Warblers on the Prescott Peninsula

Common Yellowthroat, Prescott Peninsula, New Salem, MA, Jul 18, 2020

Common Yellowthroat, Prescott Peninsula, New Salem, MA, Jul 18, 2020

Pine Warbler, Prescott Peninsula, New Salem, MA, Jul 18, 2020

Ovenbird, Prescott Peninsula, New Salem, MA, Jul 18, 2020

Common Yellowthroat, Prescott Peninsula, New Salem, MA, Jul 18, 2020

Blackburnian Warbler, Prescott Peninsula, New Salem, MA, Jul 18, 2020

Yellow Warbler, Prescott Peninsula, New Salem, MA, Jul 18, 2020

Chestnut sided Warbler, Prescott Peninsula, New Salem, MA, Jul 18, 2020

American Redstart, Prescott Peninsula, New Salem, MA, Jul 18, 2020

I finally made it back onto the restricted access Prescott Peninsula to conduct some field surveys this morning and found some warblers along the way.  As we push into the third week of July the amount of song has been drastically reduced and the number of juvenile birds around has increased substantially.  I had a total of eleven species of warbler over the course of about two hours as I checked several fields and nearby areas.  No big surprises but that is not unexpected for this time of year.  There even seemed to be the beginnings of some mixed species flocks in a few areas as the post breeding dispersal and early fall migration begins.

Big warbler day to start July

Canada Warbler, Pelham, MA, Jul 1, 2020

Canada Warbler, Pelham, MA, Jul 1, 2020

Northern Waterthrush, Pelham, MA, Jul 1, 2020

Yellow rumped Warbler 'myrtle', Cadwell Memorial Forest, Pelham, MA, Jul 1, 2020

Chestnut sided Warbler, Quabbin Park, MA, Jul 1, 202

With some rare days off to begin the month of July I decided to concentrate on finding as many species of warblers as I could to kick off the month.  Normally July is the slow period between the busy periods of spring and fall as migrants have all passed through, rarities are less likely and the birds that remain are busy feeding young.  In addition the numbers of birds singing drops off quite a bit as the month moves along.  I started off my morning by hiking up to the top of the mountain at Skinner SP in search of both Cerulean Warbler and Worm eating Warbler (which I found easily with multiple birds still singing).  I then hit several other spots as I worked my way up through Hadley and Amherst and then up to Pelham before dropping back down to Quabbin Park and a couple other spots in Belchertown.  I managed to find a total of 19 species of warblers over the course of the morning plus a continuing hybrid.  These species are all the breeding warblers one is likely to find during a typical year in Hamspshire County so I was happy to find all of them over the course of a single morning without too much effort.