Trip Highlights

On this Wednesday morning, five members of the Allen Bird Club walked the loop trail at the Stebbins Wildlife Refuge in Longmeadow.   We saw one Magnolia Warbler, one Red-eyed Vireo, two Pileated Woodpeckers, six Phoebes, eight Flickers, three Green Herons, two Great Blue Herons, one Belted Kingfisher, four American Widgeon, four Green-winged Teal, and about 40 Wood Duck along with several catbirds and a number of more common birds.   Temperatures were in the low 70's under overcast skies and a light drizzle towards the end of the walk.

The low fog and clouds had already begun to clear when the first watchers arrived at 9:15 on Blueberry Hill.  Others quickly joined us, most of them from the Hoffmann Club, including Chris Blagdon and Holly Higinbotham.  They made up the group of 10-12 for the early-day walk through the woods in search of warblers.  The pishing and low trees worked well, providing close looks at 2 Ovenbird, Black & White, 5 Redstart, 6 Parula, 3 Magnolia, 2 Chestnut-sided, Blackpoll, 4 Bt Blue, 3 Bt Green, and 2 Yellow-rumped Warblers.  We also had Philadelphia, Blue-headed, and Red-eyed Vireo.  While at the lookout we had Phoebe, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, and Sapsucker.  Raptors not migrating were 3 Bald Eagle, 2 Cooper’s Hawks, and a Red-shouldered Hawk, plus Turkey Vultures and 2 Black Vultures.  Migrants were 4 Osprey, a young Harrier, 23 Sharp-shinned Hawks, 2 Cooper’s Hawks, 92 Broad-winged hawks in small groups, 3 Merlin, and 9 Kestrels.  Two of the Merlins were having a dog fight and 5 Kestrels came at one time late in day.  There were 135 total raptors seen.  Oh yes, the spread of food brought by all was amazing.

John's official count included:
       
       Osprey 5
       Harrier 1 juvenile
       Sharp-shins 23
       Cooper's 2
       Broad-wings 92
       Kestrels 9 (5 came in together at 4:30 PM) Merlin 3 (including the two that put on the spectacular dog fight) TOTAL RAPTOR MIGRANTS: 135
       
       Others:
       Black Vultures 2
       Bald Eagles 3
       Red-shouldered Hawk
       Cooper's (local)
       Sapsucker
       Phoebe
       Phily, Red-eyed and Blue-headed Vireo
       Ruby-crowned Kinglet
       
       Nine warbler species (no numbers were given):
       Ovenbird
       Black-and-white
       American Redstart
       No. Parula
       Magnolia
       Blackpoll
       BT Blue
       Yellow-rumped
       BT Green

We were an hour late after hitting a long delay caused by an awful accident on Rt. 495 just before Lawrence.  By that time Joppa had flooded with the incoming tide so nine of us headed for the island.  We checked the airport without success, except for a hunting Harrier that was close for some time. The only bird at the first large Pannes was a Pied-billed Grebe that flew in and began diving for its lunch.  Not far along, 18 Great and 2 Snowy Egrets were lined up close to road. The Wardens was packed with cars and people, but we found spaces and then discovered that a Lark Sparrow had been present in the area all morning.  We soon had long, amazingly close looks at that bird and a Clay-colored Sparrow, perched closely together in bushes or feeding at edge of the bare ground of the car lot.

We stopped at Hellcat to study shorebirds in a small area of North Pool and Forward Pool, where the sunlight was all too bright.  The shallows held about 200 each of Semipalmated Plovers and Sandpipers and 75 Greater Yellowlegs, 15 Lesser Yellowlegs and quite a few Least Sandpipers.   Good shorebirds we picked out were 7 Red-knots, a few Dunlin, two Stilt Sandpipers, a dozen White-rumped Sandpipers, 2 Golden Plovers and 20 Short-billed Dowitchers along with 4 Long-billed Dowitchers.  Also, there was a Blue-winged and a Green-winged Teal, as well as a Glossy Ibis feeding with 20 Snowy Egrets.  A great sight was a passing Peregrine Falcon that drove all the birds into the air in panic.

We moved on to find almost nothing at Emerson Rocks at high tide. Breeding season was over, so there were no Piping Plovers to be found.  We did get very close to many Semipalmated Sandpipers and Plovers roosting in the dunes, along with a few Black-bellied Plovers and Sanderlings.  Off shore, there were only 2 Eiders and one White-winged Scoter.  We returned to walk through the Hellcat woods, but found no herons, though a Long-tailed Weasel chased us along the boardwalk before zipping away.

Four eager birders arrived for the first fall walk at Stebbins Refuge and recorded 27 species.  There was little migration and the trails were still wet from the earlier morning rain so we walked the length of Pondside Road.  Best birds tallied there were Green-winged Teal, Gadwalls and a Belted Kingfisher.  We did manage a pleasant walk along Tina Lane and down to the riverfront beyond the fields, and then the rains came.  Thankfully it was warm, so getting drenched almost made us sing in the rain.  We laughed it off and hoped the weather would bring in some migrants.

It was a poor nighthawk migration through the region overall, but a good group managed to count a flight of 91 Common Nighthawks.  We would have had more if we had moved up to the Tina Lane intersection with Pondside earlier.  Most of the nighthawks seemed to feed over the ponds there and then veer off toward the river.