After another night of great migration conditions I headed out before dawn and spent most of my time in Pelham and Belchertown and was rewarded with my first Connecticut Warbler of the fall (sadly no photo today, just a brief look). The next couple of weeks are the prime season for this unusual warbler to move through the area as they head off to South America. The species takes a different route to the north in the spring compared to their fall migration with the spring migration moving up through the Ohio valley and the fall migration coming through mainly the northeast and mid Atlantic so the only time to see the species around here is fall. It is a fairly tough species to find as it loves to stay hidden and will typically show itself for just a short time before disappearing, which was the case this morning. I started at a good warbler spot at first light and found 14 species of warbler with good number of Northern Parula and Cape May Warblers. Now is about peak of diversity with more and more species becoming tougher to find with each passing day. Overall numbers are yet to peak as we have the hordes of Yellow rumped Warblers and Palm Warblers yet to come. I next headed up to Gate 11 and that is where I had the Connecticut Warbler. I think this is the first time I have had the species at Gate 11. I then hit a few more spots in Belchertown and by the end of the morning I had found 17 species of warblers.
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