Red-eyed Vireo - N. Whitney Street in late October.
This vireo suddenly appeared in the trees behind our rear balcony in the middle of the afternoon. It was a Red-eyed with a fairly nasty growth on its left cheek which in this shot appears a bit like an orange cheek patch. After a bit of a scramble for bins and camera, I just got this one very poor record shot taken through Leica 8 x 32 bins. I've Blue-headed Vireo as late as this, but this maybe my latest Red-eyed in MA?
Bald Eagle - juvenile, Barton Cove, Turner's Falls.
American Pipit - Hatfield, over 100 today.
American Tree Sparrow - Hatfield.
Vesper Sparrow - Hatfield.

Bufflehead - Turner's Falls Power Canal. Tough day, well relatively tough. Most of today's best birds were either too distant or too skittish to entertain thoughts of digiscoping, and a strong, raw Westerly wind probably didn't help. I spent much of the day working sites along the Connecticut River between Hatfield and Gill. Birds were fewer in volume than in recent visits to Hatfield with a notable drop in sparrow numbers, perhaps with the possible exception of Song Sparrow. Geese were hard to come by, or at least settled geese that I could scan through. Hunters have been about this week and geese have become increasingly skittish.
The first snow flurries, American Tree Sparrows and Buffleheads of the fall all appeared today! Notables included c.160 Brant moving south at speed well West of Hatfield, 2 Wilson's Snipe, 98 Horned Larks moving south in three flocks, 105 American Pipits on rough pasture at Hatfield, 3 American Tree Sparrows, Vesper and Grasshopper Sparrows at Hatfield, 3 drake Bufflehead at Turner's Falls and an incredibly naive Bald Eagle at Barton Cove. Also, a noteworthy migration of about 700 American Robins and 60 Pine Siskins over Hatfield as well.
Images - Just a reminder that all of the images on this blog can be enlarged by a single click on each picture.
Field Sparrow - one of three at Hatfield.
White-crowned Sparrows - About nine at Hatfield today.

Vesper Sparrows - an impressive seven birds at Hatfield.

'Red' Fox Sparrows - First of season with about 3 present.
The first Fox Sparrows of the fall appeared this morning with about 3 birds along the hedgerows near Great Pond. Actually, it ended up being an excellent morning for sparrows in general with about 9 White-crowned, 7 Vesper and 3 Field Sparrows. Still hundreds of Savannahs, Swamp, Song and White-throated Sparrows around with slightly fewer Chipping Sparrows. Also, well over thirty Northern Cardinals.
Other birds of note today, in addition to the Cackling Goose, an adult tundrius Peregrine, Northern Harrier, 25+ American Pipits, 5+ Snow Buntings, 20 Eastern Bluebirds, 600 American Robins and about 1,000 Red-winged Blackbirds. Warblers definitely thinning out with only Yellow-rumped seen this morning, not that I was working especially hard for them. No shorebirds of any kind noted, but otherwise a very productive morning.





Presumed 'Richardson's Cackling Goose - In each image the Cackling Goose is second from the left. Useful pointers include the tiny size, rather pale breast and underparts, plus more importantly, the eye catching broad white-cheek patch and short black neck sock.
Another busy morning in Hatfield. Lots of activity, especially amongst sparrows, but I think the highlight would have to be this flyover 'Richardson's' Cackling Goose heading South with just six Canada Geese at 09:38 am. Strikingly small and identifiable as a Cackler with the naked eye, thus allowing me to get the camera ready for digibin shots before it had gone through. Luckily, this was the closest group of geese that I'd had all morning with 250-300 Canada Geese moving South-west from sunrise onwards, but none of them especially close. Some of these settled to feed somewhere West of Hatfield though I didn't chase them down. The group containing the Cackler however, headed due South showing no interest in feeding and behaved as if in migration. We shall see what the next few days bring. All in all, very cool to see this one flying over recalling this flyover from nearby Hadley in Nov 2006.

White-rumped Sandpiper - molting juvenile, Avalon, Cape May. Hand held digibin shots using Canon Powersot A560 through Leica 8 x 42 binoculars.
Avalon beach and seawall with shorebirds sheltering from the North-eastern wind in the foregroundWe got a rather late start this morning but decided to try for Hidden Valley, part of Higbee Beach WMA. It was clearly much colder than the previous days with a strong North-eastern wind making birdfinding difficult. We had a few birds of interest (Wood Duck, Eastern Meadowlark, several Blackpoll Warblers and White-crowned Sparrows) but gave up in the conditions and headed north to the Avalon seawatch.
Black and Surf Scoters migrating south at Avalon, Cape May - thousands poured southwards all day.
The decision was a wise one. When we arrived the seawatch point was well represented with birders and stream upon stream of dark-winged scoters (all Black and Surf) poured past. Outside of the scoters, variety was rather limited with a handful of Northern Gannets plus a few dabbling ducks, mostly Green-winged Teal and Northern Pintail, passing with the scoters along with a single Greater Scaup. After an hour, I had a walk along the seawall with Matan and a found nice flock of shorebirds sheltering from the wind. The flock included a few Western and Semi-palmated Sandpipers and a single juvenile White-rumped Sandpiper. Just before we left an exhausted Blackpoll Warbler turned up in a tiny group of pines by the seawatch station with a Brown Creeper in the same pines just a few minutes later to add a touch of the bizarre!
Blackpoll Warbler - exhausted migrant next to the Seawatch point at Avalon.
Later I returned to the Avalon seawatch to find an even bigger group of birders, and the scoter migration continuing unabated. The migration included slightly more variety later in the afternoon with Common and Red-throated Loons, Brants and several large mixed flocks of Great and Snowy Egrets passing high overhead. The day ended on a high when a sub-adult male King Eider flew past alone just before 6pm. What was almost certainly the same bird was found off Cape May the very next day and featured in this post on Cape May Bird Observatory's website.
Birders gathered at the Avalon Seawatch, Cape May.
Today's scoter migration really was a spectacle which we felt privileged to witness. Although I haven't see the official totals from the day, I would guess that something in the region of 80,000 dark-winged Scoters passed the Avalon seawatch on October 18th.
Purple Sandpiper - on the jetty in front of the Seawatch point, Avalon, Cape May.