Lesser Black backed Gull among many other species in the valley this morning

Lesser Black backed Gull (R), Hadley DPW, Hadley, MA, Mar 29, 2015

Lesser Black backed Gull (L) with four Herring Gulls and a Ring billed Gull (R), Hadley DPW, Hadley, MA, Mar 29, 2015

Lesser Black backed Gull (with Herring Gulls), Hadley DPW, Hadley, MA, Mar 29, 2015

Lesser Black backed Gull (with Herring Gull), Hadley DPW, Hadley, MA, Mar 29, 2015

I spent the morning with Jacob exploring various spots in search of arriving waterfowl and despite the morning starting off rather slow it picked up nicely and ended the day with a dozen species of waterfowl.  We started off checking a few spots along the Connecticut River below the Coolidge Bridge with the highlights including 360 Canada Geese, 28 Mallards, four Wood Ducks, 3 Ring necked Ducks, 3 Common Mergansers and a pair of Peregrine Falcons on the bridge.

Northern Pintail, North Lane, Hadley, MA, Mar 29, 2015

Lesser Scaup with Ring necked Ducks, North Lane, Hadley, MA, Mar 29, 2015

Lesser Scaup with Ring necked Ducks, North Lane, Hadley, MA, Mar 29, 2015

Great Blue Heron, North Lane, Hadley, MA, Mar 29, 2015

As we continued north along the river we stopped at the Honey Pot and then North Lane in Hadley. The Honey Pot was very quiet but North Lane was more active and we had the following : 10 Wood Ducks, two Black Ducks, two Mallards, 3 Northern Pintails, 7 Ring necked Ducks, a Lesser Scaup, a Bufflehead, 14 Common Goldeneyes, 10 Hooded Mergansers, 11 Common Mergansers and a Great Blue Heron.  We then stopped at the mainly ice covered Lake Warner but still managed to turn up some waterfowl including a dozen Canada Geese (flybys) and 18 Common Mergansers.

Snow Goose, Mill Valley Rd, Hadley, MA, Mar 29, 2015

Snow Goose, Mill Valley Rd, Hadley, MA, Mar 29, 2015

Merlin, Mill Valley Rd, Hadley, MA, Mar 29, 2015

The fields in North Hadley and nearby Amherst were very quiet so we then headed back south and we then came across a couple of flocks of geese feeding in some fields along Mill Valley Road which included a juvenile Snow Goose in among the 726 Canada Geese. Other notable there included a Merlin that zipped through heading south and a nervous flock of 35+ Horned Larks.

Snow Geese (really!), East Hadley Rd, Hadley, MA, Mar 29, 2015

As the activity continued to improve we decided to head back over toward the river to see if any new birds had arrived. Before and after our stop back by the river we checked out East Hadley Road and had some decent stuff including a very distant flock of 43 Snow Geese heading north and hundreds of blackbirds, grackles and cowbirds.

Iceland Gull, Hadley DPW, Hadley, MA, Mar 29, 2015

Lesser Black backed Gull (with Herring Gull), Hadley DPW, Hadley, MA, Mar 29, 2015

Once we arrived near the river we noticed a group of gulls milling around a field near the Hadley DPW so we headed over in the hopes of finding something unusual and we were rewarded for our effort. We picked up a couple Iceland Gulls fairly quickly in among the sixty or so gulls present. After scanning for a few minutes I said "it looks like a perfect spot for a Lesser Black backed Gull" and almost immediately Jacob said "I think I have right now" and indeed he did....now if only I could always suggest a species and have it show up right away! Lesser Black backed Gulls is very rare to find in the county and is missed most years (this is only my second record for the county and my last one was in the East Meadows back in mid April 2005). It was neat to watch it interacting with the Herring Gulls and a couple Ring billed Gulls. Always nice to have close views of unusual gulls in among a manageable size flock of more ordinary gulls. It has been a spectacular year for gulls in Hampshire County so far with six species.

The waterfowl have started to show up at home too with Canada Geese, Mallards and Wood Ducks enjoying the somewhat ice free Jabish Brook.