MA - Eastern Palm Warbler

(Eastern) Palm Warbler - Riverview Drive, Gill, Franklin Co., MA. April 9th, 2015.

Lovely bright male and my first local warbler of the year.

It wasn't much fun to wake up and find a 1/2 inch of fresh snow accumulation this morning. Early migrants much have shivered (or worse) but by the end of the day I'd noted some good diversity in our area with a nice bright eastern Palm Warbler leading the way. It was also a great day for sparrows with singing Fox Sparrows at Barton Cove and Pine Meadow Road (2), and the first Swamp and Savannah Sparrows of the spring. Indeed, Pine Meadow Road in Northfield proved to be today's sweet spot with Snow Goose, Northern Harrier (male) and Rusty Blackbird in addition to the sparrows mentioned above. By late afternoon, with temperatures rising to a balmy 35 deg F, some 20 Tree Swallows and 2 Northern Rough-winged Swallows were hawking above Barton Cove with an additional 10 Tree Swallows above the Turner's Falls power canal.

Swamp Sparrow - Riverview Drive, Gill, Franklin Co., MA. April 9th, 2015.

Savannah Sparrow - Pine Meadow Road, Northfield, Franklin Co., MA. April 9th, 2015.
At least 6 feeding close to each other in this muddy, snow covered pasture.

American Robins - Pine Meadow Road, Northfield, Franklin Co., MA. April 9th, 2015.
Still huge numbers of robins in the Gill/Northfield area.

Northern Harrier (male) - Pine Meadow Road, Northfield, Franklin Co., MA. April 9th, 2015.

Killdeer - Barton Cove, Gill, Franklin Co., MA. April 9th, 2015.

Snow Goose (imm) - Pine Meadow Road, Northfield, Franklin Co., MA. April 9th, 2015.

The open water at Barton Cove, Gill remains full of diving ducks though a drake Northern Pintail was the only obvious new bird there today.