Trip Highlights

Favorable weather conditions, with clear, warm temperatures in the 80's and light to moderate winds, brought out six birders plus the trip leader.  Roadside birding, focusing on stops at five upland marshes, yielded 72 species.  The trip began at 6:45 a.m. at a large marsh adjacent to Fisk Road, located in the northeast section of Chester.  An elevated woodland trail running the entire western edge of the marsh affords excellent views of the marsh.  Two female Hooded Mergansers, several Wood Ducks, a Virginia Rail and a variety of other expected wetland species were observed.  Unfortunately no American Bittern was located here or at the other marshes we visited.  

Next, a leisurely three-mile drive down Kinnebrook Road yielded many of the expected upland species, including a nice view of a Ruffed Grouse.  This narrow woodland road is unique in the lack of other vehicular traffic and a general quietness that's hard to find.  It is easy to become lost in the overall beauty of the experience.  One marsh along this road provided a somewhat uncommon occurrence of the upland Alder Flycatcher singing together with the lowland Willow Flycatcher, which is generally not found in the hills of Western Massachusetts.  

Kinnebrook Road ends at the Littleville Fairgrounds where Kinne Brook intersects the Middle Branch of the Westfield River.  From here we followed the Westfield River down to the boat launch at the north end of the Littleville Reservoir.  Spotted Sandpipers, Yellow-throated Vireo, Warbling Vireo and several Indigo Buntings were added to the species list for the day.  

Next, roadside birding along East River Road produced a singing Winter Wren, a Red-shouldered Hawk and a Broad-winged Hawk.  Another female Hooded Merganser, this time with 4 young, was spotted during a quick stop at the Lyman Road marsh.  A vibrant Bobolink population was observed at an active farm at the corner of East River Road and Skyline Drive.  The trip ended at 11:30 a.m. after visiting one last marsh adjacent to Skyline Drive.

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.

Eleven participants gathered to enjoy the grassland birds on the fields on Westover Air Reserve Base.  They garnered a total of 41 species, with highlights including Upland Sandpiper, Meadowlark, Bobolink, Kestrel, Grasshopper and Savannah Sparrows.  Just as happened last year, this trip was attended by three different bird clubs: Allen, Hampshire, and the BBC.  Because Westover provides a bus for us to tour the grasslands, all 3 clubs were limited to about 13 participants.  Since it has been hot on this trip in years past, an air-conditioned bus is quite welcome.  We saw many of the grassland target birds we sought.  These include VERY MANY Bobo links, Meadowlarks, Upland Sandpipers, and a few Grasshopper Sparrows.  There appear to be less of this last species than we have seen in the past.  Normally, we see them on tops of the tall grasses throughout the grassland.  This year (due to grass cutting, perhaps) there was less tall grass for them to stand on and, therefore, less obvious sparrows to observe.  Our hosts at Westover were very welcoming and seemed very enthusiastic to show us around.  One surprise was that the previous person to lead this trip (now retired), who we all grew to admire very much, joined us on this trip.

Most field work for this 14th annual project was done during cool and breezy weather Friday evening and Saturday, with the compilation on Sunday evening, June 4 at the home of Joanne Fortin.  There were 9 teams and 15 observers in the field covering hilly, wooded, and sparsely populated parts of Granville, Blandford, Westfield, Russell and Southwick.  The counters recorded 115 species, the highest total since 2007.  The 85 total hours of coverage was close to the highest ever in 2006 (88.25) and ten higher than the historical average.  However, the 3776 total individuals and the 44.4 average of individuals per hour were both well below average.

Notably low species counts compared to average were for Red-eyed Vireo 258 (302), Ovenbird 203 (238), and Veery 121 (142).  Other species also lower were Hermit Thrush 9 (24), Wood Thrush 34 (47), Yellow Warbler 34 (46), Yellowthroat 81 (102), Magnolia Warbler 11 (19), Black-throated Blue Warbler 55 (84), Yellow-rumped 9 (17), Black-throated Green 34 (59), and Rose-breasted Grosbeak 11 (16).

The next 27 species average from 47 to 112 individuals per year.  The next 33 species average from 10 to 40 per year.  There are 56 more species with less than 10 individuals average per year.  That adds up to 120 species record-ed over the 13 years of counting.  This year, high counts were set for Hummingbird (21), Phoebe (54), Tree Swallow (92), Rough-winged Swallow (10), Red-breasted Nuthatch (12), Eastern Bluebird (22), Gray Catbird (104), Louisiana Waterthrush (9), Pine Warbler (24), Prairie Warbler (15), Bobolink (96), Red-winged Blackbird (138), and Grackle (67).  The Common Merganser, Bald Eagle, and American Kestrel were found for only the 5th time, Brown Thrasher for the 4th time, Sora for the third time, and Hooded Warbler for the first time.

Click below to view or download complete count results.

2017 June Count Results

The weather was cloudy and cool, never making it out of the 50s, but that did not stop four participants from enjoying this hotspot birding trip.  A total of 40 species were found.   Highlights include, Raven, Turkey, Olive-sided, Alder and Willow Flycatchers, Kingbird, Wood-Pewee, Blue-headed Vireo, Solitary and Red-eyed Vireos, Field Sparrow, Towhee, Prairie, Blue-winged, Pine, and Yellow Warblers, Common Yellowthroat, and Gnatcatcher.