Yellow-headed Blackbird in Hadley

Yellow headed Blackbird, East Hadley Rd, Hadley, MA, Oct 14, 2012

Yellow headed Blackbird, East Hadley Rd, Hadley, MA, Oct 14, 2012

Horned Grebe, Quabbin Park, Oct 14, 2012

Today began rainy and cool and did not improve much throughout the day.  With the rain in October comes the chance for some waterfowl to get put down on local water bodies and with this in mind I headed to Quabbin Park at first light.  There was nothing at Winsor Dam so I decided to take a brief detour and check Lake Wallace and Lake Metacomet in Belchertown.  Neither lake had any waterfowl at all on them!  I then returned to Quabbin Park and made my way down to Hank's Meadow.  I finally found some waterfowl but nothing unusual and no big groups.  There were three Horned Grebes, a Common Loon and three Black Ducks.  Given the raw weather there was little in the way of passerine activity although I did run across a few Pine Siskins.  As I was walking back up toward the car I got a call from Scott Surner that he had found a Yellow headed Blackbird in a large flock of blackbirds and cowbirds along East Hadley Rd in Hadley.  I immediately headed over that way.

Yellow headed Blackbird, East Hadley Rd, Hadley, MA, Oct 14, 2012

Yellow headed Blackbird, East Hadley Rd, Hadley, MA, Oct 14, 2012

Yellow headed Blackbird, East Hadley Rd, Hadley, MA, Oct 14, 2012

I arrived at East Hadley Road and found a large number of Brown headed Cowbirds (600+) and Red Winged Blackbirds (500+) plus a few Common Grackles and Starlings but no Yellow headed Blackbird initially.  The rain continued to come down hard at times which made viewing a bit difficult.  There were a few other birders here and they caught glimpses of the bird at various times but not where I was.  After quite a bit of searching and scanning I finally saw the bird in flight and then perched on the edge of some hay bales.  Despite the unique appearance of the bird it was amazing how it could blend in when it was not facing you.  I spent a bit more time trying to get better looks and the bird eventually showed quite well just behind Cook's Farm.  A state and county bird for me.  This makes #212 for the year in Hampshire County and becomes #269 for the county ever for me.  Thanks to Scott Surner for getting the word out on this bird.  Other birds of note here included an American Golden Plover and a Pectoral Sandpiper in a freshly plowed field along with 40+ Killdeer and a handful of American Pipits.

 

The weather conditions now and through the next day have the potential to bring some good birds into the northeast with strong southerly flows occurring for a few days.  Although the coast is more likely to produce some good stuff you never know where the odd bird will come down so it will be worth looking around the local area for some good stuff.