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| Gray Jay, Gate 41, Petersham, MA, Nov 7, 2014 |
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| Gray Jay, Gate 41, Petersham, MA, Nov 7, 2014 |
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| Gray Jay, Gate 41, Petersham, MA, Nov 7, 2014 |
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| Gray Jay, Gate 41, Petersham, MA, Nov 7, 2014 |
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| Gray Jay, Gate 41, Petersham, MA, Nov 7, 2014 |
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| Gray Jay, Gate 41, Petersham, MA, Nov 7, 2014 |
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| Long tailed Ducks, Gate 5, Belchertown, MA, Nov 7, 2014 |
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| Wood Ducks and Hooded Mergansers, Quabbin Park, MA, Nov 7, 2014 |
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| Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, MA, Nov 7, 2014 |
My intention this morning was to spend a substantial amount of time at Winsor Dam checking for passing waterfowl as the forecast called for strong northwest winds. When I arrived at Winsor Dam before dawn the winds were nearly calm and the only waterfowl I could find were a handful of Black Ducks and Mallards flying out of their roost and heading southwest. I decided to head into Quabbin Park looking for waterfowl and made stops at Hank's Meadow, Goodnough Dike and the Route 9 marsh. Hank's Meadow and Goodnough produced a total of 8 Common Loons, five Horned Grebes and a Red necked Grebe. The marsh held 31 Canada Geese, 9 Wood Ducks, six Black Ducks, 4 Mallards and ten Hooded Mergansers. I then headed back over to Winsor Dam around seven and found a female White winged Scoter, a Common Loon and four distant dark diving ducks that seemed to be out near the area of gate 5 so I headed over to gate 5 to try to get a better look. I arrived there and found the ducks to be four female Black Scoters. In addition I had two Long tailed Ducks, five flyby Bufflehead, two Common Loons and four Horned Grebes. The other species of note there was a single flock of 35 Pine Siskins working there way through a pine grove. With the winds still just light out of the north and little obvious waterfowl migration in progress I decided I would make the drive up to Quabbin Gate 41 in Petersham to try to find the Gray Jay that was found there by Mark Lynch a few days ago. I arrived there around nine and found four other birders there but no jay. I walked around the area a bit and came across a flock of siskins but again no jay. Around 9:40 or so we heard a vocalization from the jay and it then made an appearance on the far side of the beaver pond where it drank some water and took a quick bath before flying to a few trees and finally disappearing back into a pine grove and out of view. We were all happy to get a look at this bird of the north that makes very rare appearances this far south. Although not a Hampshire County bird the Gray Jay did become a new species in the state for me and a new Quabbin bird (Quabbin species #234). A few other stops back at Winsor Dam over the course of the day found the winds had indeed finally increased out of the north but the winds didn't produce anything too noteworthy. The occasional rain made viewing tough too...perhaps tomorrow will produce some waterfowl before the winds switch to the south.
What kind of camera and lends do you use? because you get some pretty sweet
ReplyDeleteshots with whatever you use.
**lenses**
DeleteI use a canon 7D with a 300mm lens and 1.4x teleconverter...the jay has actually been more cooperative on other days but it stayed on the other side of the pond the day I was there so these shots are heavily cropped....I was happy to get any shots at all!
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