The end of January brings in some geese

Greater White fronted Goose, UMASS, Amherst, MA, Jan 31, 2017

Greater White fronted Goose, UMASS, Amherst, MA, Jan 31, 2017

Cackling Goose, UMASS, Amherst, MA, Jan 31, 2017

Canada Goose with white on neck, UMASS, Amherst, MA, Jan 31, 2017

Canada Goose with white on neck, UMASS, Amherst, MA, Jan 31, 2017

Graylag x Swan Goose hybrid, UMASS, Amherst, MA, Jan 31, 2017

Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, MA, Jan 31, 2017

After spending most of the last several days inside fighting a cold I finally got so stir crazy I had to get out a little this morning.  The weather turned cold overnight with lows in the teens which rapidly refroze several bodies of water with even a bit of ice on the reservoir at Winsor Dam.  I spent little time out of the car but nevertheless still had some great birds for the end of January.  My first notable sighting was a Northern Shrike along North East St in Amherst which stayed teed up long enough to get a look at but as soon as I tried to get the scope set up to take a photo it dropped out of sight.  The area looks perfect for a shrike to stay in so hopefully some others get a look at it too.  I then made a quick stop at Orchard Hill at UMASS where I successfully caught up with the juvenile White crowned Sparrow that Keenan found there a few days ago.  As I was on the hill I got a text from Keenan telling me he had several hundred geese on the playing fields at UMASS with more birds coming in.  I made it back to the car and drove down to the campus pond for a quick look around before heading over to meet Keenan.  I was quickly looking through the couple hundred geese there when I got another text from Keenan telling me a Cackling Goose just came in.  I quickly made the short drive over to the fields and got on the sleeping Cackling Goose as well as the hybrid Greylag x Swan Goose that was discovered at the campus pond a few days ago.  As we were trying to find some other unusual geese among the hundreds of Canada Geese more geese continued to arrive in small groups with the total eventually reaching 1403 Canada Geese.  Among one of the groups was a Greater White fronted Goose that showed quite well as it fed and slept on the far right side of the flock.  The geese were still present when I left and from other reports it appears the geese eventually headed over to the campus pond.  I was starting to have the effects of the cold catch up with me again so I headed for home to get Wilson so we could get a walk in before the snow arrived and I still had some energy left.  The snow started a little earlier than the forecast called for (late morning instead of early afternoon) so our walk was cut short.  I did manage to find one more good bird at home when I had a Winter Wren down along the brook (my first for the year...very unusual to not have more of this species around).  Ended the month with 84 species despite not being out for most of the last week.