Longmeadow & Agawam

On a very hot summer morning six Allen Bird Club members met to seek out shorebirds, egrets, and herons.  Pynchon Point Park, our meeting place and first stop, proved disappointing as very high water from days of rain had eliminated shorelines for feeding migrants.  After seeing a few land birds, Mary spotted our first egret.  We enjoyed seeing a Great Egret fly majestically over our heads as we returned to the parking area.

Because of the high river water, we went directly to the farm field ponds on West Road in the Longmeadow Flats.  Here we found the shorebirds - Solitary, Spotted, Least, and Pectoral Sand-pipers, Semipalmated Plovers, and Lesser Yellowlegs.  Also found was a Snowy Egret and sever-al more Great Egrets feeding with Mallards, Wood Ducks, and Green-winged Teal.  Moving on to Pondside Road and the viewing platform, we scanned the skies and trees to add Broadwing, Red-tailed, and Sharp-shinned Hawk, Osprey, Bald Eagle, and Double-crested Cormorant to our list.   We finished the morning with 42 species.