New Years Day birding

Red tailed Hawk, Honeypot, Jan 1, 2014

Despite the continued cold weather I decided to go out this morning to start adding to my 2014 list.  A new year brings new possibilities and the counts for everything reset back to zero.  Although not much activity is around this time of year with everything being ‘new’ once again you spend more time looking for even common species.  I started at dawn below the Holyoke Dam and then worked my way north along the Connecticut River up to Northampton and then over to Hadley and then back to Belchertown and Quabbin.  I managed to find a total of 52 species with several notable birds.  Although I missed on finding a Snowy Owl, one did continue to be seen throughout the day in Deerfield.  Here are the highlights from the day-

Holyoke Dam, both above and below with the water quite high and large areas of ice moving down river- 373 Canada Geese, a Black Duck, 76 Mallards, 5 Hooded Mergansers, a Common Merganser and a couple Bald Eagles.

Old Mill River at the Connecticut River in Northampton- four Red winged Blackbirds

East Meadows of Northampton driving through and then a scan up and down river below Coolidge Bridge- a Common Merganser, a pair of Peregrine Falcons (sitting in trees near bridge), 160+ Horned Larks (most in one large group), at least one Lapland Longspur (in with HOLA and SNBU flock...may have been more), seven Snow Buntings and 33 American Tree Sparrows.

Aqua Vitae Road- Savannah Sparrow.

Common Merganser, Honeypot, Jan 1, 2014

Northern Cardinal, Honeypot, Jan 1, 2014

Red tailed Hawk, Honeypot, Jan 1, 2014

Honeypot in Hadley- four Hooded Mergansers, a Common Merganser, three Northern Flickers, 19 Horned Larks, at least one Snow Bunting, a singing White throated Sparrow, two White crowned Sparrows (an adult and an immature in same area I had them weeks ago) and a dozen Northern Cardinals in one small area.

White throated Sparrow, Silvio O. Conte NWR, Hadley, Jan 1, 2014

Hermit Thrush, Silvio O. Conte NWR, Hadley, Jan 1, 2014

Northern Harrier harassing a Red tailed Hawk, Silvio O. Conte NWR, Hadley, Jan 1, 2014

Northern Harrier harassing a Red tailed Hawk, Silvio O. Conte NWR, Hadley, Jan 1, 2014

Silvio O. Conte NWR in Hadley- a Northern Harrier (harassing a Red tailed Hawk), 23 Mourning Doves, two Hermit Thrushes, an Eastern Meadowlark and half a dozen White throated Sparrows.

Jabish Canal trail- Five Northern Flickers and a Winter Wren.

Mallards and hybrids, Quabbin Park, Jan 1, 2014

Red necked Grebe, Quabbin Park, Jan 1, 2014

Red necked Grebe, Quabbin Park, Jan 1, 2014

Quabbin Park- Eight Black Ducks, 126 Mallards, a Hooded Merganser, a Common Merganser, two Common Loons, two Red necked Grebes (one at Hanks Meadow and the other at Goodnough), four Horned Grebes and a Belted Kingfisher.

Overall a very productive day in my opinion.  With the forecast of snow starting tonight and lasting through Friday with extremely cold temperatures this may be my only outing for several days.