Late October often brings a really good, memorable bird to the Pioneer Valley and this year was no exception gifting a Purple Gallinule to the Fannie Stebbins Refuge at Longmeadow Flats. This fascinating record first came to light when Jean Langevin drew attention to it via Facebook on the Western Mass Photographers page. Though aloof at times it lingered for the best part of a week at one of the most heavily used public spots on the refuge allowing dozens of birders to catch up with this genuinely rare bird for the Pioneer Valley. It was juvenile much like a previous record from the same location and on remarkably similar dates, October 24th and 25th, 1978! I don't do a lot of bird chasing to the lower Pioneer Valley but the gallinule had some appeal and I managed to squeeze in ten minutes with the bird at the public gazebo on Pondside Road on October 25th. Having seen quite a few Purple Gallinules over the years, most recently on visits to Central America, I don't recall any of those birds being quite so fearless and showy as this smart, personable juvenile - I'm glad I made the trip!
Over the years we've had late October vagrants from all the points of the compass, some being state level rarities while others occur annually in coastal Massachusetts but are notably rare in the interior part of the state, for example the Purple Sandpiper found by Ted Gilliland at Holyoke Dam on Oct 30th, 2020. From the far west, the Pacific-slope Flycatcher in Hadley stood out as being exceptional. First found by Joe Olivero on Oct 23rd, 2019, this bright empid was courteous enough to stick around for over a month allowing hundreds of birders to catch up with an exciting state first. Another obliging flycatcher, a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, was found by Jeff Johnstone on Oct 22nd, 2009 at Orange Airport and stayed for several days to the delight of many, including me! And October 26th, 2011 brought a Pink-footed Goose to Turner's Falls. At the time it was only the fourth state record but of course that species has become much more frequent in Massachusetts since.
Pacific-slope Flycatcher - Huntington Road, Hadley, Hampshire Co., MA. Nov 2019.
New to Massachusetts found by Joe Olivero on Oct 23rd, 2019.
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher - Orange Airport, Franklin Co., MA. October 22nd, 2009.
Pink-footed Goose - Turner's Falls Power Canal, Franklin Co., MA. October 26th, 2011.
The fourth record for Massachusetts.
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