Northern Shovelers (and others) on the Connecticut River

Northern Shoveler, Holyoke Dam, South Hadley, MA, Mar 11, 2014

Northern Shoveler, Holyoke Dam, South Hadley, MA, Mar 11, 2014

Northern Shoveler, Holyoke Dam, South Hadley, MA, Mar 11, 2014

Northern Shoveler with American Wigeon, Holyoke Dam, South Hadley, MA, Mar 11, 2014

Common Goldeneye, Holyoke Dam, South Hadley, MA, Mar 11, 2014

American Wigeon, Holyoke Dam, South Hadley, MA, Mar 11, 2014

American Wigeon, Holyoke Dam, South Hadley, MA, Mar 11, 2014

Ring necked Duck, Hadley Falls Canal Park, South Hadley, MA, Mar 11, 2014

After seeing a post from Bob and Lura B. about a few Northern Shovelers (and lots of other stuff) down near the Holyoke Dam and having the sun out and temperatures around 55 I took off from work a little early to enjoy the day.  I initially stopped at the Hadley Falls Canal Park and had the following waterfowl:  three Mute Swans, a couple Black Ducks, a dozen Mallards, two Northern Shovelers (way out, too far out for photos), 15 Ring necked Ducks, a Bufflehead, seven Hooded Mergansers and 17 Common Mergansers.  No sign of the various grebes Bob and Lura had but I didn't have a ton of time to scan.  I decided to head down below the dam in the hopes that the other shoveler they below the dam was still present and hopefully a bit closer.  Below the dam I had four American Wigeon, a couple Mallards, a male Northern Shoveler (much closer than the other two above the dam), 48 Common Goldeneye and four Hooded Merganser. Northern Shovelers are tough to find in western mass most years so having three in one small stretch of river this year was cool.

Before work I stopped briefly at North Lane in Hadley and had 18 Mallards, a Bufflehead and a couple Hooded Mergansers on the river.  I really wish I had the entire day to explore the river because I'm sure I could have turned up even more good stuff but oh well...happy to get what I did get.