The past several days featured waterfowl and a continued Spotted Sandpiper

Bald Eagle, Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, MA, Nov 12, 2016

Bald Eagle, Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, MA, Nov 12, 2016

Bufflehead, Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, MA, Nov 12, 2016

Bufflehead and Common Merganser, Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, MA, Nov 12, 2016

Spotted Sandpiper, Quabbin Park, MA, Nov 12, 2016

Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, MA, Nov 12, 2016

Following the strong northwest winds yesterday and overnight I made it over to the dam bright and early to see if any waterfowl moved in overnight and I eventually had a total of 17 Bufflehead there plus flyby Black Ducks, Mallards, Canada Geese, four Common Mergansers and a few Common Loons.  I also checked Quabbin Park and Beaver Lake and turned up more waterfowl as well as the Spotted Sandpiper present for several days now.  Other notables included a couple flyover Evening Grosbeaks at the Route 9 marsh, a few Snow Buntings and Horned Larks and a few hundred crows migrating.  I added a single White winged Scoter during a brief stop back at the dam in the late afternoon.  I found a total of a dozen species of waterfowl over the course of the day.

Common Loon, Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, MA, Nov 11, 2016

Bufflehead, Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, MA, Nov 11, 2016

Long tailed Duck and Bufflehead, Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, MA, Nov 11, 2016

Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, MA, Nov 11, 2016

I had high hopes yesterday that I would find something good as a cold front was forecast to move through around 9AM and result in a strong northwest wind which would hopefully move some birds.  The date of November 11 also has some great history for me at the dam with two first Hampshire County records occurring there for me on this date with a King Eider in 2013 and a Pacific Loon in 2015.  I arrived and found the winds still out of the southwest (they didn't turn to the northwest until a little after ten but once they did they stayed strong for the rest of the day).  I was joined for part of the morning by Mike, Devin and Aidan.  Most of the waterfowl I had for the morning was early on before the winds shifted and made viewing anything on the water nearly impossible.  Although nothing unusual showed up there was a decent movement of raptors with seven species noted...perhaps my luck at the dam on November 11th occurs every other year...I guess I will find out next year.

Long tailed Ducks, Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, MA, Nov 10, 2016

Common Loon, Quabbin Gate 5, Belchertown, MA, Nov 10, 2016

Spotted Sandpiper, Quabbin Park, MA, Nov 10, 2016

Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, MA, Nov 10, 2016

On what would be the first of three mornings that I would spend around south Quabbin I turned up three Long tailed Ducks, 10 Bufflehead, several loons and the continued Spotted Sandpiper at Gate 52.

Brant, UMASS campus pond, Amherst, MA, Nov 9, 2016

Horned Grebes, Quabbin Park, MA, Nov 9, 2016

On Wednesday I started at Quabbin Park and then travelled over to Amherst and then down through Hadley before heading back home. Quabbin park had the typical species plus a trilling screech owl that I was never able to find despite sounding like it was right next to me.  The lingering Brant continued at the campus pond.  The rest of my travels didn't turn up anything unusual.