Arcadia meadows early AM



Lincoln's Sparrow, Arcadia

White crowned Sparrow adult, Arcadia

Palm Warbler, Arcadia

I made a brief stop by the Arcadia meadows before going into work today.  Despite my limited time I still managed to see some good stuff.  I covered a couple of field edges, a small part of the old trolley line and the edge of the Ibis Pool.  The sparrows have certainly arrived in numbers.  Although the numbers will certainly build a bit more it was still impressive.  I'm certain there are some oddities down there but the area is large, my time was short and the traffic through there gets heavier as the morning goes on.  I had a total of seven species of sparrow with Song, White-throated and Savannah predominating.  Only two species of warbler could be found down there today with yellow-rumps appearing to be everywhere, but not being very cooperative for photos.  The Palm Warblers were much more in the open.  A couple of Eastern Bluebirds made repeated swipes at each other and I managed to capture them once with a photo.  A couple of usually active spots were quiet as a Sharp-shinned Hawk worked its way along one of the field edges.  The weather started out cool with a little fog but warmed up as I was leaving.  The temperature today eventually topped off in the low 70's.

Eastern Bluebirds sparring

Palm Warbler (eastern) with some debris on its beak

Short eared Owl and sparrows in western Mass

Short eared Owl, Honey Pot, Hadley, MA October 11, 2010
Short eared Owl, Honey Pot, Hadley, MA October 11, 2010

I spent the morning of Columbus Day checking various areas for sparrows and other late migrants. Although the total numbers of birds were down slightly there are still a lot of birds around. The highlight of the morning was a Short eared Owl I flushed from just off the road at the Honeypot in Hadley in mid morning. I spent the first couple hours of the day at Arcadia Meadows and then briefly onto Aqua Vitae Road in Hadley and then over to the Honeypot. I managed a total of nine species of sparrows with the best being Vesper and Field. Many other nice birds such as Eastern Meadowlark, lots of Yellow rumped Warblers, various raptors with some very active Sharp shinned Hawks.

Swamp Sparrow, Honey Pot-Hadley, MA October 11, 2010

Vesper Sparrow, Honey Pot -Hadley, MA October 11, 2010

Savannah Sparrow, Arcadia Meadows, October 11, 2010

Yellow rumped Warbler, Arcadia Meadows, October 11, 2010

Arcadia meadows at dawn

Eastern Towhee

I made a trip over to Arcadia Meadows starting at dawn, staying for a bit under two hours. The north winds of last night cleared out many warblers and vireos but brought in many sparrows. I only had a limited time to explore this large area and missed many spots but still had large numbers of various species. The day started off with at least five American Woodcocks flying around and calling at dawn. It was more like a spring morning then a fall one. An Eastern Screech Owl calling back to me was the next exciting event. Now for the sparrows. Here is a list of sparrows and grassland birds for the morning and the numbers are minimums.

Eastern Towhee 1
Savannah Sparrow 76 minimum count
Song Sparrow 102 minimum count, likely many, many more
Lincoln's Sparrow 2
Swamp Sparrow 8
White-throated Sparrow 44
White-crowned Sparrow 7 no adults
Bobolink 5


Also had some raptor activity with a Bald Eagle, Kestrel, at least three Cooper's and at least two Northern Harriers.

Although many warblers have moved on I still managed seven species for the morning.

Northern Parula 1
Magnolia Warbler 2
Yellow-rumped Warbler 3
Palm Warbler 8
Blackpoll Warbler 5
Black-and-white Warbler 1
Common Yellowthroat 13