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| White winged Crossbills, Quabbin near shaft 11, Nov 24, 2012 |
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| White winged Crossbills, Quabbin near shaft 11, Nov 24, 2012 |
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| White winged Crossbills, Quabbin near shaft 11, Nov 24, 2012 |
Today was the annual Hampshire Bird Club November waterfowl trip to
Quabbin. We started at Winsor Dam at 7am and then headed to the east side of
Quabbin going in at Gate 45 and out Gate 35. The conditions were less than
optimal with strong winds out of the northwest with gusts up near 30 and
temperatures topping out around 40. The winds kicked up some good waves on the
water and made hearing any flyby species quite difficult to find. We ended up
with a total of 41 species of birds and 3 species of mammals. Despite the less than optimal conditions we still had some great highlights including at least 41 White winged Crossbills in various locations, a Northern Shrike at the east side fishing area, 7 Yellowlegs and a Killdeer at shaft 11, 3 Great Blue Herons, 70+ Black Ducks, 32 Green winged Teal, 102 Ring necked Ducks, a Barred Owl and 7 Snow Buntings. Another highlight of the day occurred first thing in the morning when all the group got great looks at a half dozen Pine Grosbeaks feeding in the large crabapple tree at Winsor Dam.
The eBird list from the east side:
http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S12145995
The eBird list from Winsor Dam:
http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S12142149
More photos from the trip below:
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| Mallards and Black Ducks, Quabbin shaft 11, Nov 24, 2012 |
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| Horned Grebe, Baffle dam, Quabbin, Nov 24, 2012 |
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| Greater Yellowlegs (seven together), Quabbin shaft 11, Nov 24, 2012 |
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| Killdeer, Quabbin shaft 11, Nov 24, 2012 |
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| Black Ducks, Quabbin shaft 11, Nov 24, 2012 |
I made a brief visit back to Quabbin Park today but the strong cold wind made viewing difficult. Highlights from a short trip included three Pine Grosbeaks still at HQ, four White winged Scoters at Winsor Dam in flight, five Bald Eagles and only one each of Horned Grebe and Common Loon.
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