April ends cold and rainy

Swallows resting on sandbar, The Oxbow, Northampton, MA, Apr 30, 2014

Horned Grebe, Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, MA, Apr 30, 2014 (blurry distant shot taken during heavy rain)

As predicted today was rainy and cool.  I decided to try my luck before work at finding something grounded by the weather.  I stopped briefly at Winsor Dam and had a somewhat late Horned Grebe in breeding plumage as well as four female Bufflehead.  I tried to get some photos but the rain made it quite difficult.  No sign of the swallow show seen there last evening.  I then headed over to the Oxbow in Northampton and had around 225 swallows mostly sitting on the sandbar with the vast majority Tree Swallows but also double digit counts of Barn and Bank Swallows plus at least one Cliff Swallow.  Other reports from today found more Horned Grebes, double digit counts of Red necked Grebes (not sure I have ever seen such a good year for this species in the valley), Long tailed Ducks and more Bufflehead plus a possible Clark's/Western Grebe.  Wish I had the time to check areas more completely but not today.  A stop back at Winsor Dam in the evening produced a Red necked Grebe, a close flyby Merlin and a very interesting bird way out that defied identification.  Elsewhere today I had a partially leucistic American Robin fly past me near the community gardens in Northampton...wish I had had time to go back and look at it a bit more...very cool looking bird with lots of white.

 

As April ends I will take a look at where migration stands at this point and how it compares to the last few years.  This spring has certainly been cool with less than ideal migration conditions so far.  I have only managed to find 149 species so far this year in Hampshire County compared to 167 species at the end of April last year (I only had 130 total species by this date in April in 2012 but I was not trying as hard to maximize species that year).    The number of warbler species seen so far this year total only five while last year at this time I had already tallied 16 species (last year was a very good year!)…2012 featured nine species of warbler by the end of April (I actually had seen three warbler species before the end of March that year!).  What does it all mean?  Basically it means that we have a big influx coming in sometime very soon and my best guess is that day will be either Friday or Saturday. 

 

As an update on the influx of European birds into Newfoundland I'm including a post from Alvan Buckley from the ABA Rare Bird Alert facebook page....really cool stuff!

 

"As the west coast of Newfoundland is now infamously enjoying the stench of several beached and decaying whales, we on the east coast are enjoying hundreds upon hundreds of icebergs and what is one of the largest incursions of Icelandic/European birds to Newfoundland in living memory.
Today the first NORTHERN WHEATEARS were found. 1 in St. Anthony, and 3 in one spot in the East end of St. John's - with 20+ icebergs in view from the same location!!
The count of EUROPEAN GOLDEN-...PLOVERS is currently at 92, the 4 BLACK-TAILED GODWITS continue to be seen in Renews & St. Paul's, and the ROSS'S GULL was in Torbay today for the second day in a row.

Every day continues to outdo the previous day.
Finally, after a 5 and a half month hiatus, Northeast winds are back and Newfoundland is regaining its status as Attu East.
Links to check if you want information ASAP, weather forecasts, and more pictures & insight:"
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/nf.birds
http://alvanbuckley.blogspot.ca
http://brucemactavish1.blogspot.ca
http://birdtherock.com

Overnight rain brings down unusual birds -Black bellied Plovers and Short billed Dowitchers

Winsor Dam near dawn, May 29, 2013

Flock of Black bellied Plovers (I swear!), Winsor Dam, May 29, 2013

As predicted yesterday the rain overnight resulted in some unusual birds around this morning (nice to have one of my bird predictions come true!).  The winds stayed south during the night and the rain moved in overnight putting down some birds.  I heard the rain falling around 4am so I figured it could be good once I got up.  I headed over to Winsor Dam around 5:30 with a light rain still falling but luckily little fog.  As soon as I got to Winsor Dam I thought I heard Black bellied Plovers but scanned around and could not find them.  A couple minutes later I heard the calls again and this time caught sight of a group of about 25 birds in flight.  I had the scope out and got on them fairly quickly and had a total of 28 birds with 26 of them being Black bellied Plovers.  Along with the plovers were two other shorebirds that I originally called just dowitcher species.  The group circled around a couple times before finally disappearing to the north.  As the group flew around the plovers were calling constantly and the dowitchers called a few times (giving a three note call) which turned the ID to Short billed Dowitcher.  I quick grabbed out my phone and tried to get a photo despite the rain.  I managed a couple of out of focus shots of part of the group but nothing you could use to ID the birds.  Tough to get a flock of shorebirds moving by using the phone and a scope but I did give it a try!  These two species added two more species to my Hampshire county list for the year: Black bellied Plover (#209) and Short billed Dowitcher (#210).  This is only the second time I have had Short billed Dowitchers in the county and both times have been at Winsor Dam in May in rainy weather.  Before today I had a group of 32 together land along the dam during a heavy rain on May 17, 2009.  I have never had Black bellied Plover in spring before here but the views I got ruled out anything else.  I tried my best to turn at least a few into golden plovers but couldn’t.  All the plovers were in breeding plumage which made for a great sight as they flew by.   I’m sure there were other unusual birds out there just waiting to be found but with not many people looking and lots of potential spots for the birds to be I didn’t hear of any other reports in the valley.  A bit further east at Bolton Flats a Franklin’s Gull made an appearance so there were indeed other oddities nearby.

Here is yet another example of unusual birds being grounded by the weather in the local area. James Smith had an extremely rare inland Forester's Tern along with two Common Terns in Turners Falls. In addition he had a late Gadwall and flyover Black bellied Plovers and Short billed Dowitchers. Here is his blog post about some amazing birds that morning.  Great stuff James!
http://pioneerbirding.blogspot.com/2013/05/ma-cerulean-warbler-forsters-tern-in.html

The next few days will feature summer like conditions with sun, humidity and heat with temperatures at or above 90.

 

 

Rainy Saturday

White-tailed Deer, Quabbin HQ building, June 2, 2012

White-tailed Deer, Quabbin HQ building, June 2, 2012

White-tailed Deer, Quabbin HQ building, June 2, 2012

Quabbin from HQ building camera, June 2, 2012

Today was an all day rainy day.  At times it would pour and other times be reduced to a drizzle.  The temperatures stayed in the 50's for most of the day with a steady east wind.  Given the conditions I made numerous trips over to Quabbin to see if the weather grounded any birds or moved any in from the east.  No big surprises as far as birds were concerned just the usual suspects here such as Bald Eagle, Common Loon and three species of swallows plus others.  One odd sighting was a White-tailed Deer that appeared directly out in front of the HQ building in the middle of the afternoon and walked along the edge before jumping into the water and swimming the 50 feet or so to the other shore.  Despite all the deer in this area I had never seen a deer in this particular spot before.