What a day for Mourning Warblers! I went back and forth on where to start my morning as I was putting the day in play for a big warbler day in Hampshire County and I finally settled on Mitch's Way which can be quite productive this time of year and would put me in a centralized location to hit a few other spots and be nearby if anyone found a rare warbler. I started my walk in a little before five and had lots of bird song and then I heard my first Mourning Warbler quickly followed by two more as I walked steadily along the road. I then walked back along the same route and had the same three and then added others in different locations and eventually ended up with at least seven individuals at just this location! I then turned up three more individuals at two other locations bringing my morning total to an astounding ten...a really amazing morning for the species. Before this morning my previous best single best count for the species in the county at a single location was three at Quabbin Park on May 23, 2017 and I have only managed to find three in a single day in the county on two other occasions both in 2021 (May 17 and 24). I sent all the recordings off to a researcher to determine the particular vocal type of each one I recorded and heard back that I managed to record all three regiolects possible here (Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Eastern). I went back several years to look at my totals for spring for the species in the county and came up with the following:
2016 -4
2017 -7
2018 -7
2019 -13
2020 -7
2021 -11
2022 -14 as of 5/20
My sightings on just this morning surpass my totals for an entire spring in several previous years.
In addition to the Mourning Warblers I found 15 other warbler species at the location including three Tennessee Warblers, a Bay breasted Warbler and multiple Blackpoll Warblers.
I was off to a very good start and then went to nearby Skinner SP to add the breeding Cerulean Warblers and Worm eating Warbler plus other migrants that I hoped would be there. I quickly got Worm eating Warblers including an individual that has been around for a few years that gives an odd two parted song. The Cerulean Warblers were quite vocal and there were at least four separate males singing. I added more Tennessee Warblers, a Cape May Warbler, three Bay breasted Warblers as well as other warblers one would expect to find in the woods.
My next stop was to a part of the Mount Holyoke Range SP where I got more warblers including two more Mourning Warblers. I made several more stops for the morning in Hadley and Quabbin Park and turned up the continued Brewster's Warbler hybrid.
After walking Wilson I went back again in Belchertown and added a second hybrid for the day with the continued Lawrence's Warbler which appears to be paired with a Blue winged Warbler (which might also be a hybrid as I got a brief glimpse of it and it may have had yellow wing bars but the view was brief). The sun was out in force at this point which made photos a bit more obtainable.
Overall for the day I found a total of 27 species of warbler as well as a couple hybrids...not my best day but as good a total as one can get in the county without an unusual warbler around.
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