Last day of January birding

Eastern Meadowlarks, Silvio O. Conte NWR, Hadley, MA, Jan 31, 2014

I spent the morning along with Jacob hitting a few spots along the Connecticut River.  We started at the Honey Pot and then across the river to the East Meadows and then back across the river once again to the Honey Pot once again before I had to get Jacob back for class.  After dropping Jacob off I headed back over to the Honey Pot trying in vain to find a kestrel (don't ask me why I have missed it so far this year) then down to the Holyoke Dam.  The temperatures today finally broke above freezing which felt really nice. Below are the highlights from the morning:

Honey Pot at dawn(with Jacob):
Short eared Owl -1 flew right over us on the dike

Hybrid Goose (canada goose x Graylag or GWF goose), Connecticut River, Northampton, MA, Jan 31, 2014

Hybrid Goose (canada goose x Graylag or GWF goose), Connecticut River, Northampton, MA, Jan 31, 2014

Hybrid Goose (canada goose x Graylag or GWF goose), Connecticut River, Northampton, MA, Jan 31, 2014

Wood Duck, Connecticut River, Northampton, MA, Jan 31, 2014

Northern Pintails, Connecticut River, Northampton, MA, Jan 31, 2014

East Meadows/CT river below Coolidge Bridge (with Jacob):
Canada Geese -1250 (minimum count...likely more)
Hybrid Goose -1 either a Canada x Greater White Fronted Goose or Canada x Graylag Goose (thoughts on bird welcome)
Black Ducks -57 (nice show of this species)
Mallards -410 (minimum count)Wood Duck -1  female
Northern Pintail -2 males
Hooded Mergansers -3 (two males and a female)
Common Mergansers -6
Northern Harrier -1
Horned Lark  -21 (minimum)
Red winged Blackbird -110  groups of birds moving past us just before we left...high count for end of January. 

Honey Pot (with Jacob):
Northern Harrier -1
Snow Bunting -23  single group flyover
American Tree Sparrow -45 (minimum count)
Savannah Sparrow -1 (pale bird that I was unable to get a good photo of)
Song Sparrow -2
White throated Sparrow -1

Eastern Meadowlarks, Silvio O. Conte NWR, Hadley, MA, Jan 31, 2014

Eastern Meadowlarks, Silvio O. Conte NWR, Hadley, MA, Jan 31, 2014

Silvio O. Conte NWR (with Jacob):
Eastern Meadowlark  -7  seen well feeding in field, up to eight have been seen here lately but we had just the seven.  Quite unusual in winter, especially in numbers.

Bald Eagle, North Lane Conservation Area, Hadley, MA, Jan 31, 2014

Bald Eagle, North Lane Conservation Area, Hadley, MA, Jan 31, 2014

North Lane Conservation Area:
Common Mergansers -14
Bald Eagles -2

Peregrine Falcon, Honey Pot, Hadley, MA, Jan 31, 2014

Honey Pot (again):
Canada Geese -500+ moving north
Peregrine Falcon  -1 making several passes at crows


Holyoke Dam area:
Canada Geese -109
Mallards-77
Common Goldeneye -1 (just one...odd)
Common Mergansers -12
Gulls -nearly 60 but just Ring billed and Herring Gulls (largest groups of gulls there yet this year!)

Winsor Dam with reservoir frozen over completely, Jan 31, 2014

A brief stop at Winsor Dam found the entire reservoir frozen with very little activity at all.  Hopefully it warms up before the arrival of waterfowl this year. 

With today being the final day of January I will take a look at where I stand as far as birds seen so far.  Although I’m not trying to break my Hampshire County record it is always fun to compare one year to the next.  I currently have seen 81 species in the county for the year which is just bit behind from the 85 I had at this time last year.  However last year was a big irruption year of northern birds and the weather was a bit warmer so I’m very happy to have as many species as I do.  Compared to the last several years I’m a quite a bit ahead with the following totals from those years: 2012-60 species, 2011-45 species, 2010-51 species, 2009-34 species, 2008-51 species and 2007-42 species. 

With February comes the true doldrums of birding here, especially with a cold winter.  Most areas of water are frozen over and there is little movement of birds.  At least as the month drags on owls should get more vocal, some raptors will get more active and Turkey Vultures should arrive.