To start the month of October I headed over to Arcadia on a foggy morning after getting out of work. The night before featured some great migration conditions and lots of birds certainly moved out. After a little over two hours I had found ten species of warblers with a couple slightly late Cape May Warblers being the highlight as well as above typical counts of Tennessee Warbler, Common Yellowthroat and Northern Parula. I added a couple other species later in the morning during a walk with Wilson bringing the total for the first day of the month up to an even dozen.
I had to work on the 2nd so not much to report from that day. After getting out of work on the morning of the 3rd I headed over to a foggy Arcadia where a bit of looking in the pea soup turned up just five species of warblers. I then went across the river to Hadley and the fog continued, although not quite as thick. No unexpected warblers there unfortunately. A final stop for the morning in Belchertown found sunny conditions and more warblers with nine species during a short walk. The transition to most warblers being either Palm Warblers or yellow rumped Warblers was particularly evident starting on this day.
For Wednesday the morning fog once again made early morning birding a bit tough. I found a somewhat fog free area in Ware along the rail trail where I spent over an hour and a half and found just four species of warblers. A brief stop at Quabbin Park found it too foggy so I headed over to another spot in Belchertown and had better luck with sunny conditions and had five species including two late Cape May Warblers travelling together and my first Black throated Blue Warbler of the month. I also enjoyed a final walk with Wilson before his surgery to remove the ruptured tumor on his front right foot.
Wilson's surgery day was the 5th so I didn't get any early morning birding in. Once we dropped him off and made our way back home I headed out into the fog once again. Thankfully it was not really foggy early when we were driving to Sturbridge but by the time we made it back home the dense fog had settled in. I made a few stops before finally finding a fog free location and the birds responded to the sun. I found a dozen species of warbler at the fog free location including a late Ovenbird, three Cape May Warblers (also late) and three Northern Parula...probably the last time I will have a double digit count for species in a single location around here until next spring.
Friday turned out to be cloudy with some occasional drizzle so not a great day to try to track down warblers. We had a follow up appointment with Wilson back down in Sturbridge late in the morning but I had a few hours free early on and despite some effort managed just three species of warbler for the day.
To end out the first week the weather continued to be less than ideal with overcast conditions and occasional drizzle that continued for the day with heavier rain late in the day. Just a paltry two species for the effort.
Overall I found 15 species of warbler (sadly no Connecticut Warblers among them). There is still a chance to add a late species but increasingly the chances continue to drop but the possibility of an out of area rarity goes up. As an example a first state record of Virginia's Warbler showed up on Cape Cod late yesterday and continued through the day today.
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