Morning stop at Winsor Dam and Lake Wallace

Green Heron, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, July 29, 2014

Northern Flickers, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, July 29, 2014

Raccoon, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, July 29, 2014

Great Blue Heron on Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, MA, July 29, 2014

Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, MA, July 29, 2014

I had a little time before work this morning so I made a couple stops on my way in.  My first stop was over to Winsor Dam in the hopes of finding something of interest brought in following the cold front moving through last night but no luck.  The winds were not perfect to bring in migrants (such as a Black Tern) but I thought it was worth checking nonetheless.  A Great Blue Heron sat on the wall of the dam surveying the reservoir plus a couple loons were way out but overall it was quiet there.  I then headed over to Lake Wallace in search of unusual herons and egrets but managed just a single Great Blue Heron and several Green Herons.  Among the 40+ species present during my thirty minutes there was the continuing Sora.  Unusual herons and egrets have shown up in the last few days in the area with a juvenile Little Blue Heron in Springfield and a few Great Egrets up in the northern part of Quabbin today.  I will certainly be keeping my eyes out for some unusual wader to show up soon.  I also had a Raccoon deep in the marsh at Lake Wallace which is the first one I have ever seen there.

Meanwhile the tropics have a little activity occurring with a bit of disturbed weather way out in the Atlantic on rack to become a tropical disturbance tonight or tomorrow and then a tropical storm by the end of the week as it tracks through the Lesser Antilles and then by Puerto Rico and The Bahamas.  The exact track is far from certain and the storm is unlikely to become strong for a variety of reasons but it bears watching.  Most forecast models do not showing it impacting the east coast of the US but there is at least a chance so I figured it was worth mentioning (plus the tropics have been so quiet it is the only excitement there in a few weeks).