I completed my Breeding Bird Survey route this morning despite some less than ideal weather to start. The route begins in Belchertown at 4:42am and then travels south through Ware, Palmer and Monson and ends near the Connecticut line. It consists of 50 stops at one half mile increments for three minutes each. I have been running the route for eleven years now (I even ran it last year despite the official survey oddly being cancelled due to the pandemic). The route began with overcast conditions and a slight breeze and after several stops it started to pour. I almost scrapped the route for the day but then the rain stopped as quickly as it started so I continued on. There were a couple more sprinkles along the way but by half way through the sun was coming through and by the end it was mostly sunny. Overall for the route this year I had 71 species, which is around average and the same number of species I had last year. This year turned up two new species for me on the route with a Red tailed Hawk and Eastern Meadowlark. I have now found a total of 109 species along the route. I covered the all the previous year totals in my post on the survey last year. Unfortunately eBird changed the way one can easily manipulate data so I can't break down the most numerous species this year.
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