After a few days of rain which brought in a number of unusual and a few not so unusual shorebirds (more on those days at the following two posts:#1 and #2) the weather changed for Thursday and Friday with good migration conditions the last couple nights. I expected Thursday morning to be incredible but it was less impressive than expected but there were decent birds around nonetheless with a few lingering species (Eastern Whip Poor Wills, Virginia Rail and Eastern Kingbird...all at Quabbin Park) and an obvious influx of migrants. I stayed relatively close to home with stops at Quabbin Park and a few places in Ware and Pelham. It was a very pleasant morning, especially after it warmed up a bit and I ran across a couple mixed species flock over the course of the morning.
Today I was out again before dawn to try to get as much birding in before I had to go to class again around 8:30. I decided to spend my time at Arcadia and arrived there before dawn on a somewhat cool morning with temps around 50. I hit a variety of areas and had a few pockets of birds as the sun started to heat up the various edge habitat. I really wish I could have stayed out a little longer as I'm sure I could have turned up more good stuff but it was not in the cards today. I did have a very interesting sighting this morning as I was checking out a mixed flock when I saw Tufted Titmouse land in a bare branch with a very large insect. The titmouse then spent the next several minutes devouring the insect. I reached out to a few people that know insects and the consensus was a Chinese Mantis. My main focus the last couple mornings were warblers and more on warblers during this time can found at the following link.
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