The first week of July had a very tropical like feel with the first few days featuring multiple bouts of heavy rain and humid conditions and then the last few days bringing drier, hotter conditions with temps in the 90's. I only managed to get out a few mornings due to the weather and work. As expected there are lots of fledgling songbirds around. I started off the month with a few stops on my way to work on a gloomy morning adding some species to start the month with the most notable being the continued Soras and Blue Grosbeak in different parts of Hadley. It was raining again on the second and I was limited to very short walks so not much to add for the month beyond some largely expected species. As usual warblers figured prominently in my birding days and a post detailing the warblers for the week can be found at the following link).
On the third I had a rare day when I had the entire morning off but of course rained even more...when it was not raining it was instead raining heavily. I got soaked making a few short walks and didn't turn up anything unusual for the effort.
I had to work on the holiday but still managed a short hike at Pines Edge Conservation Area where the mosquitoes were fierce. The small Great Blue Heron rookery at the marsh was mostly vacated by the young herons but one nest still had two nestlings in it.
The fifth ended up being the beginning of a heat wave with sunny conditions and temps around 90 by the middle of the day (with high humidity). After work and with a little bit of low clouds and fog I headed across the river and spent about an hour and a half at Skinner SP hiking to the summit and back. I was mainly trying to catch up with some species that are tough to get elsewhere in the county for July (like Cerulean Warbler, Worm eating Warbler and Dark eyed Junco) and I got them all. The Cerulean Warblers were still quite vocal with a few singing fairly regularly. I had some great views at various fledglings and a few allowed me to get a few photos. I also reached a bit of a milestone with the submission of my 45,000th complete eBird checklist with the hike at Skinner SP.
On my way to work on the sixth I made another trip to Pines Edge Conservation Area and fought through the mosquitoes and other insects to make it out to the marsh. Oddly I had more young Great Blue Herons back at their nest sites. A nest that was empty a few days ago featured two juveniles back in so I suspect they return to the nest on occasion to try to get fed again...smart.
After work this morning I headed up to Williamsburg and then onto Great Pond in Hatfield before heading home. It was a bit foggy to start but eventually the fog burned off and the temps quickly heated up. I added a few new species for the month including at least one Least Bittern and a few Marsh Wrens at Great Pond. The new species for the day brought my total for the first week of the month in Hampshire County up to a respectable 123 species...not recording setting but above normal for the first week in July here.
I also checked the game camera again along the Jabish Brook at the house and I captured some good stuff including half a dozen species of mammals and my first ever owl (a Great Horned Owl to be exact).
Now for an update on the Wilson following his surgery four weeks ago. We had a follow up appointment a couple days ago and all looks good. He has lost a bit of muscle mass in his leg and we will be working on exercises and progressively longer walks to build it back up. During the appointment he had a laser treatment and had to wear some goggles and he surprisingly had no issues with them and looked so damn cool with them on!
