Thursday, December 23, 2010

Common Redpolls and Moose

Common Redpolls, central Quabbin, December 23, 2010
Common Redpolls, central Quabbin, December 23,2010
Moose, central Quabbin, December 23, 2010
Moose pair taken through windshield, central Quabbin, December 23, 2010
Moose, central Quabbin, December 23, 2010

I spent the day with Tom Gagnon scouting for the upcoming Quabbin CBC. We started off the day with a bang when the first birds found were nine Common Redpolls (we eventually had 39 in total) We ended the day with a pair of Moose. In between these sightings we dealt with morning snow and wind all day and vast areas with no birds at all. Despite the less than ideal weather we managed 21 species with highlights beyond those mentioned above including Winter Wren, Golden crowned Kinglets (23), Common Mergansers, Hooded Mergansers and two immature Bald Eagles. The biggest 'almost' sighting was of a Bobcat when we came across very, very fresh tracks in the blowing snow but never managed to find the cat...perhaps next time. I managed a few photos from the day but I must apologize for the quality. The redpoll shots were taken at a distance in the snow and the moose were at the end of the day and some photos were through the windshield.

4 comments:

  1. That's a strange picture of the two moose; there's something otherwordly about them. I like it and the fuzziness at this level of magnification adds to it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Love your pictures! We love to bird...and we love to see Moose. Normally have to travel way up north to see them. Thank you for sharing

    ReplyDelete