Trip Highlights

Eleven people showed up for today’s trip to bird Stebbins Refuge and the flooded flats on West Road.  The weather was sunny and temps in the 70s with a light breeze, or most would say, PERFECT!

We picked up the usual species of songbirds along Pondside and 18 Mallards feeding in the road, until our approach pushed them back into the pond.

West Road gave us the highlight birds.  There were Lesser Yellowlegs feeding apart from a sole Greater, two Pectoral Sandpipers, many Least Sandpipers and someone spotted a Semi.  We counted eight Killdeer and one or two Semi-palmated Plover.  There were three Great Blue Herons and one Green, as well as Great Egret and Snowy Egret.  A small pool on the river side of West Rd held a couple of Solitary Sandpipers, and from the adjacent tall, wet grasses we heard the call of a Virginia Rail.  The leader caught what would be the best bird of the day by ear, the call of a Golden Plover flying over, but it did not land for us to scope him out.

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.

Just four members gathered to enjoy a good, but very hot and humid, day on Plum Island.  The insects were heavy at times, both mosquitoes and biting flies (I don’t think they were green heads) annoying half of us badly and the other half mildly.  Our total species count for the day was only 36, but quality counts too, and we did have a stellar view or two to add to our memory banks!

We had great looks at Wilson's Phalarope in the salt pannes, hunting Ospreys and a Peregrine Falcon, and thousands of Tree Swallows swarming from Lot 1 and at every stop all the way to Sandy Point State Park. There were also the usual peeps, several Greater Yellowlegs, a Willet, Great and Snowy Egrets, DC Cormorants, a Great Blue Heron, and a variety of songbirds.

It was just great to be in the company of birders again, scanning the marshes and the skies for birds!

We gathered at McDonald’s in Lee and headed to our first stop on Meadow St in Lee, from there we went down Breakneck Rd, also in Lee and on to the Tyringham Cobble.  Highlight birds included Alder and Willow Flycatchers, Yellow-throated-Vireo, Cliff Swallows (6), Brown Thrasher, Bobo-link, Indigo Buntin, and Scarlet Tanager.  Warblers were Ovenbird (4), Black-and-white (2), Common Yellowthroat (11), American Redstart (11), Blackburnian (1), Yellow (13), Chestnut-sided (8), and Black-throated Green (1).

We ended the morning with a walk into Post Farm in Lenox, where we had a nice Rose-breasted Grosbeak pair at the parking lot and Marsh Wren heard and seen from the little bridge down at the marsh.

The field work for this 18th annual Little River IBA Count was done on a mild evening (temp mid-70s, mostly cloudy, winds S at 8 mph), followed by a mild, foggy morning and a steamy, hot afternoon (temps of low 60’s rose to 92 degrees by 3:00 pm, light winds becoming stronger in the afternoon).

The compilation get-together was accomplished electronically using Zoom, due to continuing COVID-19 concerns, and though just a few participants took part, we enjoyed the usual spirited conversation about the day’s adventures.

Altogether, there were 7 teams and 12 observers in the field for a total of 64.25 hours.  The hours of effort were down 6.5 from last year, and well below the Count’s average of 72.  The total number of species counted was 103, falling below our average of 111.

Misses of note include, Common Merganser, Common Loon (limited access to reservoir), American Bittern, Cooper’s Hawk (first time missed since 2007), Killdeer, Whip-poor-will (found every year up until 2017), Blue-gray Gnatcatcher (missed only two other years in history of count), and especially White-throated Sparrow (first miss ever).  Near misses, with just one individual found, were Hooded Merganser, Green Heron, Sharp-shinned Hawk, Virginia Rail, Woodcock, Acadian Flycatcher, Golden-crowned Kinglet, Nashville Warbler, and Purple Finch.

High counts were set this year for Great Crested Flycatcher (25), White-breasted Nuthatch (24), Carolina Wren (6) and Rose-breasted Grosbeak (32, twice the Count average of 16).  The Yellow-billed Cuckoo (4) was a second high, with a high count of five individuals in 2007.  And finally, a Screech Owl was identified for the first time since 2010.

Click below to view or download complete count results.

2021 June Count Results