End of the third week of April and a look at an incursion of Townsend's Warblers into the east

Yellow rumped Warbler 'myrtle', Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Apr 20, 2020

Yellow rumped Warbler 'myrtle', Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Apr 20, 2020

Palm Warbler 'yellow', Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Apr 20, 2020

Palm Warbler 'yellow', Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Apr 19, 2020

Yellow rumped Warbler 'myrtle', Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Apr 19, 2020

The weather has continued to be cooler than normal through the third week of the month with no major change in that forecast through the next week.  There have been a couple of nights with southerly winds over the several days but mainly the wind has been less than conducive for migration.  A couple of weather systems have had decent set up for fallout conditions in the far south of the US and the chance for early season overshoots into the mid Atlantic into the northeast.  An interesting phenomenon is likely associated with some of these strong weather systems has been an influx of Townsend's Warblers into the east with an individual in New Jersey on 4/7, a first state record of the species in Connecticut (one of many eBird lists) at a cemetery in Hartford (present from 4/17-4/19) and another in the eastern part of Massachusetts in Newton on 4/19.  The species is a very rare spring occurrence anywhere in the east so these sightings are certainly noteworthy.  Like many western species it is more commonly seen as a vagrant in the fall with the main reason appearing to be a so called 90 degree migration issue (when a species moves east instead of moving south) and usually involves first year birds.  Spring vagrants have made at least one 'proper' migration so their appearance well out of range is typically weather related.  Another western species made an appearance in Hampshire County when a Western Tanager was found coming to a feeder in Amherst for a couple days so who knows what other rarity is out there waiting to be found?   I have certainly been out as much as can to see if I could turn up anything unusual with lots of looking at any warbler that moves in any flocks I come across.  I have had to be content with the warblers that we do have at this point with the most active location being Lake Wallace where the birds can feed in some areas protected from the wind.  Pine Warblers continue to increase with some of the first females I have seen for the season over the last couple days.  Both Palm Warblers and Yellow rumped Warblers are around with good numbers with a notable increase in Yellow rumped Warblers this morning.  I have also had a few Louisiana Waterthrushes but not as many as I would expect by now.