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| Bufflehead, Winsor Dam, Quabbin park, Oct 30, 2012 |
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| Surf and White winged Scoters, Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, Oct 30, 2012 |
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| Surf and White winged Scoters, Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, Oct 30, 2012 |
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| White winged Crossbills in flight, Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, Oct 30, 2012 |
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| Long tailed Ducks and Bufflehead, Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, Oct 30, 2012 |
A bit more now on the birds associated with Hurricane
Sandy. I started out this morning
predawn in the pouring rain at Winsor Dam where I was joined by Scott Surner,
Evan Dalton and a few others. Nothing
way out of the ordinary but we did have some sea ducks with the following
species of waterfowl seen: Surf Scoter (3), White winged Scoter (17), Black
Scoter (1), Long tailed Duck (4), Bufflehead (13), Common Merganser (3), Common
Loon (4), Double crested Cormorant (1) and a few Mallards. In addition to the waterfowl we had a group
of ten White winged Crossbills (species #219
for county this year) come by and land in the pines near the headquarters
building plus a few flyby Pine Siskins and Evening Grosbeak. After spending a little over an hour there I headed
to work.
Elsewhere from the storm, reports of birds continue to come
in. In the immediate area there has been
a good showing of scoters, Long tailed Ducks and Bufflehead plus a report this
morning from Turners Falls of a Red Phalarope and a few Laughing Gulls over the
border in New Hampshire. Elsewhere in
Massachusetts the most unusual species so far would be at least three Northern
Lapwings seen on the coast and islands! I'm sure the next few days will result in more amazing reports of rare or out of range birds.
A small excerpt from the article regarding interior New
England can be found below:
Inland New England: Fallouts of sea ducks (especially Brant,
scoters and Long-tailed Ducks), loons (including Red-throated), grebes, and
gulls should be expected. With winds as strong as they are, Leach's
Storm-Petrel and possibly a Dovekie or other alcid could be found on inland
ponds or lakes. These may be a long shot since most of the coast and inland
areas won't be seeing really strong winds, but it could happen (and has in the
past, sometimes with large numbers of those species). Inland Leach's most
likely closer to the coast. Be aware for inland storm-petrels just in case.
As predicted by eBird the real show inland was indeed
various species of sea ducks. Given the
size and scope of the storm additional species could still indeed show around
here over the next few days.
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| White winged Scoters, Quabbin Park, Oct 30, 2012 |
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| White winged Scoter, Quabbin Park, Oct 30, 2012 |
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| White winged Scoter, Quabbin Park, Oct 30, 2012 |
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| Red breasted Merganser, Quabbin Park, Oct 30, 2012 |
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| Common Loons, Quabbin Park, Oct 30, 2012 |
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| Horned Grebes, Quabbin Park, Oct 30, 2012 |
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| Horned Grebes, Quabbin Park, Oct 30, 2012 |
As the day went on I got a few e-mails and saw several sightings of storm related birds from around the surrounding states so I figured I would use a little time off from work and head out in the afternoon to see if I could catch up with anything else unusual. The weather started out perfect with some sun and temperatures around 65...very nice for the end of October. I stopped at Winsor Dam and had a group of scoters near the dam including Black Scoter (32), Surf Scoter (3) and White winged Scoter (10) plus four Bufflehead. I then went into Quabbin Park with stops at Hanks Meadow and Goodnough Dike. Hank's Meadow was the best stop with two Red throated Loon way out on the reservoir. This made for species
#220 for the county this year (two new birds today!). There was also a couple of White winged Scoters close to shore as well as three Horned Grebes, three Common Loons and a Red breasted Merganser that flew in from the east. A brief stop at Goodnough on my way out added two more Common Loons.
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| Scoters and Bufflehead, Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, Oct 30, 2012 |
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| Scoters and Bufflehead, Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, Oct 30, 2012 |
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| Scoters and Bufflehead, Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, Oct 30, 2012 |
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| Afternoon view from Winsor Dam, Oct 30, 2012 |
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| Bald Eagles at nest, Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, Oct 30, 2012 |
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| Long tailed Ducks and White winged Scoters, Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, Oct 30, 2012 |
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| White winged and Surf Scoters, Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, Oct 30, 2012 |
I made my way back to Winsor Dam to spend the rest of the afternoon until sunset seeing if any new birds would come by or settle in on the water for the night. The waterfowl that I had there earlier was still present and additional birds were noted including five Long tailed Ducks and five more White winged Scoters. I had a nice show of Bald Eagles with six in flight plus two hanging out on the nest. There was also a bit of crow migration noted as numbers of birds moved southwest. A flyover Evening Grosbeak also made an appearance. I was joined later at the dam by Ian, Jacob and Nora as well as Scott Surner right near dusk. The clouds also closed in and the rain started to fall. Additional birds added later on included three Common Mergansers, a couple more Bufflehead, another Black Scoter and a few Common Loons. We stayed until sunset but no extraordinary birds showed up. I will be back again tomorrow morning to try my luck once again.
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