Pine Siskins continue to arrive and some early waterfowl at Winsor Dam

Pine Siskins, Quabbin Park, MA, Sep 28, 2014

White winged Scoter, Quabbin Park, MA, Sep 28, 2014

White winged Scoter, Quabbin Park, MA, Sep 28, 2014

Greater Scaup, Quabbin Park, MA, Sep 28, 2014

Winsor Dam as the fog slowly lifts (with Canada Geese on water), Sep 28, 2014

With just a few hours this morning before having other commitments I decided to stay close to home.  The fog was very thick this morning and only started to truly lift as I ran out of time to be out birding.  I started predawn at Winsor Dam listening for nocturnal flight calls and had a few.  I then headed over to Lake Wallace in the hopes of finding some fog free areas but no luck.  I still managed to find nearly fifty Wood Ducks there (and I suspect there were many more).  I then headed back to Quabbin and hit a few places in Quabbin Park where I turned up 36 species including eight species of warbler.  The incursion of Pine Siskins continues and I had a couple of small flocks that totaled seven birds.  It was actually interesting in that I had one group of three in a tree and then a few more flew over and the ones in the tree started calling over and over until the other birds joined them.  A final half hour stop at Winsor Dam produced some great early waterfowl including a White winged Scoter, a Greater Scaup and a Green winged Teal in among the 90+ Mallards and 50+ Canada Geese.  Managed a few distant shots with the iPhone through the scope...still amazing the results I can get given the distances involved.  It was interesting to slowly watch the fog lift and reveal more and more birds sitting on the water.  Wish I could have stayed a little longer there or checked some other areas for waterfowl but no time today.