Lots of nesting activity to begin the fourth week of June

Eastern Kingbird at nest with young, Lake Warner, Hadley, MA, Jun 23, 2020

Eastern Kingbird at nest with young, Lake Warner, Hadley, MA, Jun 23, 2020

Eastern Kingbird at nest with young, Lake Warner, Hadley, MA, Jun 23, 2020

Eastern Kingbird, Lake Warner, Hadley, MA, Jun 23, 2020

Eastern Kingbird nest with young, Lake Warner, Hadley, MA, Jun 23, 2020

I spent a couple hours kayaking around Lake Warner in Hadley searching in vain for a Black crowned Night Heron that was seen and photographed there a couple days ago.  The bird may still be somewhere in the area as the area around the lake features lots of great habitat and there are lots of places for the bird to hide.  Despite striking out on the night heron it was still nice to be out on the water enjoying the seclusion and relatively cool morning conditions in the midst of our first heat wave of the season.  I also had some other interesting sightings including a Barred Owl early on and an Eastern Kingbird nest with some freshly hatched nestlings. 

House Wren at nestbox, Home, Belchertown, MA, Jun 23, 2020

House Wrens at nestbox, Home, Belchertown, MA, Jun 23, 2020

House Wren at nest box, Home, Belchertown, MA, Jun 23, 2020

American Robin fledgling, Home, Belchertown, MA, Jun 22, 2020

Lots of breeding activity around the house with both House Wrens and Tree Swallows feeding young in nest boxes and several American Robin fledglings around (plus others). 

Waterfowl begins to arrive

Common Goldeneyes, Connecticut River, Hadley, MA, Feb 25, 2020

Mute Swan, Lake Warner, Hadley, MA, Feb 25, 2020

American Wigeon, Connecticut River, Hadley, MA, Feb 25, 2020

Northern Pintail, Connecticut River, Hadley, MA, Feb 25, 2020

White crowned Sparrow, Honey Pot, Hadley, MA, Feb 25, 2020

I made a number of stops along the Connecticut River on yet another fairly warm morning before running errands in Hadley and there was a noticeable increase in both waterfowl numbers and diversity throughout the morning.  I had a total of ten species including my first American Wigeon and Green winged Teal of the spring as well as double digit count of Wood Ducks.  There also seemed to be more Canada Geese around but I was not able to find any unusual geese in among them.  Besides the waterfowl the only other notable species for the morning was an adult White crowned Sparrow at the Honey Pot.  The river is now almost totally ice free and even small ponds have some sections of open water.  The forecast calls for rain off and on the next couple days and then a cool down into the weekend...a perfect time to get away to the tropics again!

YELLOW CROWNED NIGHT HERON in Hadley and lots of other stuff this morning

Yellow crowned Night Heron, Lake Warner, Hadley, MA, Sep 26, 2018

Yellow crowned Night Heron, Lake Warner, Hadley, MA, Sep 26, 2018

Yellow crowned Night Heron, Lake Warner, Hadley, MA, Sep 26, 2018

Yellow crowned Night Heron, Lake Warner, Hadley, MA, Sep 26, 2018

After a rainy day yesterday I was ready to get out this morning and see what might be around.  I started off checking out some flooded fields in North Hadley where I found half a dozen species of shorebirds including my first White rumped Sandpiper of the year.  Viewing was intermittent due to fog with visibility changing from minute to minute.  I tried to get some digiscoped shots of the White rumped Sandpiper as it was preening but could not get anything identifiable to come out.  I assume it was the same bird that Ted G. had in the same area yesterday.  I decided to try my luck a little further south at the Honey Pot where I hoped the fog was a little less dense.  Just as I arrived there I got a call from Mary letting me know she found a night heron roosting on the roof of a house at Lake Warner.  I immediately turned around and headed back up the road to meet up with her.  I arrived at the area near the dam at Lake Warner to see Mary still there looking at a juvenile Yellow crowned Night Heron.  The bird is almost certainly the same individual found by the friend of a birder about a week and a half ago while she was out kayaking.  I had tried multiple times for the bird before including a full circuit of the lake in a kayak without luck.  I guess I just needed to look up on the roofs of nearby houses instead of in the trees along the shoreline!  The bird seemed quite content on the roof, occasionally preening but otherwise just hanging out.  It appears to be a very young bird with some odd feathering on the head that has not quite filled in yet.  After about a half hour of watching the bird I headed out to other locales.  The night heron was not only a new bird for Hampshire County this year (more on that below) but also a new county bird for me overall, bringing my total in the county to 295.  Thanks to Mary for giving me a very timely call!

Yellow Warbler, Honey Pot, Hadley, MA, Sep 26, 2018

Palm Warbler 'western', Honey Pot, Hadley, MA, Sep 26, 2018

My next stop was down to the Honey Pot which unfortunately was fogged in quite a bit but I nonetheless found a decent pocket of birds with a number of sparrows and warblers, including a late Yellow Warbler.  I waited a little bit for the fog to lift but it looked to be just getting thicker so I headed a little further away from the river in the hopes of finding better visibility.

Solitary Sandpiper, Silvio Conte NWR-Fort River, Hadley, MA, Sep 26, 2018

Lincoln's Sparrow, Silvio Conte NWR-Fort River, Hadley, MA, Sep 26, 2018

Northern Parula, Silvio Conte NWR-Fort River, Hadley, MA, Sep 26, 2018

Empidonax flycatcher, Silvio Conte NWR-Fort River, Hadley, MA, Sep 26, 2018

Northern Flicker, Silvio Conte NWR-Fort River, Hadley, MA, Sep 26, 2018

American Kestrels, Silvio Conte NWR-Fort River, Hadley, MA, Sep 26, 2018

I finally found some less dense fog filled areas when I stopped at the nearly deserted Silvio Conte NWR-Fort River. Thankfully the mosquitoes were tolerable compared to some other recent visits.  I spent the next couple hours there walking along the paths as well as covering a few field edges.  There were a number of mixed flocks moving through with a total of eleven species of warblers, a couple species of vireo and a few other migrants mixed in.  As I was walking around the trails you could actually feel when the warm front came through with an immediate and quite noticeable rise in the temperature and the humidity followed by a pick up in the wind.  The increased wind made picking out birds among the leaves quite difficult but not impossible.  It will be interesting to see if the southerly winds bring in anything unusual.

It was a great morning of birding to be sure as I managed to add two new species to my Hampshire County list for the year (#231 and #232) with one of those being a new county species for me.  I really had not intended to do another big county year this year but I really can't avoid it at this point as I have never had this many species at this time of year.  My previous best year for the county was back in 2016 when I had a total of 238 species.  I have included my overall totals for the previous four years. year to date and where I ended those years.

Year            Total as of 9/26      Final total for year
2018           232                         ?
2017           212                         224
2016           225                         238
2015           228                         237
2014           228                         237

Given that I still have a few months left in the year with at least a few easy to get waterfowl plus the possibility of any of a number of rarities there is a very real possibility of breaking my previous record...stay tuned!

Connecticut Warblers and many others this morning

Connecticut Warbler, Arcadia, Northampton, MA, Sep 20, 2018

Connecticut Warbler, Arcadia, Northampton, MA, Sep 20, 2018

Least Flycatcher, Arcadia, Northampton, MA, Sep 20, 2018

Red shouldered Hawk, Arcadia, Northampton, MA, Sep 20, 2018

Dickcissel, Arcadia, Northampton, MA, Sep 20, 2018

The migration conditions looked great last night and there was certainly an influx of birds this morning.  I debated on where to go for the morning but decided on Arcadia in the hopes of catching up with a Connecticut Warbler.  My choice proved to be a good one as I caught up with not one but three Connecticut Warblers over the course of the morning (my highest one day total for the species ever in the county)...more on warblers today can be found at the following link.  It was overall a very productive and satisfying morning with great variety and a few rarities.  Besides the CONW's I had two Dickcissels (including one perched nicely on a power line), a slightly late Least Flycatcher, two Yellow Warblers and nearly twenty Indigo Buntings among nearly 70 species.

Green Heron, Lake Warner, Hadley, MA, Sep 20, 2018

After the morning at Arcadia I headed home to take Wilson for a walk and we had our first for the fall Swainson's Thrush and Ruby crowned Kinglet during our walk.  I also decided to take my kayak over to Lake Warner to see if I could find either species of night heron there but I came up empty.  Nonetheless it was still a beautiful day to kayak around the entire lake and I had a few species around and I have not given up completely on finding the night herons again.

Bay breasted Warbler (L) and Blackpoll Warbler (R), Home, Belchertown, MA, Sep 19, 2018

Bay breasted Warbler and House Wren with leg bands, Home, Belchertown, MA, Sep 19, 2018

Although the activity at the water feature had dropped somewhat the last couple weeks a check of the camera today yielded a new species for the water feature with capture of a Bay breasted Warbler (becoming species #43 for the water feature and the fourteenth warbler species).

More waterfowl in the valley including three neck tagged geese from Greenland and six Northern Shovelers at UMASS

Northern Shovelers, UMASS horse farm, Hadley, MA, Apr 5, 2015

Snow Goose (with Canada Geese), Meadow St fields, Amherst, MA, Apr 5, 2015

Snow Goose (with Canada Geese), Meadow St fields, Amherst, MA, Apr 5, 2015

Snow Geese (blue morph) with Canada Geese (three small bird in center of photo), Meadow St fields, Amherst, MA, Apr 5, 2015

Turkey Vulture, Meadow St fields, Amherst, MA, Apr 5, 2015

Canada Geese, Meadow St fields, Amherst, MA, Apr 5, 2015

American Wigeon, Great Pond, Hatfield, MA, Apr 5, 2015

I spent the rather cool weekend in search of waterfowl and had some decent luck.  Today I started off before dawn in the East Meadows where I hoped to find some stuff on the river and perhaps in the flooded fields.  The river was running fast and high so there was little activity there and the roads were just too rutted up to properly explore the area.  I then headed north hitting Great Pond in Hatfield and then the fields up to the Sunderland Bridge and then south through Amherst and Hadley.  Most stops featured at least some waterfowl with the most productive stop overall being the fields along Meadow Street in Amherst.  The highlights (including all the waterfowl seen) below:

East Meadows- 12 Wood Ducks, 2 Black Ducks, 26 Mallards and 2 Common Mergansers plus 2 Savannah Sparrows.

Great Pond- 265 Canada Geese, 5 Wood Ducks, 3 American Wigeon, 8 Black Ducks, 11 Mallards, 21 Green winged Teal, 5 Ring necked Ducks and 2 Hooded Mergansers.

Meadow Street fields- 4 Snow Geese (one white, three blue..all travelling north with flocks of canada geese), 1725+ Canada Geese (flocks moving steadily north), 3 American Wigeon, 12 Black Ducks, 34 Mallards, a Northern Pintail, 16 Green winged Teal, a Ring necked Duck, a Northern Harrier, 34 Killdeer, an American Kestrel, a Peregrine Falcon and 650+ American Robins.

UMASS horse farm- 2 Black Ducks, 3 Northern Shovelers (continued from yesterday...see below), 28 Killdeer and 6 Wilson's Snipe.

Lake Warner- 9 Canada Geese, a Mute Swan, 2 Wood Ducks and 41 Ring necked Ducks.

Farm Lane, Hadley -196 Canada Geese and a Palm Warbler.

Mill Valley Rd, Hadley-61 Canada Geese.

East Hadley Rd, Hadley-183 Canada Geese and 13 Killdeer.

UMASS campus pond-184 Canada Geese and 22 Mallards.

Pine Warbler, Belchertown, MA, Apr 5, 2015

This afternoon as I did some work around the yard I noticed a Pine Warbler feeding on seeds under the feeders...first time I have one at the feeders.  A walk along the Jabish Canal with Wilson produced a Winter Wren, a singing Pine Warbler and a Swamp Sparrow.

Northern Shovelers, UMASS Horse Farm, Hadley, MA, Apr 4, 2015

Northern Shovelers, UMASS Horse Farm, Hadley, MA, Apr 4, 2015

 

Northern Shovelers, UMASS Horse Farm, Hadley, MA, Apr 4, 2015

Canada Goose with neck tag, Spruce Hill Rd, Hadley, MA, Apr 4, 2015

Canada Geese with neck tags, Farm Lane, Hadley, MA, Apr 4, 2015

Canada Geese with neck tags, Farm Lane, Hadley, MA, Apr 4, 2015

Wilson's Snipe (three birds), Meadow St fields, Amherst, MA, Apr 4, 2015

Ring necked Ducks (part of flock of 72), Lake Warner, Hadley, MA, Apr 4, 2015

Yesterday started out fairly calm but the wind picked up by mid morning and made viewing a bit difficult with strong northwest winds bringing a quick end to our couple days of above normal temperatures.  Despite the challenging weather I still had another spectacular day for waterfowl with 14 species.  The biggest highlights included three neck tagged Canada Geese in Hadley that were tagged in Greenland and a group of half a dozen Northern Shovelers on a tiny pond at the UMASS Horse Farm (my highest count for this species in the county ever...my previous best was two a few different locations over the years). 
*****update on neck tagged geese via Anthony Fox (researcher in Greenland)**** 

Here is the background info on the three geese seen on April 4:

G6H caught Isunngua, West Greenland, July 2014
12/22/2014 Browns Road Park, Nesconset, New York
4/4/2015 Hadley, Hampshire, Mass
GC0 caught Isunngua, west Greenland, July 2009
7/23/2009 Lake I, Isunngua, West Greenland
7/27/2009 Lake F, Isunngua, West Greenland
11/19/2009 Collins Lake, Caribou, Aroostook, Maine,
3/25/2010 Baie-du-Febvre, Lac Saint Pierre near Montreal, Canada
5/21/2010 Lake E, Isunngua, West Greenland
6/2/2010 Lake D, Isunngua, West Greenland
6/7/2010 Lake D, Isunngua, West Greenland
6/9/2010 Lake I, Isunngua, West Greenland
7/24/2012 Lake C, Isunngua, West Greenland
10/11/2012 Broad Brook Pond, East Windsor, Connecticut
3/10/2014 Millers Pond, Smithtown, New York
12/22/2014 Browns Road Park, Nesconset, New York
4/4/2015 Hadley, Hampshire, Mass.
GU6 caught Isunngua, West Greenland, July 2014
10/16/2014 Mayall Road, Grey, Cumberland, Maine
12/22/2014 Browns Road Park, Nesconset, New York
4/4/2015 Hadley, Hampshire, Mass.

Below are the rest of the highlights from the morning.

Connecticut River, Hadley- 257 Canada Geese, 10 Wood Ducks, 2 Black Ducks and 57 Mallards.

Honey Pot- 9 Killdeer, 18 Horned Larks.

North Lane, Hadley- 29 Canada Geese, 6 Wood Ducks, 2 Black Ducks, 2 Mallards, 3 Ring necked Ducks and 5 Common Mergansers.

Farm Lane, Hadley- 482 Canada Geese (including the three tagged birds from Greenland), 42 Horned Larks.

Mill Valley Road, Hadley- 236 Canada Geese, 4 Killdeer.

UMASS horse farm- 6 Northern Shovelers.

Meadow St fields, Amherst- 1160 Canada Geese, 6 Wood Ducks, 3 American Wigeon, 7 Black Ducks, 44 Mallards, 3 Northern Pintails, 17 Green winged Teal (including one male with no vertical white line on chest nor a horizontal line), 7 Killdeer, 5 Wilson's Snipe, 32 Horned Larks.

Lake Warner- 2 Mute Swans, 6 Wood Ducks, 4 Green winged Teal, 72 Ring necked Ducks, 5 Hooded Mergansers, 27 Common Mergansers and a Great Blue Heron.

Connecticut River near Huntington Rd, Hadley- 2 Ring necked Ducks, 4 Bufflehead, 6 Common Goldeneye and a Common Merganser.

East Hadley Road, Hadley- 135 Canada Geese, 4 Killdeer.