The morning started off rainy and a look at the radar around 5:30 showed scattered rain throughout the area. I decided to head east in the hopes of getting through the rain faster for the morning instead of staying local. The rain continued to come down as I got to Hadley so I ran a quick errand before starting my birding for the morning. When I arrived at my first stop along the river it was still sprinkling a bit but I headed down the short path to the river. The area I was in had produced a few sightings of Connecticut Warbler recently so the species was certainly on my mind as I walked down the path. I was pleasantly surprised to hear a Connecticut Warbler calling as I arrived but unfortunately the bird just would not cooperate for looks (much less photographs). I spent the next hour or so trying to get looks and eventually I was rewarded with some quick looks and a brief opportunity to get some photos. The bird would occasionally call and then go silent for long periods of time only to start calling again briefly. I got some good recordings and photos as a reward for my efforts. The area featured a few other warblers with several Common Yellowthroats (which can certainly fool you when you get a brief look). After birding a number of other areas (more on that below) I came home late in the morning to get Wilson to go for a walk. As we were on our way through an area of the trail where goldenrod and small saplings were located I noticed a small bird fly across the path and then perch at the bottom of a small sapling perhaps 15 feet away. I expected to see an Ovenbird when I lifted up my binoculars but was totally surprised to see a second Connecticut Warbler for the day! The bird was making a very soft call that appeared to be a flight call and not the more typical harsh call I usually hear from the species. I watched the bird walk up the limb and then move around a bit. Without my good camera I was forced to try to get some photos through the binoculars with my phone and surprisingly I actually captured a few.
Connecticut Warblers come through the area every fall but can be tough to find as they are a skulking species that rarely shows well. Knowing their typical call can help you in finding them but even then they can be difficult to track down. The numbers and arrival/departure dates can change from year to year and I'll look at the those a bit below. This year is starting off better than last year and hopefully will mirror the preceding several years (minus 2020) for totals.
Year #of sightings first sighting/last sighting
2010 1 Sep 17
2011 1 Sep 15
2012 2 Sep 10/Oct 1
2013 3 Sep 11/Sep 25
2014 1 Sep 13
2015 2 Sep 2/Sep 15
2016 10 Sep 9/Oct 7
2017 8-10 (possible repeats) Aug 29/Oct 7
2018 8 Sep 9/Sep 29
2019 8-9 (possible repeats) Sep 13/Oct 1
2020 3 Sep 19/Oct 6
Besides the Connecticut Warblers mentioned above I had another dozen species of warblers for the day including my first 'yellow' Palm Warbler for the fall. I made a few other stops in Hadley to get most of these including the Honey Pot and Silvio Conte NWR-Fort River. Among the warblers was a banded Common Yellowthroat (I could not get good enough photos to make out all the band numbers).
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