Field Orno Grassland Birds- Southwick Wildlife Management Area Southwick, MA
After taking two steps on the path I heard a noise, wheeled around and saw an American Woodcock chilling out right next to the path. Given that I hadn't expected to be able to find one, I took this as a good luck sign. I was wrong. Part of this management area must have been haunted because for a large amount of my start time in one corner of the area, where all you could see was hay fields, it was DEAD silent. Not even crickets. However as I circled around to walk back towards the start I came upon an area with a shrubby edge and suddenly there were tons of birds. There was a swarm of birds diving for insects and upon following some I was able to ID them as Eastern Kingbirds and Tree Swallows. I had some trouble identifying what the Chipping Sparrows were until I heard them sing. I found multiple kinds of warblers, mostly yellow and prairie. Eastern Towhee was on a sign at the entrance, and I found out why when I found way more than I expected too. I found a kestrel box that a birder I met at Fannie Stebens told me about and soon after saw an American Kestrel flying between trees. However, I don't know if it was nesting in that box as it didn't move from that tree while I was watching it. There were multiple Red-tailed Hawks in the area as well as one Turkey Vulture flying over the road next to the entrance. Right as I was leaving two Indigo Buntings flew out of the woods and perched in a small shrub in the grassland area. I definitely learned from this experience that knowing songs well enough to confidently ID birds is very important as it was sometimes really difficult to find where the bird whose song I could hear was.
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