A day at Winsor Dam

Bald Eagle, Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, Mar 22, 2014

Bald Eagle, Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, Mar 22, 2014

Bald Eagle, Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, Mar 22, 2014

Turkey Vulture, Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, Mar 22, 2014

Red shouldered Hawk, Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, Mar 22, 2014

Cackling Goose (probable) with Canada Geese, Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, Mar 22, 2014

Cackling Goose (probable) with Canada Geese, Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, Mar 22, 2014

Cackling Goose (probable) with Canada Geese, Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, Mar 22, 2014

Cackling Goose (probable) with Canada Geese, Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, Mar 22, 2014

Deer carcass (not much left after a week), Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, Mar 22, 2014

Eastern Coyote, Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, Mar 22, 2014

Eastern Coyote, Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, Mar 22, 2014

With the forecast of some early snow and rain showers and southwest winds I decided to spend some hours at Winsor Dam seeing what I might find migrating.  I stopped for a couple hours in the morning, another 30 minutes late morning before the rain showers came in and another couple hours in the afternoon after the rain.  Some really good stuff despite the reservoir still being a block of ice (and therefore not really inviting to waterfowl).  I still managed to find some good waterfowl moving  including a probable Cackling Goose in among a flock of Canada Geese, 227 Canada Geese (including a few that seemed as frustrated as me seeing ice still on the Quabbin), half a dozen Black Ducks and a pair of Hooded Mergansers.  Raptors also made a good movement today (mostly after the rain) with species including 16 Turkey Vultures (sadly no Black Vultures..thought it would be a good day for them...some where seen further west), three Cooper's Hawks, an unidentified large accipiter (maybe just a large Cooper's Hawk but too distant to say for sure), nine Bald Eagles (up to six in view at once), an amazing seven Red shouldered Hawks (probably my single best day for this species in the state), 17 Red tailed Hawks and an American Kestrel that acted more like a Merlin as it dove at a couple Red tailed Hawks.  The other highlights beyond the waterfowl and raptors included at least eight Great Blue Herons moving northeast, a couple flyby Killdeer, at least 349 American Crows with the vast majority moving northeast, four Common Ravens, a Red breasted Nuthatch (tough to find this year so far), 317 American Robins, 28 Red winged Blackbirds, a flyby Rusty Blackbird calling, 64 Common Grackles and at least three cowbirds.  It is always amazing to see what comes by one point at Quabbin over the course of the day when the winds are right.  It would be interesting to see how many species I could find just at the dam in a year.  Besides the bird life I also had at least three Eastern Coyotes, eight White tailed Deer alive and the picked over remains of the deer out on the ice...nothing but bones and some fur now with just crows paying any attention to it.