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Red breasted Nuthatch |
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Red Crossbills |
I will take a little time this evening to update on the
variety of irruptive species that have occurred so far this season. The annual finch forecast put out by Ron
Pittaway (link below) predicted the potential for several species (finches and
others) to move south this season due to a poor cone crop in the north. http://ebird.org/content/ebird/news/ff2012
Several of these species have already moved south starting
with Red breasted Nuthatch’s and Red Crossbills, Purple Finches and continuing
now with Pine Siskins. All four of these
species have moved across a broad front in large numbers into and through the
northeast. Using eBird to illustrate to
movement of these (and other species) is quite informative. The next question is will these birds hang
around the local area or continue to move further south. There are still good numbers of Red breasted
Nuthatch’s around but perhaps the largest numbers have moved through. Red Crossbills seem to have also peaked but the
birds are still around and there could be more to come. There is a great article of the crossbills on
eBird summing up the various types of Red Crossbills with the link below: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/news/red-crossbill-types
The Pine Siskins have increased dramatically in the last
week or so around here and can be found on most trips around the area. Purple Finches
also seem to have increased a bit but the huge numbers are still not here
yet.
There are several other species that could have a good
potential to move south this winter including White –winged Crossbill, Pine Grosbeak (one heard at Winsor Dam a few
days ago), Common Redpoll, Hoary Redpoll, Evening Grosbeak (also at Winsor Dam
a couple says ago but could have been local breeder), and Bohemian Waxwing. As mentioned in Ron Pittaway’s article all of
these species have a good chance of moving south this winter. Although his article covers Ontario the
basics of the movement can be translated to this area. Overall this season has the potential to be
one of the better seasons for irruptive species in the area. So far it has been great and could only get
better as more species move down through.
We will have to wait and see what happens.
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Mallards at first light, Winsor Dam at Quabbin Park, Oct 10, 2012 |
With all the rain and wind the last couple days plus having to work I have not
birded much other than brief stops at Winsor Dam to check for waterfowl at
first light and on my way home from work before sunset. Nothing too unusual with a few Common Loons,
a couple Black Ducks and a raft of 44 Mallards on Wednesday morning that I tried my
best to turn into something more exotic in the poor morning light. I also had an American Woodcock still giving its display flight. This evening the only species of waterfowl present was a Black Duck. I'm hopeful checking the area again over the next several days will result in finding some waterfowl.
Larry, I just blogged about this as well for Worcester County and noticed still a lot of activity via eBird reports in your neck of the woods for many of the irruptive birds. Let's hope they stick around!
ReplyDeleteIndeed...lets hope so!
ReplyDelete