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| Sora, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, July 4, 2014 |
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| Sora, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, July 4, 2014 |
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| Sora, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, July 4, 2014 |
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| Sora, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, July 4, 2014 |
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| Virginia Rail, Land trust trail, Belchertown, MA, July 4, 2014 (I include it as it is the only time I have managed to get photos of two rail species in western mass on the same day) |
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| Hooded Merganser, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, July 4, 2014 |
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| Winsor Dam early AM, July 4, 2014 |
Although my main thoughts today were on finding storm related birds
(more a dream really) I instead had some decent non storm related birds
including some of my best looks at rails I have ever had in western
Massachusetts. I spent well over an hour at Lake Wallace and among the nearly
fifty species seen or heard I had a calling Virginia Rail and a calling Sora
that I eventually had fantastic looks at. It took a lot of time of waiting
around for the Sora to appear but eventually it did and provided me with great
views. It actually flew around a bit and eventually crossed from the main marsh
to a smaller marsh and walked right across the trail perhaps twenty feet
away. It seems like a great spot for the species to breed but no confirmation
of that today. My other close encounter with rails occurred when I was out on a
walk with Wilson at the land trust trail. I had an adult and at least one
juvenile very close tom us moving between two marshes and vocalizing. Wilson was quite
interested in the strange little birds but I wouldn't let him investigate too
closely. My other bird of interest today occurred as I spent some time at
Winsor Dam checking out what might be out and about. A Red Crossbill flew over
calling several times. By the time I got the camera out and started trying to
capture some audio the bird was too far away to pick up. It sounded different
compared to the Type 10 bird I had last week up on Prescott so really wished I
was able to get some audio to type the bird but it was just not to be today! The crossbill
became species #215 for Hampshire County this year.
Hurricane Arthur peaked as a category 2 storm with winds of 100 MPH as it moved through
the outer banks and has since lost a little strength but continues to be a
hurricane. Arthur is still forecast to travel northeast and move offshore of the
cape and islands. As far as conditions here it will mainly be a rain event with
little other impact. There is still a long shot chance of something unusual
showing up but the chances are quite low around here. I did see some reports
from coastal North Carolina of a frigatebird, a Sooty Tern and Bridled Tern yesterday plus another Sooty Tern in coastal New Jersey but I
have not seen anything for today. It will be interesting to see if anything odd
turns up from the cape or islands or up in Nova Scotia. I think the best chance for oddities would be up in Nova Scotia assuming the storm holds together.
