Another morning at Quabbin Park

Red necked Grebe and Horned Grebe, Quabbin Park, Oct 14, 2013

Red necked Grebe and Horned Grebe, Quabbin Park, Oct 14, 2013

Red necked Grebe and Horned Grebe, Quabbin Park, Oct 14, 2013

Red necked Grebe, Quabbin Park, Oct 14, 2013

Horned Grebe, Quabbin Park, Oct 14, 2013

Common Mergansers, Quabbin Park, Oct 14, 2013

Common Merganser, Quabbin Park, Oct 14, 2013

Common Merganser, Quabbin Park, Oct 14, 2013

Common Merganser playing with a piece of wood, Quabbin Park, Oct 14, 2013

Common Mergansers flying by, Quabbin Park, Oct 14, 2013

Common Loons in the fog, Quabbin Park, Oct 14, 2013

Hanks Meadow looking toward Gate 52, Quabbin Park, Oct 14, 2013

Looking north east of Gate 52, Quabbin Park, Oct 14, 2013

Wood Ducks, Quabbin Park, Oct 14, 2013

Belted Kingfisher, Quabbin Park, Oct 14, 2013

I spent yet another morning at Quabbin Park in search of waterfowl with a main focus this morning being a search for the reported Western Grebe. No luck finding the grebe in question but still had some good stuff. The morning fog made viewing difficult at times but most he of the thickest fog burned off within a few hours of the sun coming up. It actually turned out to be a sunny, warm day (at least by mid October standards). I stopped at various locations in the park including Winsor Dam, route 9 marsh and various overlooks from Hanks Meadow to Goodnough Dike.  Waterfowl this morning included 21 Wood Ducks, 34 Black Ducks, 2 Green winged Teal, 5 Hooded Mergansers, 37 Common Mergansers (35 in one flock), 11 Common Loons, a Horned Grebe, a Red necked Grebe, 11 Mallards and a dozen Canada Geese. Other notable birds included Great Horned Owl calling, 7 Hermit Thrushes together, a couple Eastern Towhees, loads of both kinglets and Yellow rumped Warblers, flyover American Pipits plus other expected species. 

The flock of 35 Common Mergansers put on quite a show within just feet of me at Gate 52. The entire group stayed just off shore for several minutes as I observed them. One individual kept diving and coming up with a stick and then would drop it and then dive down and grab it again.  Once the fog lifted enough to view previously socked in areas I made additional stops to areas visited earlier in the morning. Luckily I did this as it produced my only grebes of the morning when I found a Red necked Grebe and Horned Grebe swimming and fishing right next to each other. I had not seen this behavior before but the birds always surprise.

Finding a Western Grebe here would be a great sighting as the only western Massachusetts sighting of this species occurred in 1934 and 1936 during an incursion of this species into New England.  All previous reports of this grebe in Massachusetts have occurred between November and April.  This species has been found in the Finger Lakes area of New York within the last few years but not inland in Massachusetts in over 75 years so needless to say finding one here would be extremely unusual and a spectacular find indeed!  Certainly worth keeping your eyes out for it.