MA - a little more from Northfield

 

Red-eyed Vireo - Caldwell Road, Northfield, Franklin Co., MA. September 19th, 2021.

It's late September and the last few days have seen glorious autumnal days and cool, refreshingly comfortable nights. But the mostly stable air has allowed many migrants to pass through our area uninterrupted and this morning in particular there was a small but notable visible migration of southbound warblers along the Connecticut River in Northfield. Most were Blackpoll and Yellow-rumped Warblers but I was also able to pick out a couple of Tennessee Warblers and a single Nashville Warbler. Even better, I tallied my 7th Connecticut Warbler of the month when a single flew over giving buzzy 'zeet' flight calls before landing at the edge of a belt of deciduous trees and giving a loud, emphatic 'pwik' call, difficult to describe but distinctive once learned. Unfortunately, this particular Connecticut Warbler got away without being documented but I was very comfortable with what I heard, comfortable enough in fact to add it to the six I've already seen and heard in the Caldwell Road fields in September; photos and audio of two, plus audio of at least two more unseen, and three others heard well enough to be certain but simply too fast to be recorded. However, I do get the impression that we're well past the peak for Connecticut Warblers and this morning's bird was my first since the well photographed bird on Sep 16th.  The middle part of the month did host a very good showing of fairly late Yellow Warblers with five still present on the 19th. 

Yellow Warbler - Caldwell Road, Northfield, Franklin Co., MA. September 19th, 2021.

Yellow Warbler - Caldwell Road, Northfield, Franklin Co., MA. September 19th, 2021.

Blue-headed Vireo - Caldwell Road, Northfield, Franklin Co., MA. September 21st, 2021.

Red-eyed Vireos have certainly been present and passing through in numbers, often in tight flocks of 3 - 4 birds but I've yet to have any luck with a Philadelphia Vireo this fall. 

While the warbler numbers may have been dwindling we are in the midst of several major waves of White-throated Sparrows, the first of which occurred on Sep 19th with 80-100 in the fields around Caldwell Road. With them have come modest numbers of Savannah, Swamp and Lincoln's Sparrows though today (Sep 27th) saw a major incursion of migrant Song Sparrows as well. Meanwhile, I did hear and sound record a lonely Dickcissel on North Cross Road, Gill on Sep 17th but decided against entering the cornfield where is was feeding to try for photos. Dickcissel is a pretty scarce migrant in Franklin County but September is probable the single most productive month to find them. 

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 - October, third week.

It's been a slightly chaotic week as we're in the middle of moving house, so lots of disruption and poor/non-existent access to the internet. Hopefully I can get back into the swing of more regular updates, especially since there's been plenty of action in the field with more to come. Here's some images from the week Oct 17th - 23rd. They were all taken in the Connecticut River Valley between Turner's Falls and Northfield.

Blue-headed Vireo - Turner's Falls power canal, Franklin Co., MA. October 21st, 2014. 

Common Yellowthroat - Northfield Meadows, Northfield, Franklin Co., MA. October 17th, 2014. 

Yellow-rumped Warbler - Turner's Falls power canal, Franklin Co., MA. October 21st, 2014. 

(Eastern) Palm Warbler - Turner's Falls power canal, Franklin Co., MA. October 21st, 2014. 

(Eastern) Palm Warbler - Northfield Meadows, Northfield, Franklin Co., MA. October 17th, 2014. 

American Goldfinch and (Western) Palm Warbler - Northfield Meadows, Northfield,  Franklin Co., MA. October 17th, 2014. 

Savannah and White-crowned Sparrows - Northfield Meadows, Northfield,  Franklin Co., MA. October 17th, 2014. 

Vesper Sparrow - Northfield Meadows, Northfield,  Franklin Co., MA. October 17th, 2014. 

Song Sparrow - Northfield Meadows, Northfield,  Franklin Co., MA. October 17th, 2014. 

Snow Goose - Turner's Falls power canal, Franklin Co., MA. October 20th, 2014. 

Lincoln's Sparrow - Northfield Meadows, Northfield, Franklin Co., MA. October 17th, 2014. 

Pine Siskin - Turner's Falls power canal, Franklin Co., MA. October 21st, 2014. 

Ruddy Duck - Turner's Falls power canal, Franklin Co., MA. October 21st, 2014. 

Ruddy Duck - Turner's Falls power canal, Franklin Co., MA. October 20th, 2014. 

Pileated Woodpecker - Northfield Meadows, Northfield, Franklin Co., MA. October 17th, 2014. 

Riverview Drive, Gill, Franklin Co., MA. October 21st, 2014. 

Ruby-crowed Kinglet - Turner's Falls power canal, Franklin Co., MA. October 21st, 2014. 

Hadley migrants - Sept 28th.

Blue-headed Vireo - Moody Bridge Road, Hadley.


Black-and-White Warbler - Moody Bridge Road, Hadley.


Black-throated Green Warbler - Moody Bridge Road, Hadley.


Departed late this morning and without any real plan. What a muggy morning it was too with complete cloud cover, high humidity and an abundance of mosquitoes - it really felt more like late July than late September. Eventually found a few migrants down on Moody Bridge road in Hadley, but I had to work for them. Perhaps the best would have been a single Swainson's Thrush, but also of note were 3 Blue-headed Vireo, 2 Red-eyed Vireo, 2 Northern Parula, 3 American Redstart, 5 Yellow-rumped Warbler, 2 'Eastern' Palm Warbler, 2 Black-throated Green Warbler and a single Magnolia Warbler.

A little closer to the Connecticut River, the corn fields along the Aqua Vitae road were much better and actually quite busy with sparrows, mostly Savannah and Song Sparrows, but several Swamp and a single Lincoln's. At least 15 Indigo Buntings and 5 'Eastern' Palm Warblers were present as well. A most impressive flock of 6,000 Red-winged Blackbirds lurked in the tall trees lining the river. Raptors attracted to all this activity featured a juvenile Peregrine (probably tundrius), a Merlin, a Cooper's Hawk, and two migrant Ospreys drifted south together around noon.

Closer to home, a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker was on N. Whitney Street in late afternoon.

Best birding,


James