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| Green Heron, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, July 29, 2012 |
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| Great Blue Herons, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, July 29, 2012 |
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| Great Egret, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, July 29, 2012 |
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| Green Heron (juvenile) 'hunting' feathers, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, July 29, 2012 |
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| Green Heron (juvenile) 'hunting' feathers, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, July 29, 2012 |
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| Green Heron (juvenile) 'hunting' feathers, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, July 29, 2012 |
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| River Otter eating fish, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, July 29, 2012 |
Today dawned cloudy with occasional drops of rain. It looked like it would pour any minute but the rain held off until late morning allowing me to visit several locations around Belchertown. I started at Lake Wallace then over to Quabbin, Covey WMA and then along the Belchertown Land Trust trail. I was looking to see if I could find any new species either dispersing after breeding or brought down by all the heavy rain yesterday and overnight. Lake Wallace held three species of waders including Great Egret-1, Great Blue Heron-6 and Green Heron-7(one of the juvenile Green Herons repeatedly picked at goose feathers on the water surface as if practicing for hunting fish in the same manner). There was yet again a fair number of waterfowl here with 59 Wood Ducks and 113 Mallards. There was along a River Otter that was working the pond and finding some food to chew on. Given the threat of rain I left my camera at home and had to be content to get photos with the phone again. Not great quality but still fun to use to try to capture behaviors or interesting sightings.
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| Field with Ring-billed Gulls and Killdeer, Belchertown, MA, July 29, 2012 |
Upon leaving Lake Wallace I noticed a large gathering of gulls on the soccer fields nearby and stopped to check for anything unusual. All the 71 gulls present were Ring-billed Gulls with no odd gulls but in among them were 37 Killdeer.
My stops at Quabbin Park and Covey WMA were uneventful with nothing beyond the usual birds present. My final stop of the morning along the land trust trail turned up an American Woodcock that flushed right from the side of the trail and flew within a few feet of us before disappearing into the woods. A rather thin looking Raccoon lumbered across the trail moving toward a small swamp. A calling Broad-winged Hawk that flew low overhead ended the morning stops.
That first pic is has a really unique look. I love the Green Heron and these shots capture this elusive bird wonderfully. They like to disappear often when they can....the river otter is a wonderful surprise.
ReplyDeleteThe dull morning light and the iPhone gave some of the pics a green hue...especially with the Green Heron.
ReplyDelete