A few stops in the local area

Great Blue Heron nest, Lake Wallace, July 28, 2013

Green Heron, Lake Wallace, July 28, 2013

Despite the forecast for clouds and possible rain in the morning the weather instead stayed at least partially sunny and dry through midday. I stayed close to home this morning with stops at Lake Wallace, Covey WMA and Quabbin Park. At Lake Wallace the waterfowl continue to grow in number with nearly 50 Wood Ducks, about a dozen Mallards, three Hooded Mergansers and 38 Canada Geese. The Great Blue Heron young are still hanging out in the nest but they should fledge any day now. Other birds of note included a calling Virginia Rail and a few Green Herons.

My next stop at Covey WMA produced some decent birds including a new species for the county this year when I had a calling male Ring necked Pheasant (species #214). I also had a couple of Black billed Cuckoos calling, assorted waterfowl and a couple of Great Blue Herons that flew over the marsh and flushed up the swallows that were perched in the grasses. Well over hundred swallows were present with the majority being Barn Swallows with a slightly lesser number of Tree Swallows. I was expected to find a Great Egret here or at my previous stop at Lake Wallace but no luck.

Bald Eagle nest with young, Quabbin Park, July 28, 2013

My final stop of the morning was over to a few spots at Quabbin Park (Route 9 marsh, Gate 52 and Winsor Dam). Nothing too unusual here but lots of juvenile birds around including two very large juvenile Bald Eagles that look about to fledge from the nest near Winsor Dam.

I also reached another eBird milestone when I submitted my 12,000th list. As I have mentioned before (and will certainly mention again) eBird is a great way to not only keep track of your records but also adds usefulness to yupr sightings as they become part of the largest collection of worldwide bird sightings. If you haven't tried it yet just go to the eBird website and sign up:

http://ebird.org/content/ebird/