After a rather productive morning out and about in various spots I made it home to take Wilson for a walk. As we walked him I saw an alert about a very rare warbler for the area. A Prothonotary Warbler was reported by Bill DeLuca at the Bachelor Brook Conservation Area in South Hadley. The report sounded solid enough that I figured I would go check it out. I knew a few other people would be going for it to so I headed over where I met Mary and we walked in from one entrance to the trail. With no details on where it was seen we ended up making the wrong choice on parking lots but we were too far along the trail to turn back without wasting more time. Greg messaged us that he found the bird and it was singing quite a bit. We arrived and quickly got to see the little beauty across a small stretch of water and got some distant photos as well as some recordings of its rather odd two part song (usually this species does not sing this type of song). It would disappear for a time and could be heard distantly still singing and then would be silent for a few minutes (or perhaps moving further out of audio range). It would then return and sing quite a bit but would be tough to track down among the leaves. After our initial views we didn't see it again for quite a time and then I finally relocated it a bit lower down. Unfortunately it was even further away and this made getting decent photos a bit of a chore for me (I'm sure Joe got some great ones with his big lens). A few other birders arrived and all got some great looks of the bird. This is only the second one I have ever had in the county with the first one being 20 years ago along the rail trail in late May. I believe that one stayed at least a week before disappearing to parts unknown. There have been just a couple other reports in the last 25 years with none of them relocated after an initial sighting so this is the first one that has been cooperative in twenty years. A true rarity for sure in the county. Beyond the Prothonotary Warbler I had really good for warbler despite not being able to make the walk up the mountain at Skinner SP. I ended the day with 27 species of warblers, which is my highest total for the migration season so far. Full album of the Prothonotary Warbler at the following link.
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