Although overall cooler than normal with mainly unfavorable winds there continues to be birds pushing in with multiple new species over the last several days. No other major rarities for the season that I have been able to track down. As you can tell from the photos it has been mainly about warblers...more on those here. Too many travels and sightings so the photos will have to tell part of the story. The next few days look to be unsettled with multiple bouts of rain and at least some favorable winds. This will hopefully entice a push of birds and the bouts of rain could ground some species that otherwise just fly right by. Could be some interesting few mornings.
The last couple nights have featured the best migration of the spring so far with loads of birds arriving including some rarities. Yesterday I was guiding for a birder from India and we had a very productive morning. I birded a bit before I picked her up and then we started at the rail trail where we had a number of lifers for her and a few new species for me for the year here. It was certainly obvious an influx of species had occurred overnight. After about an hour and half along the rail trail we decided to head a bit south to Mitch's Way to look for more migrants and a Hooded Warbler. We successful found more migrant species and heard the Hooded Warbler. With the Hooded Warbler and an earlier Canada Warbler I ticked off two more species on my way to a warbler big year in the US.
As an indication of the influx I had three new warbler species at the water feature for the day.
Today was not as nice as yesterday with mainly overcast and breezy conditions until midday when rain got added to the mix for the rest of the day. Although a bit too windy at times I still got out to cover a few areas and caught up with a few good ones today including the continued Hooded Warbler (still not photogenic, the Brewster's Warbler, an unusually plumaged Blue winged Warbler, two new species of warbler in the county for the year (Tennessee Warbler and Wilson's Warbler) and a total of six new species for me in the county for the year. The main areas I hit for the morning before the rain included Mitch's Way, rail trail in Amherst and Herman Covey WMA.
I have been able to get out quite a bit during the first few days of September and have tracked down quite a few birds, including some continued rarities as well as newly arriving migrants. On the first I stayed around the south Quabbin and Belchertown area and among the highlights were a few Virginia Rails, Red Crossbill and a distant Red necked Phalarope at Winsor Dam. Also had three Yellow bellied Flycatchers (a migrant that can be tough to find sometimes) plus 17 species of warblers with the most unusual being multiple Cape May Warblers.
On the second I started off at the Holyoke Dam and had one of the two Sanderlings that have been there for several days plus a color banded Ring billed Gull. I sent the info out to the banding lab and they got back to me right away with the details of the bird. It was banded in June 2013 as an adult (so born in 2010 or earlier) in Varennes, Quebec just upriver from Montreal. I then worked north with stops off at Arcadia, Silvio Conte NWR and Hickory Ridge with the highlight of these stops being a slightly late Willow Flycatcher calling and seen at Arcadia. I added several other new species for the month but overall it was quite quiet as far as migrants were concerned. I also made a stop at Winsor Dam and was quite happy to see a Red necked Phalarope in a bit closer than the previous day (although still quite distant). Certainly an incursion of both Red Phalarope and Red necked Phalaropes into the area for the past few days...very cool given there were no storms forcing them down.
Today I stayed again in the Ware and Belchertown area and concentrated again on warblers with 19 species seen for the day including multiple new species for the month. I added a few non warblers for the month as well but nothing too unusual. So far for the month in Hampshire County I stand at 121 species which puts me well above average for the first three days of the month.
