Blue Grosbeaks back in Hadley

Blue Grosbeak, Honey Pot, Hadley, MA, Jun 10, 2021

Blue Grosbeak, Honey Pot, Hadley, MA, Jun 10, 2021

Blue Grosbeak and Baltimore Oriole, Honey Pot, Hadley, MA, Jun 10, 2021

After a few unsuccessful attempts lately to relocate a/the Blue Grosbeak I had in the Honey Pot section of Hadley I finally found a pair today.  I originally had one singing very distantly at the location on May 22 and then briefly heard it again perhaps a week later.  A few others were able to get views and photos of a male in the last few days so I decided to spend some time trying again to track them down and perhaps get some evidence of breeding once again.  This species is very rare here in summer and only in the last couple years has it bred here with the first suspected record in 2019 and the first confirmed record last year.  After a bit of looking this morning I eventually had a pair of silent birds moving around quite a bit.  Hopefully they will breed successfully here once again.

Brown Thrasher, Honey Pot, Hadley, MA, Jun 10, 2021

Brown Thrasher building nest, Honey Pot, Hadley, MA, Jun 10, 2021

Common Merganser with ducklings, Honey Pot, Hadley, MA, Jun 10, 2021

As I looked around for the Blue Grosbeaks I came across quite a few other species with a family of Common Mergansers in the Connecticut River and a number of Brown Thrashers including a pair building a nest.

House Wren with leg bands, Home, Belchertown, MA, Jun 10, 2021

Eastern Bluebird nest with young, Home, Belchertown, MA, Jun 10, 2021

Gray Catbird nest with young, Home, Belchertown, MA, Jun 10, 2021

At home the Eastern Bluebird and Gray Catbird nest continue to host rapidly growing young with the adults coming and going fairly constantly.  I also caught up with a few of the birds recently banded in the yard.