Another storm brings in more waterfowl on northerly winds

Black Scoters, Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, MA, Nov 1, 2014

White winged Scoters and Black Scoters, Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, MA, Nov 1, 2014

Long tailed Ducks, Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, MA, Nov 1, 2014

Long tailed Ducks (and Black Ducks upper right), Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, MA, Nov 1, 2014

Brant, Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, MA, Nov 1, 2014

Brant, Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, MA, Nov 1, 2014

Black Scoters, Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, MA, Nov 1, 2014

Bald Eagle, Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, MA, Nov 1, 2014

Bald Eagle, Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, MA, Nov 1, 2014

White winged Scoters and Black Scoters, Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, MA, Nov 1, 2014

Red throated Loon, Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, MA, Nov 1, 2014

As yet another storm moves up the coast we got more cool temperatures and strong winds out of the north/northeast but luckily we dodged any accumulating snow (which was a decent possibility with a slight change in the storm track).  Although it was cloudy most of the morning the rain held off until late morning so I was able to spend some time at Quabbin once again looking for waterfowl.  I started in Quabbin Park where yet again deer hunting limited the areas accesible (how there are any of the nearly tame deer left alive after several days of hunting is a mystery).  Despite the limited access I still managed to find seven species of waterfowl between Gate 52 and the Route 9 marsh including nine Wood Ducks, 81 Black Ducks, a Green winged Teal, a dozen Hooded Mergansers, a Common Loons plus a few Canada Geese and 32 Mallards.

I then spent almost three hours at Winsor Dam watching for birds moving on the strong winds.  Most of the time there I was joined by Scott who stayed until a little after 9:30.  As expected a decent showing of scoters and Long tailed Ducks as well as other waterfowl including rare inland species such as a Red throated Loon and a group of seven Brant moving rapidly south.  Also some raptor movement with most being Bald Eagles and Red tailed Hawks.  The full list below:

Winsor Dam

Brant 7         Rare. Together flying south, photos
Canada Goose 37       Groups of 9,21,7
American Black Duck 6
White-winged Scoter 13      Groups of 9,2,2
Black Scoter 91       Groups of 14, 3, 18, 36, 8,12
Surf/Black Scoter 8      too distant to ID
Long-tailed Duck 59    High count, groups of 30,2,27
Hooded Merganser 1
Red throated Loon    unusual inland
Common Loon 4
Horned Grebe 1
Osprey 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk 1
Cooper's Hawk 2
Bald Eagle 8
Red-tailed Hawk 6
Ring-billed Gull 8
Red-bellied Woodpecker 1
Peregrine Falcon 1 flying north
Blue Jay 4
American Crow 79
Common Raven 23 One group of 22 plus a single
American Robin 36
Dark-eyed Junco (Slate-colored) 6
Pine Siskin 1