Pioneer Birding: MA - October first week

Saturday, October 7, 2017

MA - October first week

Cape May Warbler - Northfield Meadows, Franklin Co., MA. October 3rd, 2017.

October opened with an incredibly mild first week. Calm, foggy mornings would give way to beautiful warm, sunny autumnal days with winds usually in the southern quarter. The general Turner's Falls area was pretty quiet, at least for waterfowl, with a pair of Northern Pintail on Oct 6th being the only ducks of note that I could find plus up to 850 Canada Geese at the power canal, though again nothing unusual among them.

Cape May Warbler - Northfield Meadows, Franklin Co., MA. October 3rd, 2017.

But the week did provide some nice 'pocket's of late warblers and vireos, and ever increasing numbers of sparrows in the fields around Northfield, Gill and Montague. Aside from the usually obvious Yellow-rumped (Myrtle) Warblers I tend to struggle to find warblers locally in fall, but October 3rd stood out as being notably different when I found no less than six Cape May Warblers at Northfield Meadows in mid-morning. On a personal level, I only very rarely encounter Cape May Warblers in Franklin County (spring or fall) so to have six close together, including at least one adult male was completely unexpected. More warblers seen that morning included a Tennessee, a Wilson's, 3 Blackpoll and 22 Yellow-rumped (Myrtle) Warblers with a further 7 Blackpoll and a Black-throated Green feeding in the birches at our home in Northfield around noon. With them came the first major 'pulse' of Ruby-crowned Kinglets with at least 12 in Northfield Meadows.

TennesseeWarbler - Northfield Meadows, Franklin Co., MA. October 3rd, 2017.

Red-eyed Vireo - Northfield Meadows, Franklin Co., MA. October 3rd, 2017.

Ruby-crowned Kinglet - Northfield Meadows, Franklin Co., MA. October 3rd, 2017.

Rusty Blackbirds - also started to appear with 4 together at Arcadia Meadows, Easthampton on the 2nd and 5 together on Ben Hale Road, Gill on the 5th.