Quabbin Park

Black Ducks, Quabbin Park, MA, Oct 11, 2014

Horned Grebe, Quabbin Park, MA, Oct 11, 2014

Pied billed Grebe, Quabbin Park, MA, Oct 11, 2014

Winsor Dam just before the heavier rain started, Oct 11, 2014

With the forecast for rain starting well before dawn and fairly calm winds before the arrival of the rain I hoped to find some grounded waterfowl migrants down on the water.  The forecast was wrong once again and the rain didn't start until after daybreak and the heavier rain didn't begin until after 8AM so no birds brought down by the weather....too bad as there seemed to be a lot of birds in the air last night with the radar quite active and birds calling including some Canada Geese flying by after 11PM.  I started before dawn at Winsor Dam and then moved through Quabbin Park with a brief detour to Beaver Lake before going back to Winsor Dam.  Even without the weather playing out as forecast I still found some decent waterfowl at Quabbin (nothing but a few Mallards at Beaver Lake).  The totals for waterfowl at Quabbin (mainly within the park) included eight Canada Geese, 11 Wood Ducks, a fairly high count of 67 Black Ducks (61 in one flock at Hank's Meadow), four Mallards, a single Common Merganser, three Common Loons, a Pied billed Grebe, half a dozen Horned Grebe (my first ones of the fall) and a Double crested Cormorant.  Other migrants were around in low numbers, probably due to the cool, damp weather.  A few other stops at Winsor Dam over the remainder of the morning as the rain continued to come down didn't turn up anything else.