With temps that eventually made it to the upper 50's and sunny and calm conditions and a few late warbler species in the area lately I decided to try my luck at tracking as many warbler species as I could this morning...a sorta big warbler day in mid November. I had my spots I wanted to hit and had good luck at each for both warblers and other stuff.
I started at the UMASS campus pond before the sun came up in the hopes that at least one of the Common Yellowthroats present there at the beginning of the month continued until today but no luck. The area near where I had two yellowthroats before featured two students on a see saw raising money by see sawing for 24 hours...the activity and noise made tracking down warblers there impossible. Next I headed down along the river in Hadley to find at least one Yellow rumped Warbler and found at least three...hopefully these will continue into the rapidly approaching winter season.
My next stop was down to Mount Holyoke College to try to find the continued Wilson's Warbler. I got there a little before 7:30 and it was still fairly cold. I made a quick walk around the area and didn't have any luck initially but I thought I heard but could not confirm it so I kept walking around. As I was standing in the small garden a yellow blur went by and landed in some weeds and then popped up low in a tree. The Wilson's Warbler had made an appearance and was seen feeding very actively. With two warbler species down I left the college and headed north to try to find a Nashville Warbler.
As I was on my way from Mount Holyoke College up to Great Pond I made a brief detour down to the East Meadows see if a reported Western Cattle Egret was still around and I found it right away (thanks Joe) as it chilled on a fence post near a small barn (the new name of Western Cattle Egret is the result of a split giving the world Western Cattle Egret and Eastern Cattle Egret).
Once I arrived at Great Pond I was able to locate the continued Nashville Warbler fairly quickly and got some much better photos. I then spent the next hour plus in a fruitless attempt to find a Palm Warbler in the area. Although I failed on finding a Palm Warbler I did find some good stuff including 60+ Green winged Teal, three Great Blue Herons, a couple Field Sparrows and a White crowned Sparrow.
I then made the drive back east with my destination being Winsor Dam to look for some of the Pine Warblers that have been hanging in the area. It took over an hour of wandering around before I finally came across the flock the Pine Warblers were in. I counted at least half a dozen individuals with a variety of plumages from bright yellow to gray. Probably the largest group I have had of Pine Warblers this late in the season. During my search for the warblers I had a variety of species including two late Chipping Sparrows among the large flock that contained the Pine Warblers.
By the end of the morning I had found four species of warblers, a new species for me for the year in the county with the Western Cattle Egret and several other lingering species among a total of 60 species. Much more on the warblers for the morning at the following link.
Thanks for being a positive force in the online community.
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