Morning with freezing fog today along the river

House Finches, Honey Pot, Hadley, MA, Dec 6, 2015

Song Sparrow, Honey Pot, Hadley, MA, Dec 6, 2015

Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, MA, Dec 6, 2015

I had plans today to make it over to Arcadia and then work back east over the course of the morning looking for owls early on and then waterfowl.  As I drove over before dawn the fog greatly limited visibility and caused some slick spots as the temperatures were a bit below freezing (freezing fog).  I arrived at Arcadia before dawn and drove a few of the roads and was lucky to have a Short eared Owl fly past me and then disappear into the fog not to be seen again.  I checked the Arcadia marsh but the fog limited my ability to see everything that was in the marsh.  Nonetheless I had 270+ Canada Geese, a couple Wood Ducks, three Black Ducks, 27 Mallards and one each of Common and Hooded Merganser.  I then checked a few spots along the river in Hadley but again the fog made viewing tough and I had just some Canada Geese and Mallards.  The Honey Pot featured some sparrows as well as a good number of House Finches but nothing really unusual.  With the fog hanging tough I drove past fields in Amherst and Hadley but didn't have any luck finding anything in them.  The campus pond at UMASS held about 150 Canada Geese plus Mallards and a single Black Duck.  I tried the river and some fields again but the fog just would not lift so I headed back toward home with a brief stop at Winsor Dam which is where the fog finally lifted around 10AM.  Unfortunately the reservoir was completely empty of birds.

Wild Turkeys, Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, MA, Dec 5, 2015

Yesterday I stayed around the south Quabbin area which was fairly quiet with the highlights being 29 Hooded Mergansers at Beaver Lake a group of 22 Wild Turkeys at Winsor Dam and eight Horned Grebes together at Hank's Meadow.