Easter birding

 

Green winged Teal, Great Pond, Hatfield, MA, Mar 31, 2013

 

Green winged Teal, Great Pond, Hatfield, MA, Mar 31, 2013

 

American Wigeon, Great Pond, Hatfield, MA, Mar 31, 2013

American Wigeon, Great Pond, Hatfield, MA, Mar 31, 2013

Spent the morning birding with Ian Davies and Ben Lagasse and we visited quite a few locations looking for whatever might be around.  Before meeting them before dawn I stopped at Wentworth Farm CA and had a Great Horned Owl as well as a few woodcock.  Once we got together we first stopped at Hadley Cove, were we had small numbers of seven species of waterfowl but nothing unusual.  We then headed across the river with stops at the Oxbow, Arcadia and a couple other spots in the Northampton area.  The Oxbow had at least 88 Common Mergansers, 17 Ring necked Ducks, 8 Black Ducks, 7 Wood Ducks and other expected species.  No sign of the scaup present there yesterday.  We then headed to Arcadia and had a Pied Billed Grebe just off the road in the same location it was in yesterday.  On the marsh at Arcadia, it was very quiet with little activity.  Other areas nearby were equally as quiet.  We continued north up to Great Pond in Hatfield where we spent over an hour checking the area and found the following waterfowl: seven American Wigeon, 18 Green winged Teal (no luck with the Blue winged Teal found here yesterday), five Ring necked Ducks, a dozen Wood Ducks, 17 Black Ducks, two Common Mergansers, 21+ Mallards and 128 Canada Geese (all flybys).  We also had several Swamp Sparrows calling, at least 22 American Tree Sparrows, a Field Sparrow that called a few times (species #109 for the county this year), a Northern Harrier flying over the pond, two Great Blue Herons flying past, five Wild Turkeys out in the middle of a large field and a couple Killdeer.  We continued further north with a stop at Tri town Beach to see if we could catch up with the large gathering of geese that have been there the last few days.  The geese appeared to have moved on with only a few present plus a few Common Mergansers.  We checked through several fields in Amherst looking for geese before heading over to Lake Warner.  No luck with geese in any of the fields at all.  Lake Warner was also quiet with just a Mute Swan, a few Ring necked Ducks and Mallards plus our first Eastern Phoebe of the day.

Song Sparrow, rail trail, Amherst, MA, Mar 31, 2013

Before heading back toward home I briefly stopped by the rail trial in Amherst and checked out the area around Hop Brook.  Noteworthy birds included a few tree Swallows and eight Green winged Teal.

Common Merganser, Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, MA, Mar 31, 2013

Gadwall (some imagination required), Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, MA, Mar 31, 2013

Gadwall (some imagination required), Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, MA, Mar 31, 2013

Winsor Dam with skim coat of ice after 10am, Mar 31, 2013

I stopped by Winsor Dam late morning and found the reservoir still had a skim coat of ice on it from the night before.  As I was there the ice all melted away as the day warmed and the winds increased.  I spent about an hour and fifteen minutes sky watching at this location and had some movement of blackbirds, robins, grackles and crows plus small groups of Canada Geese.  Also had three Great Blue Herons together moving northeast as well as two Tree Swallows.  Raptors around included seven Turkey Vultures, a few each of Red tailed Hawk and Bald Eagle.  A couple of Eastern Phoebes called back and forth at the dam too.  Waterfowl on the water at various times included a pair of Gadwall (first spring record for me at Quabbin), three Bufflehead, a dozen Black Ducks, 31 Mallards, one Hooded Merganser and 31 Common Mergansers.  Also had my first butterfly of the season here, a Mourning Cloak.

With today marking the last day of March I will take a look at where I stand in my quest to see as many species as possible in Hampshire County in a year and compare my status to my previous best year (2012).  As of today I stand at 109 species.  Last year on the same date I stood at 100 species and did not reach the 109 mark until April 15^th.  With April starting tomorrow the new species should start to come fast and furious, especially near the end of the month.  By the end of April last year I was up to 130 species and added 30 of those in April.