With the peak of fall warbler migration rapidly coming to an end I decided to spend the last four mornings at Arcadia (with a few stops elsewhere) with the main focus being on warblers and I had multiple successful mornings (more on totals at the end of the post). On Wednesday I spent four and a half hours at Arcadia on a sunny and cool morning during which I had 16 species of warblers with many highlights including a Connecticut Warbler and a couple of slightly late Yellow Warblers as well as above typical counts of Tennessee Warblers, Nashville Warblers, Cape May Warblers, Northern Parula and Chestnut sided Warblers plus my first 'yellow' Palm Warbler of the fall. The Connecticut Warbler popped up silently as I was looking at and getting photos of one of the Cape May Warblers. The bird perched for a bit and walked a little on a branch before dropping out of sight and was never seen again. It did call a couple times a few minutes after disappearing into a dense thicket and I thought the sound might have been coming from the cornfield nearby so there was a chance of a second individual but not confirmed. It is mornings like this that make fall so nice. I added a couple more warbler species when Wilson and I went for a walk so a total of 18 species for the day.
Thursday morning I had a dozen species at Arcadia and a total of 20 species of warbler for the day with a few additional stops including Silvio Conte NWR-Fort River and another spot in Belchertown. Although the numbers and diversity was down a bit from the previous day it was still a great morning at Arcadia with a dozen species including continued great counts of Tennessee Warblers and Nashville Warblers plus at least one late Yellow Warbler. There was a noticeable increase in 'yellow' Palm Warblers compared to the previous day. I cut my time shorter than I planned at Arcadia as it was somewhat slow. I decided to make my next stop Silvio Conte NWR which produced some great stuff including a heard only Connecticut Warbler and good numbers of Nashville and Tennessee Warblers, among eleven species of warbler. My final stop for the morning in Belchertown had more good stuff in a couple of mixed flocks including a Bay breasted Warbler with extensive amount of rufous (in spots it should not have any even in breeding plumage...would have loved to see this individual during the breeding season) and great numbers of Cape May Warblers among some 14 species overall...very odd that my shortest stop of the morning had the most diversity...it is all about lucking across a good mixed flock or two.
On Friday I once again made the trip over to Arcadia arriving before the sun came up. It was another cool start to the day but with ample sunshine it warmed up. The warblers started showing up as soon as the sun started lighting up the edges and one of the first birds I came across was an early Orange crowned Warbler travelling with a small group of Tennessee and Nashville Warblers. I got some marginal photos of the bird before it dropped down out of view. I then spent a few hours wandering around the area and eventually had 15 species of warblers. I managed to find a second Orange crowned Warbler in a different area as well as a juvenile Yellow Warbler that defied my attempts to get any photos. The Orange crowned Warblers just missed being my earliest date in the county by a day and are typically a warbler that one finds in October (or later) and is a tough species to find some years at all so having two early arrivals was really nice. The number of Tennessee Warblers continued to impress with at least 16 individuals including one with a wet head that made it look a bit like a Black crested Warbler. I was getting ready to leave around ten but then noticed a huge flight of Broad winged Hawks so I stayed for another hours watching the spectacle. This meant I would not have a chance to check other spots for warblers before making it home to take Wilson for a walk. After a quick lunch we headed out for a walk and I added a few more species of warbler bringing the total for the day to 19 species.
The weather changed for Saturday morning with cloudy and cool conditions with a breeze that made tracking down warblers a bit of struggle. I was joined for the morning by former valley birder Devin here for a couple days from his new home down in New Jersey. The main goal was to try to find him his Hampshire County Connecticut Warbler and unfortunately we failed in our quest (not surprising given the weather conditions). Nonetheless we still had some warblers with 13 species including my first Black throated Blue Warbler to show up over the last few days. Tennessee Warblers continued to put on a good showing. By the time we ended our morning at Arcadia it was too late to make any other stops and it started spitting rain by the time I got home so no more warblers for the day elsewhere.
During my four mornings at Arcadia I had a total of 20 species at the location and my other stops during the remainder of the four morning produced 24 species total (trip report entire four days here). This will almost certainly be the last time I get this many species of warbler in just a few days until next spring here or perhaps a trip to the tropics this winter.
