St. Patrick's Day birding

 

Dawn at Gate 5, Mar 17, 2013

Dawn at Gate 5, Mar 17, 2013

I started my day before dawn walking down to the waters edge at gate 5.  I tried to find a Northern Saw Whet Owl before dawn but had no luck.  The sunrise was fantastic as always from this spot.  The gulls that roosted on the reservoir were already leaving before dawn so I was unable to view any unusual species among the hundreds of gulls present.  On my walk back out I flushed a Wilson's Snipe (#102) from the small wetland near the power lines.

Common Merganser, Quabbin Park, Mar 17, 2013

Hooded Merganser, Quabbin Park, Mar 17, 2013

Wood Ducks and Hooded Mergansers, Route 9 marsh, Quabbin Park, MA, Mar 17, 2013

Black Ducks, Mallards and Hooded Merganser, Route 9 marsh, Quabbin Park, MA, Mar 17, 2013

Ring necked Duck, Route 9 marsh, Quabbin Park, MA, Mar 17, 2013

I spent a little over an hour checking various spots at Quabbin Park with the most active spots being the Route 9 marsh and the boat cove near the spillway.  Hanks Meadow and Goodnough Dike were very quiet with very little activity.  At the boat cove I had a Bufflehead, a couple Hooded Mergansers and a few Common Mergansers.  At the Route 9 marsh I had three Ring necked Ducks, four Wood Ducks, ten Hooded Mergansers, eight Mallards, a couple Black Ducks and 16 Canada Geese. 

Mallards and Hooded Merganser, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Mar 17, 2013

Hooded Merganser, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Mar 17, 2013

I next headed over to Lake Wallace where I had 11 Hooded Mergansers, a dozen Mallards and 26 Canada Geese for waterfowl.  I also ran across two Tree Swallows (species #103) flying around the marsh.  Given the weather conditions over the next several days these guys may have pushed the envelope a bit and may suffer severely for it.  The low tonight is suppose to be in the low teens and the high temperatures over the next several days is not suppose to top 40, plus we have a snow/sleet/freezing rain storm forecast for Monday night through Tuesday.