End of year wrap up and species #228 for the year in the county

Indigo Bunting, Quabbin

Time for the end of year posting once again.  This year was yet another good year to be out and about checking my local areas as well as places far from home for birds. 

Blue gray Tanager, Los Cusingos, Costa Rica, Dec 2012

Caspian Tern, Viera Wetlands, FL, Jan 2012

Cooper's Hawk, Sweetwater Wetlands, AZ, Apr 2012

I took a few trips this year including a trip to Florida at the end of January-early February, Arizona in April and Costa Rica in December.   Other shorter trips included day trips to the Connecticut shore and down to the Plymouth area.

Yellow-headed Blackbird, Hadley, Oct 2012

Rough-legged Hawk, Hadley Honeypot, MA, Feb 2012

Little Blue Heron, Arcadia, MA, Apr 2012
 

Brewster's Warbler, UMASS Amherst, May 2012

Golden-winged Warbler, Amherst rail trail, May 2012
 

Lawrence's Warbler, Belchertown, May 2012

The rest of the time I spent mainly in the local area trying to maximize my county list for the year.  My initial goal at the beginning of the year was to top the 200 mark for the county which I had oddly never done before.  I managed to go well past the 200 mark and finished with a total of 228.  Although I missed on some birds I would normally expect such as American Bittern, Acadian Flycatcher, and Black Vulture I still reached a higher number than I had expected to.  I added several county birds to my life list this year including Little Blue Heron, Tricolored Heron, Yellow headed Blackbird, Rufous Hummingbird and Hoary Redpoll bringing my overall county total to 272.  Overall some really great warblers including a couple hybrids including at least two Brewster's Warblers as well as a Lawrence's Warbler plus the unusual Golden winged and a singing spring Orange crowned Warbler. 

Pine Grosbeak, Quabbin , Dec 2012

Common Redpoll, Hadley, Dec 2012

There was also a big incursion of winter irruptive species this fall and winter that continues with most every possible species represented in numbers (except for Bohemian waxwings which were around at the beginning of the year). 

Black-legged Kittiwake, Quabbin, Nov 2012

Hurricane Sandy brought a large number of sea ducks down onto Quabbin over the course of several days and finally delivered a notable inland bird for me...a Black-legged Kittiwake almost a week after the passage of the storm.  Two years in a row with tropical systems impacting the area...amazing.

I tried one last run through the Hadley Honeypot midday today to try my luck at catching up with a Northern Shrike or perhaps (with lots of luck) a Gyrfalcon that was there a couple weeks.  Although there was no Gyrfalcon around I did finally catch up with a Northern Shrike (county species #228 for the year!)  I was very happy to add one final species for the year.  Other birds of note around the Honeypot and nearby Aqua Vitae Road included dozens of Horned Larks, a handful of Snow Buntings and a lone Lapland Longspur.  I also made a brief stop at Quabbin Park at Winsor Dam and at least seven Pine Grosbeaks continue in the crabapple trees.

I managed to add a total of 69 new species to my life list this year with two each coming from Arizona and Massachusetts and the remaining 65 species coming from my recent trip to Costa Rica.  The highlights are many and a look back through the last year of postings will revel most of them.  A total of 556 species for the year and a total life list that now stands at 766.  Many of the highlights were captured on film and can be found at my flickr site at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/54277284@N05/

I continue to use eBird to record my sightings and I passed a few milestones this year including adding my 10,000^th list and submitting almost 2400 lists this year with over 2175 of those lists from Massachusetts.  Yet again I will mention what a great resource eBird is for recording sightings and researching information of various species.  With the many advances made in accessing information and providing easy ways to submit data, more and more people will hopefully embrace the use of eBird and make the information even more useful to both the public and researchers.  The website to start your journey on eBird is here:

http://ebird.org/content/ebird

 

 

 

Golden-winged Warbler and more

Golden-winged Warbler, Rail trail-Amherst, MA, May 13, 2012

Golden-winged Warbler, Rail trail-Amherst, MA, May 13, 2012

Golden-winged Warbler, Rail trail-Amherst, MA, May 13, 2012

Yet another day in May and another set of good birds.  Leading the list of great birds was a male Golden-winged Warbler.  Although the species did nest in western Massachusetts in the past they have been driven out by their closely related cousins, the Blue-winged Warbler.  They have become quite rare anywhere in Massachusetts so seeing an adult male was very nice.  I ran across the bird by a bit of luck.  I happened to end my morning on the rail trail and almost left after a short time as it seemed quiet and there was a lot of activity (nice day on a weekend, not unexpected).  I checked the western mass birders facebook page and noticed someone had posted that they chased a reported Golden-winged off station road but only found a Blue-winged singing a Golden-winged song.  I decided to try to get some photos and video of another odd Blue-winged Warbler.  After a bit of searching I heard a Golden-winged like song near Hop Brook.  The call was repeated only a few times.  I searched the area and came up empty for quite awhile.  I decided to head further up the trail toward Amherst and heard the bird again.  I squeaked a couple times and a bird flew in.  Instead of an odd Blue-winged I had a male Golden-winged!  I fired off several photos and got a short video of the bird giving an odd Golden-winged song.  I posted the sighting back to the facebook page and gave Tom Gagnon a call to get the word out for anyone that would be interested.  I watched the bird for several minutes and then lost track of it.  Not sure if others re found the bird or not.  Also in the area was a silent Wilson's Warbler as well as my second Willow Flycatcher of the year.   To add to the fact that I was lucky this day I actually read the post wrong and was actually looking for the bird in the wrong location.  The Blue-winged singing a Golden-winged song was actually at least a half mile away from where I was.  If I had got the directions right I would never have come across the Golden-winged...very lucky day for me.

Tennessee Warbler, UMASS Amherst, MA, May 13, 2012

Yellow Warbler, UMASS Amherst, MA, May 13, 2012

Wood Duck, UMASS Amherst, MA, May 13, 2012

Ruby-throated Hummingbird Rail trail-Amherst, MA, May 13, 2012

Before the stop at the rail trail I started my day at UMASS and caught up with a few more first of year birds including a Eastern Wood-Pewee and Willow Flycatcher.  There was more migration in evidence but many of the birds appeared to be on territory.  Another notable sighting was finding three Tennessee Warbler's feeding in the same area there at UMASS.  My other stop of the morning was at Lake Warner Conservation Area where I caught up with my first Blackpoll Warbler of the season.

During the afternoon as I did work around the yard I added more nice birds for the day including a Black-billed Cuckoo, Green Heron and seven Common Nighthawks.