Seth Kellogg
The trip to the Berkshire lowlands went with six people, and spent most of the time in Tyringham. There we had a Cooper’s Hawk fly over, a Kestrel in the east meadow along Appalachian Trail, many nesting Cliff Swallows on Breakneck Road along with a perched pair of Red-tailed hawks. A Meadowlark was calling at Meadow Road, where we spotted Great Blue Heron, 2 Wood Ducks, 2 Pileated Woodpeckers, many Bobolinks, Swamps Sparrows, Yellow, Yellowthroats, Blue-winged Warbler, Willow, Alder, and Least Flycatchers, Hummingbird, Bluebird, and 4 Kingbirds. We got good numbers of warblers and other forest birds on Fernside Road. No Bitterns answered the tape at any of our stops. We arrived in Stockbridge on Ice Glen Road, finding Hooded Merganser with one young, 2 Wood Duck, 2 Kingbirds, Yellow-throated Vireo, a Virginia Rail calling, 2 Marsh Wrens, and 2 Bluebirds. We then visited Post Farm in Lenox to watch an adult Virginia Rail foraging with 4-5 black young. We also had 2 Alder Flycatchers and 3 Marsh Wren there.