Pioneer Birding: MA - Yellow-bellied Flycatcher

Friday, September 6, 2013

MA - Yellow-bellied Flycatcher

This morning (09/06) brought a welcome change to Gill with a much cooler start than of late. At 8am temperatures still hadn't risen above 40 deg F providing a refreshing change after seemingly endless weeks of humidity. The weather also brought some 'refreshing' birds to our yard in Gill, most notably a calling Yellow-bellied Flycatcher which vocalized for about 10 minutes around 8am - a new yard bird for us. Around 9am an Evening Grosbeak spent some time calling from the tall Sugar Maples above the house before moving on. For my money, this remains an extremely scarce and aloof species in our area, and I think this was just the third observation in our yard since September 2010. The morning also produced the first House Wren in a while along with regulars such as Gray Catbirds (6), Common Yellowthroat (3), Ruby-throated Hummingbird (1) and a Willow/Alder Flycatcher.

House Wren - Gill yard, Franklin Co., MA. September 6th, 2013.

In the general area, vireos continue to sing and yesterday (09/05) I once again the heard the long staying Yellow-throated Vireo singing close to the intersection of Main and South Cross Road in Gill. There was also Yellow-throated Vireo singing along the Connecticut River in Northfield on September 2nd, just north of the Rt 10 bridge where there was also a singing Warbling Vireo, and there was a singing Warbling Vireo in our yard on September 3rd.

Fairly major overnight thunderstorms on September 2nd inspired a visit to the sod fields in Northfield on Pine Meadow Road which this time produced a handful of newly arrived shorebirds including 9 Killdeer, 2 Semi-palmated Plovers and about 5 Least Sandpipers. In mid-morning, the Killdeers and Least Sandpipers just picked up and left for no obvious reason leaving the Semi-palmated Plovers behind.