Thursday, November 1, 2012

Evening stop at Winsor Dam and news of a Red Phalarope (deceased) in S. Hadley


Canada Geese (bird on right with odd facial plumage), Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, Nov 1, 2012

Winsor Dam at dusk, Nov 1, 2012
With each passing day the number of reports of storm driven birds continues to decrease but there were still some notable birds around. This illustrates just how far reaching the storm was in that reports are still coming in days after the storm and from locations as far away as Michigan and Canada. Here is the latest summary of sightings taken from the ABA blog:
http://blog.aba.org/2012/11/abarare-hurricane-sandy-report-3.html

I yet again tried my luck at Winsor Dam on my way home but came up short on any storm birds. However I did manage to find four White winged Scoters and a handful of Canada Geese including one with some additional white in the face.  I have not seen this individual here before this evening.

When I got home this evening I heard from Jacob Drucker that one of his professors, Noah Charney, found a deceased Red Phalarope along a stream at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley and obtained a photo of the specimen.  This was one of two Red Phalarope's seen in western Massachusetts following the passage of Sandy.  The other was seen alive in Turners Falls a few days ago.  These two individuals represent the only pelagic birds driven into western Massachusetts that I have heard of so far.

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