Friday, November 18, 2016

Various stops the last couple days turns up more waterfowl including Brant and Red throated Loon

Bald Eagle, Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, MA, Nov 18, 2016
Canada Goose with extensive white on face and neck, Hadley, MA, Nov 18, 2016
Horned Grebes, Quabbin Park, MA, Nov 18, 2016
I finally had a full day off and I spent the morning covering a wide area from Quabbin over the the river and down to the Holyoke Dam.  Some decent stuff around on a sunny and (eventually) warm day.  Highlights are below:

Quabbin Park/Winsor Dam: Seven species of waterfowl including three flyby Long tailed Ducks and some photogenic Bald Eagles at Winsor Dam and 14 Horned Grebes at Hank's Meadow.

Hadley:  Brant in among large flock (660+) of Canada Geese including one with extensive white on the face and neck. The Brant was very tough to find as it was frequently blocked by the much larger Canada Geese.  It appears the Brant is the individual that has been hanging out at the UMASS campus pond for weeks now as the pond did not have a Brant when I checked.

Connecticut River-Hadley:  A long tailed Duck.

Honey Pot:  Very few sparrows around with nothing unusual despite checking several areas...I'm sure once we get a little snow the birds remaining will get a little more concentrated.

Holyoke Dam:  a few hundred Canada Geese and hundreds of gulls of three species (most numerous being Ring billed Gull by far).

Lake Wallace:  No sign of the Red headed Woodpecker during a brief stop
Brant, Hadley, MA, Nov 17, 2016
Peregrine Falcon and Northern Harrier, Hadley, MA, Nov 17, 2016
Red throated Loon, Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, MA, Nov 17, 2016
I made it for a short time in the morning on Thursday before I had to be in Deerfield for a class and I had a few good sightings including a Pine Siskin with a group of goldfinches flying past in Quabbin Park and a large group of Canada Geese in Hadley which included a Brant and a Red throated Loon at Winsor Dam...not quite the 50+ Red throated Loons seen in Berkshire County a few days ago but any Red throated Loon inland is nice to see.

No comments:

Post a Comment