MA - Kentucky Warbler and much more in late May.

Kentucky Warbler - Montague, Franklin Co., MA. May 31st, 2019. 

After traveling and leading trips for much of the first three weeks of the month I've finally been in a position to relax a little and get down to some local birding. I must say that the last ten days of the month have been fantastic from a Franklin County perspective bringing several waves of late 'boreal' migrants. Impressive numbers of Northern Parula, Blackpoll, Bay-breasted, Cape May and Tennessee Warblers and to a lesser extent Canada Warblers livened up the yards, woods and field edges throughout northern Franklin County.

Kentucky Warbler - Montague, Franklin Co., MA. May 31st, 2019. 

Mourning Warbler - Montague, Franklin Co., MA. May 29th-30th, 2019. 

Yellow-bellied Flycatcher - New Salem, Franklin Co., MA. May 24th, 2019. 

Scarcer migrants have included an excellent showing of Mourning Warblers with multiple birds turning up from the 27th-30th in Deerfield (2), Gill (2) and Montague (1), and Yellow-bellied Flycatchers appeared in Gill on the 23rd, New Salem on the 24th and Montague on the 30th. But the pick of the warblers would have to be the Kentucky Warbler found singing in Montague on the 31st - only my second ever in the county (and the Pioneer Valley) and strongly recalling this singing male in Gill in 2015; https://pioneerbirding.blogspot.com/2015/05/ma-kentucky-warblerin-gill.html
The bird in Gill stayed for over a week and it will certainly be interesting to keep an eye on the Montague individual. The latter bird sand vigorously for over an hour and appeared to be holding a territory.

Eastern Meadowlark - Turner's Falls, Franklin Co., MA. May 31st, 2019. 

Other unusual passerines included a singing Eastern Meadowlark at Tuner's Falls Airfield on the 27th and a Red-headed Woodpecker in Montague on the 29th, the latter being quite territorial, drumming and excavating cavities.

Red-headed Woodpecker - Montague, Franklin Co., MA. May 29th, 2019. 

Black-billed Cuckoo - Montague, Franklin Co., MA. May 29th, 2019. 

The 29th also produced a small shorebird 'event' at Turner's Falls after overnight rain and a significant drop in temperature with 54 Semi-palmated Sandpipers, 5 Semi-palmated Plovers, and single Least Sandpiper and Greater Yellowlegs.

Semi-palmated Sandpipers - Turner's Falls, Franklin Co., MA. May 29th, 2019. 

MA - noteworthy passerines

Aside from the Olive-sided Flycatcher at Hell's Kitchen, Northfield on the 11th mentioned in a previous post, other flycatchers of interest included a Great Crested on North Cross Road, Gill on the 6th, two Yellow-bellied at Hell's Kitchen on the 7th, and a Least on Riverview Drive, Gill on the 8th. And there was also 'getting late' singing Yellow-throated Vireo at Hell's Kitchen on the 12th.

Northern Parula - Turner's Falls, Franklin Co., MA. September 13th, 2018.

Yet more overnight rain on the 13th brought an obvious arrival of passerines to the area including our yard in Northfield at dawn with a calling Swainson's Thrush as well as a Wood Thrush. But it was a large flock of migrant warblers at Turner's Falls Rod and Gun club in mid-morning that really caught me off-guard. As I arrived, I heard several titmice and chickadees calling overhead and looked up to see numbers of warblers filtering through the oaks in a non-stop wave that lasted five minutes or so. The light was awkward and I had difficulty in getting my bins onto many of the birds passing through but I estimated that 70+ warblers were involved. Of those that I managed to identify Northern Parula (12+), Tennessee (7+), and Bay-breasted (4) were the most common with other notable species including Magnolia, Blackburnian, Cape May and my first Ruby-crowned Kinglet of the fall. And for the rest, who knows?!

Magnolia Warbler - Turner's Falls, Franklin Co., MA. September 13th, 2018.

Tennessee Warbler - Turner's Falls, Franklin Co., MA. September 13th, 2018.

Also of note on the 13th, quite a few raptors with 8+ American Kestrels scattered around the sod fields in Northfield, a migrant Osprey in Northfield, a Northern Harrier heading south through Gill and several juvenile Broad-winged Hawks seemingly waiting for the gloom to clear to start the southward migration. 

American Kestrel - Northfield, Franklin Co., MA. September 13th, 2018.

Heavy rain throughout most of the 12th created a number of fresh rain pools in the Northfield sod fields attracting five Killdeer and a Least Sandpiper, all of which had moved on by the next day.

Killdeer - River Road, Northfield, Franklin Co., MA. September 12th, 2018.

Least Sandpiper - River Road, Northfield, Franklin Co., MA. September 12th, 2018.

MA - Yellow-bellied Flycatcher

This morning (09/06) brought a welcome change to Gill with a much cooler start than of late. At 8am temperatures still hadn't risen above 40 deg F providing a refreshing change after seemingly endless weeks of humidity. The weather also brought some 'refreshing' birds to our yard in Gill, most notably a calling Yellow-bellied Flycatcher which vocalized for about 10 minutes around 8am - a new yard bird for us. Around 9am an Evening Grosbeak spent some time calling from the tall Sugar Maples above the house before moving on. For my money, this remains an extremely scarce and aloof species in our area, and I think this was just the third observation in our yard since September 2010. The morning also produced the first House Wren in a while along with regulars such as Gray Catbirds (6), Common Yellowthroat (3), Ruby-throated Hummingbird (1) and a Willow/Alder Flycatcher.

House Wren - Gill yard, Franklin Co., MA. September 6th, 2013.



In the general area, vireos continue to sing and yesterday (09/05) I once again the heard the long staying Yellow-throated Vireo singing close to the intersection of Main and South Cross Road in Gill. There was also Yellow-throated Vireo singing along the Connecticut River in Northfield on September 2nd, just north of the Rt 10 bridge where there was also a singing Warbling Vireo, and there was a singing Warbling Vireo in our yard on September 3rd.

Fairly major overnight thunderstorms on September 2nd inspired a visit to the sod fields in Northfield on Pine Meadow Road which this time produced a handful of newly arrived shorebirds including 9 Killdeer, 2 Semi-palmated Plovers and about 5 Least Sandpipers. In mid-morning, the Killdeers and Least Sandpipers just picked up and left for no obvious reason leaving the Semi-palmated Plovers behind.

Killdeers and Least Sandpipers - Four Star Farms, Northfield, Franklin Co., MA.

September 2nd, 2013.

Semi-palmated Plover - One of two, Four Star Farms, Northfield, Franklin Co., MA.

September 2nd, 2013. Distant digi-scope shot.





MA - Yellow-bellied Flycatcher - 05/18

Yellow-bellied Flycatcher - Prescott, Quabbin, Franklin Co., MA. May 18th, 2009.

This wonderfully co-operative Yellow-bellied Flycatcher put on a fine show at the southern end of the Prescott Peninsula in the Quabbin. Most of my previous experiences with this species have been frustrating with birds most usually identified by song or call and giving only fleeting views. This bird was rather exceptional though, and gave what must have been my best views of the species.

Mid to late May is a fine time to detect migrants destined for the Boreal forests and Northern woods passing through Massachusetts, and this bird fits right into that pattern. Other birds around today included several Blackpoll Warblers in Amherst, plus Evening Grosbeaks, Cerulean Warbler, Yellow-throated Vireo and Winter Wren all in Central Quabbin.