 |
| Connecticut Warbler, Arcadia, Northampton, MA, Sep 10, 2017 |
 |
| Tennessee Warbler, Quabbin Park, MA, Sep 17, 2017 |
 |
| Cape May Warbler, Amherst, MA, Sep 11, 2017 |
 |
| Bay breasted Warbler, Quabbin Park, MA, Sep 12, 2017 |
Now that mid October arrived and the warbler migration is largely over (although there is always a chance for a rarity to show up through the late fall into winter). The fall warbler migration season (mid August-October) produced a total of 28 species. The fall was especially great for warblers associated with spruces (Tennessee, Cape May and Bay breasted Warblers) in addition to Connecticut Warblers. I will delve into each of the above mentioned in greater detail below (prepare for major bird geeking).
 |
| Tennessee Warbler, Quabbin Park, MA, Sep 1, 2017 |
This fall was easily my best ever for Tennessee Warbler by a long shot with at least 76 individuals starting in late August and ending in early October. The peak of this species occurred in early to mid September with less numbers later in the month into October. I looked at the number of individuals seen the last five previous fall seasons and came up with the following:
2017 76
2016 12
2015 2
2014 4
2013 40
2012 18
To illustrate just how good a fall it was for this species I had 13 at just one spot on September 11th...more birds on a single day then I have gotten in entire years!
 |
| Cape May Warbler, Arcadia, Northampton, MA, Sep 2, 2017 |
Cape May Warblers were also around in greater than typical numbers but this year fell just short of setting a fall record for me with a total of ten individuals. I also looked at the previous five autumns for this species and came up with the following:
2017 10
2016 1
2015 1
2014 1
2013 11
2012 5
As you can see from the above numbers this year was well above normal with the last three years featuring just a single individual sighting.
 |
| Bay breasted Warbler, Quabbin Park, MA, Sep 12, 2017 |
Bay breasted Warbler were seen in above numbers this fall with a total of 13 individuals seen with a number of them photographed. The peak numbers for this species showed up in mid September and then quickly trailed off. Numbers from this year and the previous five fall seasons below:
2017 13
2016 1
2015 1
2014 2
2013 15
2012 2
It will be interesting to see if the increase in numbers seen this fall corresponds with a larger number of these species next spring. My data clearly shows there was another big influx of these species back in fall of 2013 and the following spring featured above average numbers of all three species so get ready. Here are the spring numbers if one is interested in more numbers.
Tennessee-spring
2017 5
2016 17
2015 8
2014 16
2013 6
2012 8
Cape May-spring
2017 3
2016 1
2015 1
2014 3
2013 1
2012 0
Bay breasted-spring
2017 3
2016 4
2015 3
2014 9
2013 1
2012 1
 |
| Connecticut Warbler, Arcadia, Northampton, MA, Sep 10, 2017 |
Now on to Connecticut Warblers which I once again had some incredible luck with this fall. I managed to find a total of ten, possibly eleven different individuals spanning the dates of August 29-October 7 (my first year of ever getting one in August). I only managed photos of one individual this year but did get recordings of six. I thought my luck of finding ten last year was an anomaly but this year produced about the same number so I think it may just be a matter of spending lots of time looking and knowing what to look and listen for.
