The third week of June ended with the sighting of a rare for area Red headed Woodpecker at Quabbin Park this morning. I first heard about the bird through a sighting report from Lauren Jiang yesterday afternoon and through some brief correspondence got to see some video obtained of the bird and details on the location near Goodnough Dike. The area it was reported in was managed in the last few years with the removal of a number of species of trees with the intention of making it more natural and although the short term 'destruction' can look bad, the change in habitat continues to attract new species. As the gates to the park don't open until around seven or so I decided to arrive early and make the hike in to see if the woodpecker was still around. It was a much better weather than yesterday with no wind at all until well after sunrise (compared to the windy conditions we have had the last few days). Once I made it to the area I had a selection of species and as I was watching a nest of Yellow bellied Sapsuckers I heard the Red headed Woodpecker calling and saw it very briefly. During the next 15 minutes I failed to hear or see it again but then I heard it calling once again a bit further to the north. I made my way into the logged out area and thankfully it remained fairly vocal and I was finally able to get better views. I got some photos, video and recordings as it moved around the area. I got word out to others that the bird was still present and sent out some exact coordinates so even those with less than stellar abilities to read maps could easily find this rarity. The entire area held a great selection of woodpeckers with a total of seven species present in a fairly small area...not something one gets to accomplish around here too often. Red headed Woodpecker is a less than annual visitor to the area and this becomes just the seventh one I have had in Hampshire County with previous sightings including my first in July 2016 in Amherst at Larch Hill, a long staying individual at Lake Wallace that arrived in late October 2016 and stayed through May 2017, another long staying individual at Arcadia that arrived in late November of 2017 and stayed through April 2018, one in South Hadley from January 2020-April 2020, an overwinter bird in Florence from December 2020-February 2021 and one at Quabbin Park from May 2022-July 2022. Breeding was never confirmed with any of these sightings.
I'm on a record setting pace for the month of June in the county with the Red headed Woodpecker becoming species #143 for the month. This already puts me at my second total ever for the month of June here and just two species behind my best ever June which occurred in 2021.
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