunately turned out to be correct and we had a light dusting to start the day (areas not too far away had a few inches of snow).  The temperature started out around freezing and climbed to a whopping 43 degrees for a high with a strong northwest wind giving us a wind chill into the teens at times.  It felt and looked a lot more like November than May.  Today was also the eBird global big day and I normally would have been birding all day and wracking up loads of species but today was a bit different.  I tried to make the best of it and headed out at dawn to make a brief stop at Winsor Dam to see if the overnight rain/snow grounded any migrants (it did not).  Ted was already there and he also didn't have much luck and I didn't stick around too long.  With the winds forecast to get progressively stronger during the morning I decided to head over to Hadley to try to catch up with an Orange crowned Warbler that Joe found in the same spot he had one back in late April (apparently the area offers something to Orange crowned Warbler as the same general area held one late last year).  I arrived and started looking and had no luck until after a little over 25 minutes of looking.  I saw the bird very briefly before one of the Yellow rumped Warblers dove on it and chased it to an unknown location.  Not long after that sighting I had a Great Egret heading upriver with a Great Blue Heron but they were gone before I could get a photo.  I then spent the another 30+ minutes looking for Orange crowned Warbler and actually heard it sing four times over the course of that time but never got a recording and never got another look...a super frustrating bird to be sure.  I finally called it quits after about an hour and then headed briefly through the Honey Pot before going to UMASS.  I walked a bit there but the wind was really blowing by that time so I called it quits and headed for home.  The rest of the day featured sun and clouds with occasional flurries and cold temperatures.  I managed just a paltry 77 species...very low for May 9 but given the conditions I guess not too bad.