Another Brant and our first bit of snow

Brant, UMASS campus pond, Amherst, MA, Oct 29, 2016

Brant, UMASS campus pond, Amherst, MA, Oct 29, 2016

Brant, UMASS campus pond, Amherst, MA, Oct 29, 2016

Hooded Mergansers, Quabbin Park, MA, Oct 29, 2016

Red headed Woodpecker, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Oct 29, 2016

Red headed Woodpecker, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Oct 29, 2016

Red tailed Hawk, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Oct 29, 2016

Bonaparte's Gulls, Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, MA, Oct 29, 2016

Snow Bunting, Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, MA, Oct 29, 2016

Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, MA, Oct 29, 2016

After seeing a report from Keenan regarding a Brant that showed up at the UMASS campus pond on Friday, I headed over there right after work today and the bird was still present and provided the best views I have ever had of this species in the county (they are usually flybys or sitting distantly on the water at Quabbin).  I also checked several fields in Hadley and Amherst for other geese and ran across just a few groups with the largest numbering a couple hundred.  I then made a stop at Winsor Dam where I had two adult Bonaparte's Gulls flyby heading southeast as well as five Snow Buntings flying around and calling.  In addition there was an obvious migration of American Crows heading southeast with 500+ counted in less than 45 minutes...I imagine a longer stationary count would have produced thousands.  I also made a brief stop over to Lake Wallace to see if the Red headed Woodpecker was still around and it was once again busy stashing acorns.

Wilson eating as much snow as possible, Oct 27, 2016

Wilson taking in the first snow, Oct 27, 2016

Wilson enjoying a walk without snow, Oct 29, 2016

We had a little snow Thursday afternoon into the evening and we ended up with about an inch or so before it changed to heavy rain thus avoiding a repeat of five years ago when we got nailed with heavy snow around the same time of year and lost power for a week.  We really just narrowly avoided a repeat as areas nearby that stayed snow just a couple hours longer ended up with a few more inches which resulted in lots of limbs and trees coming down (but still not as bad as four years ago).  Wilson certainly enjoyed the arrival of some early season snow!