I took advantage of some great weather this morning to try to see how many warblers I could find and I managed a very respectable eight species including three that are getting late (Nashville Warbler, Tennessee Warbler and Pine Warbler). It started off sunny and cool but the sun warmed things up within a few hours of sunrise and a decent southerly breeze kicked the temps to near 70 by the end of the day. I started my morning in Amherst where I spent almost two hours covering a bit under two miles. Not a ton of diversity for warblers with just three species (Yellow rumped Warbler, Palm Warbler and Common Yellowthroat) but the number of Yellow rumps were good with nearly forty present. I then moved on to a couple spots in Belchertown before heading home. By the time I got to the first spot in Belchertown it was a little before nine and the breeze was coming up so tracking birds was a bit tougher. Nonetheless this quick stop produced two of the three late species for the day (in the same tree) plus a single Blackpoll Warbler. With half a dozen warbler species at this point I headed to one other spot in Belchertown and had multiple Yellow rumped Warblers plus a couple Palm Warblers, then an Orange crowned Warbler and then finished up with a Pine Warbler still singing. Eight species of warblers for this year on this date is really good as migration conditions have been so good and not many species are lingering.
