Quabbin Park

Common Mergansers, Winsor Dam at Quabbin Park, Feb 19, 2012

Common Merganser, Winsor Dam at Quabbin Park, Feb 19, 2012

Bald Eagle at dawn, Winsor Dam at Quabbin Park, Feb 19, 2012

I started today a little earlier than yesterday arriving at Winsor Dam at Quabbin Park just before dawn to see if I could get a better count of robins leaving their roost and see if I had another show of crows moving northwest.  I had a total of 362 American Robins moving south but had very few crows at all, with none moving northwest.  My assumption is that the large number of birds seen yesterday were in fact migrants.  The pair of Bald Eagles continue at their nest and a handful of Common Mergansers, including three quite close, rounded out the birds at Winsor Dam.  I then made my trip through Quabbin Park with a stop at Route 9 marsh where the number of Hooded Mergansers had grown to sixteen birds.  The few Red winged Blackbirds continued to call from the swamp and a lone Eastern Bluebird called constantly.  Within the park I ran across a Common Loon near Goodnough, another Hooded Merganser at Gate 52, a kingfisher and a tick, despite the temperature at 27 degrees!  The ticks are tough at Quabbin!  I then returned back to Winsor Dam briefly but had nothing new there.