a brighter day - Greater Yellowlegs, Caspian Tern and a range of new migrants arrive in Gill.

Caspian Tern - Barton Cove, Gill, Franklin Co., MA. April 26th, 2020.

Found by Josh Layfield and very much a 'classic' date for this scarce but regular Franklin County migrant. 

April 25th was a warm day with clear skies and temperatures peaking in the low sixties evidently allowing good numbers of migrants to filter northwards. A whole host of brand new birds arrived in Gill this morning (the 26th) and the day began in the nicest possible way with a Greater Yellowlegs wading around a small roadside puddle off Main Road. That was quickly followed by a bevy of newly arrived migrants on North Cross Road; Blue-headed Vireo, House Wren, Black-throated Green Warbler, Veery (2) and Eastern Towhee (2). Both of the Veeries were feeding at the roadside and not in song. I don't actually expect to hear Veery song locally until about May 5th/6th. Also, rather intriguingly, I heard one clear burst of a Cerulean Warbler type song though when I returned to the spot with bins and camera I couldn't help but wonder if it was actually a Brown Thrasher mimicking song fragments of a Cerulean Warbler? The thrasher certainly gave a perfect rendition of Eastern Whip-poor-will whilst I was standing there. Either way, I was unable to follow-up on the song burst that I'd heard and decided to leave it unidentified and, although it seems quite early for Cerulean Warbler in the Pioneer Valley, the local breeding birds will be back on territory in just over a week or so.

Greater Yellowlegs - Gill, Franklin Co., MA. April 26th, 2020.

Horned Grebes - Barton Cove, Gill, Franklin Co., MA. April 26th, 2020.

The rest of the morning continued to be productive as we went for a family walk around Barton Cove Nature Trail. Pine Warblers (10+) and Blue-gray Gnatcatchers (8) were the most frequent small migrants but we also had a smattering of Yellow-rumped Warblers and Ruby-crowned Kinglets, and a single (yellow) Palm Warbler. On the  cove itself Ring-billed Gulls increased from 11 to 16 birds whilst we were there and four Horned Grebes in breeding plumage hugged the Turner's Falls shoreline but were visible from Barton Cove campground.

Pine Warbler (male) - Barton Cove, Gill, Franklin Co., MA. April 26th, 2020.

Around 12:30 pm a Caspian Tern dropped into Barton Cove found by Josh Layfield, pretty remarkable since we'd been checking the same spot from Riverview Drive only twenty minutes earlier! Thanks to Josh's timely text we were able to get over to Riverview Drive pretty quickly and enjoyed views of the magnificent beast careening all over the cove, fishing, bathing, preening and eventually circling high up over the water spending quite some time in the air before gaining more height and disappearing northwards. Surprisingly to us, it did not depart upriver but appeared, or at least as much as we could tell, to choose an overland route and head straight north at about 13:10 hours - absolutely fascinating to watch! It was certainly neat to wrap up a migration filled morning with something as impressive a migrant Caspian Tern and thanks again to Josh for his timely alert.

Caspian Tern - Barton Cove, Gill, Franklin Co., MA. April 26th, 2020. 

Departing high to the north over Riverview Drive. 

Barton Cove, Gill, Franklin Co., MA. April 26th, 2020.

From Barton Cove Nature Trail. 

By early evening the Double-crested Cormorants at Barton Cove had increased from 4 to 21 and the Ring-billed Gulls (16), all of which appeared to be second-cycle birds, remained. 

MI - Warblers in Spring Part II

Kirtland's Warbler - male, Grayling, Crawford Co., MI. May 16th, 2019.

After six brilliant days in Ohio birding along the Lake Erie shore, it was time to head north-west and focus on some of the breeding in birds in central-north Michigan. Passing through Jackson County, we couldn't resist trying another site for Henlsow's Sparrows followed by a mid-morning visit to some surrounding Oak woodlands. Here we found our only Cerulean Warblers and Acadian Flycatchers of the trip along with a singing male Golden-winged Warbler, and several Hooded Warblers and Yellow-throated Vireos. By the afternoon, we'd already reached Grayling where we lucky enough to watch numerous singing Kirtland's Warblers showing superbly well in the evening sunlight.

Kirtland's Warbler - male, Grayling, Crawford Co., MI. May 16th, 2019.

Cerulean Warbler - Jackson Co., MI. May 16th, 2019.

Cerulean Warbler (female) - Jackson Co., MI. May 16th, 2019.

Henslow's Sparrow - Jackson Co., MI. May 16th, 2019.

North American Porcupine - Grayling, Crawford Co., MI. May 16th, 2019.

MA - Northfield warblers including late Cerulean, plus a Yellow-billed Cuckoo!

Cape May Warbler - Pine Meadow Road, Northfield, Franklin Co., MA. September 28th, 2018. 

Chestnut-sided Warbler - Pine Meadow Road, Northfield, Franklin Co., MA. September 28th, 2018. 

Yellow-billed Cuckoo - Pine Meadow Road, Northfield, Franklin Co., MA. September 29th, 2018. 

Image appears courtesy of Josh Layfield.

The last days of September have been peppered with some relatively high quality birding, most of which I've managed to find within a few miles of our home in Northfield. Almost every roadside stop provided a feeding flock of some description, mostly consisting of fast moving warblers and vireos but with increasingly large numbers of sparrows. It's been especially satisfying to find 'sweet spots' within two or three miles of the house, keeping drive time to a minimum and maximizing the time that I have in the field. I love this time of year. There's so much to see and there's the ever present chance of finding a decent rarity whether it be locally rare or something from a little further afield. 

Blue-headed Vireo - Pine Meadow Road, Northfield, Franklin Co., MA. September 28th, 2018. 

The morning of the 28th dawned with heavy rain and fog, and the air was already heavy with the calls of migrant warblers. When the weather finally started to break-up around mid-morning I found myself watching an especially compelling feeding flock on Pine Meadow Road, Northfield. The most obvious migrants were Blackpoll, Cape May and Yellow-rumped Warblers, along with White-throated, Swamp and Song Sparrows. I hadn't been there long when a particularly hard, penetrating 'chip' call turned my head and a bright,  'aqua-marine' colored warbler past no more than a few feet away and landed in a nearby oak - "Cerulean!!....surely?!". The overall color fields blew me away and I'd never seen anything like it on a fall warbler in our area. It then flew across the road to join other feeding warblers, confirming my impression of the aqua-marine coloration seen on the first flight view - I wasn't seeing things after all! Distractions started to abound, the subject tree was full of warblers and getting onto the right bird in bad light proved impossible. Moreover, it was still raining quite heavily and I was concerned about getting damp inside my camera. At that point the same bird left 'the warbler tree' and gave prolonged flight views as it flew across a paddock and landed in some Alders giving more hard, penetrating 'chip' calls. I was certain of the ID and waited in the area for a further thirty or so minutes but never had another glimpse. While it was most certainly frustrating not to get any kind of record shot, I was also extremely happy with the field views that I'd had and felt comfortable with the ID. Pine Meadow Road turned out to be a real 'sweet spot' and as I waited for the Cerulean Warbler to reappear I came across many more excellent species including Cape May (5), Chestnut-sided and Tennessee Warblers.

The following day (Sep 29th) birders hoping to relocate the Cerulean Warbler came across a Yellow-billed Cuckoo with Josh Layfield capturing some nice record shots. In the meantime, I had a typically brief and frustrating experience with a Connecticut Warbler down in the Deerfield Meadows where I also found two late Yellow Warblers and a nice fly-over flock of 27 migrating Double-crested Cormorants. 

Yellow Warbler - Deerfield Meadows, Old Deerfield, Franklin Co., MA. September 29th, 2018. 

The 30th saw a huge arrival of sparrows at Gill Elementary School, mostly White-throated, Song and Swamp Sparrows but also a locally notable tally of at least 12 Lincoln's Sparrows. 

Lincoln's Sparrow - Gill Elementary School, Franklin Co., MA. September 30th, 2018.  

Black-throated Green Wabler - Gill Elementary School, Franklin Co., MA. September 30th, 2018.  

MA - Cerulean Warbler, Forster's Tern in Gill 05/29

After dropping Matan off at school I decided to have a quick spin around Gill, driving with the windows down as I often do at this time of year. The reward was hearing a fine male Cerulean Warbler holding territory at a private residence right next to one of the busiest roads in Gill! At one point I saw the male carrying food, perhaps suggesting breeding activity. By way of documentation, I obtained some nice sound recordings of the male's song and a couple of images, but for most of the observation the bird remained high in the canopy. Cerulean is something of a rarity for me in the Pioneer Valley and this is the first that I've recorded in Gill.

Cerulean Warbler - male in Gill, Franklin Co., MA. May 29th, 2013.

Canon Powershot G10.

Down at Barton Cove the heavy overnight rain and dull drizzly conditions certainly seemed to have had an impact and produced one of the best collections of birds that I've ever seen there in spring. In fact, by recent standards the birds present provided a near-miraculous hour of birding! First to catch my attention was a migrant Common Loon. Closer inspection of the cove also produced a lone drake Gadwall which seemed odd for late May. An excellent selection of swallows hawked over the water composed mainly of Bank, North Rough-winged and Tree Swallows but also some Barn and a single Cliff Swallow. Although distant, the island across from the boat ramp had enough exposed shoreline to host 22 Semi-palmated and 3 Least Sandpipers, along with a single Semi-palmated Plover as the well as the local breeding Spotted Sandpipers. I also heard one or more of Black-bellied Plover(s) and Short-billed Dowitcher(s) fly over but had no chance of seeing them in the murky skies.

 Common Loon - Barton Cove, Gill, Franklin Co., MA. May 29th, 2013.



Semi-palmated and Least Sandpipers - Barton Cove, Gill, Franklin Co., MA. May 29th, 2013.

At about 09:45hrs, three terns arrived from the south and began calling and foraging around the cove. Two were fairly clear adult Common Terns but one looked much paler winged. Initial thoughts towards Arctic were soon dismissed as the bird looked large with a substantial orange-red bill that had a well defined black tip. Viewing conditions were far from easy and it wasn't until all three birds settled on a floating tire that I became 100% sure that I was looking at an adult Forster's Tern. Moreover, recent experience from Ohio proved invaluable in helping separate Common from Forster's, an identification which I don't find particularly easy in adult breeding plumage. But.......Forster's Tern is certainly a first for me in Gill - on reflection I don't recall ever hearing about a Forster's Tern in the Pioneer Valley since we first moved to Amherst back in 2005.

Forster's Tern - adult with Common Terns, Barton Cove, Gill, Franklin Co., MA. May 29th, 2013.

In each of the three shots above, the Forster's is the larger, paler bird with pale primaries on the right side of the tire.

Digi-scoped at range using a Swarovski HD scope and Canon Powershot G10.

Forster's Tern - adult, Barton Cove, Gill, Franklin Co., MA. May 29th, 2013.







Warblers and more - Hampshire Co., May 8th

Well things are certainly moving along. Only two days ago I noted my first Black-throated Blue Warbler of the spring, but today I heard multiples, and Susannah even had one singing in front of our apartment. After a couple of clear spring-like days, the rain bearing front that passed through Massachusetts overnight and into the day certainly left a lot of birds behind, and most of them were warblers.

On the bike path at Amherst near Snell Street, a high feeding warbler flock contained some nice diversity including Blackpoll, Black-and-white, Black-throated Blue, Black-throated Green, Blackburnian, and Yellow-rumped Warblers, along with 10 plus Northern Parulas and a couple of Red-eyed Vireos. Great-crested and Least Flycatchers were present as well, and a Blue-winged Warbler sang from classic habitat further along the bike path. On short side trip to Skinner State Park on Mount Holyoke was most productive turning up the two 'hoped-for' key warblers, both of which were singing vigorously despite the gloomy conditions. The Ceruleans were most impressive with a total five seen or heard singing, including two males close to the upper parking area. Lower down the slopes, three or four Worm-eating Warblers were audible including one that gave great views close to the road. About three Hermit Thrushes could be heard singing at this site too. Black flies are on the increase but it's still an absolute pleasure to be out.

Select images from the last few days are included below.


JPS.


Magnolia Warbler - male, Winsor Dam, Quabbin, May 7th.


Pileated Woodpecker - Amherst Bike Path, Amherst. May 8th.




Cerulean Warbler - Skinner SP, Mt. Holyoke. May 8th. One of five at this site.

Worm-eating Warbler - Skinner SP, Mt. Holyoke. May 8th.

Northern Saw-whet Owl - Adult at nest. Hampshire County, MA. May 2008.