October ends and November begins

Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, MA, Oct 29, 2017

Long tailed Duck and Black Scoters, Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, MA, Oct 29, 2017

Long tailed Duck and Black Scoters, Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, MA, Oct 29, 2017

Quabbin Gate 5, Belchertown, MA, Nov 1, 2017

Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, MA, Nov 1, 2017

The storm last weekend into Monday brought heavy rain and strong wind and knocked out power to a large area of the northeast.  Thankfully we managed to be without power for just about half a day but others to the east were not as lucky.  The power outage kept me from getting out as early and often as I hoped at the end of the storm but I still managed to find some waterfowl and other interesting stuff at Quabbin Park including a Surf Scoter, six Black Scoters and a Long tailed Duck on Sunday and a Surf Scoter, 14 Black Scoters, a Eastern Phoebe and a Snow Bunting on Monday.  The first of November 1st at south Quabbin brought in 17 Bufflehead, a Red throated Loon and a Bonaparte's Gull.  Elsewhere in the area there was a nice influx of waterfowl including impressive numbers of Brant plus a number of shorebird species.


As a follow up to my earlier post (Storm end of October) regarding a big influx of southern species into southern Nova Scotia (and elsewhere in the northeast) there is an interesting article from Birdcast explaining the occurrence in greater detail at the following link:  neotropical transport into northeastern north america.  There is another interesting article at the following link from researchers from Bon Portage Island on the southwest coast of Nova Scotia regarding the fallout of birds- Bon Portage Island.   Below are a few eBird lists that illustrate the influx quite well-
https://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S40188024
https://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S40196982
https://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S40168130

The next several days will feature a roller coaster of temperatures and conditions that should push in more migrants on the days when the winds come in out of the north.  Today it warmed to around 70 with southerly winds but by tonight the winds will become gusty out of the northwest and the high tomorrow will be in the low 50's.  It will warm a bit again later into the weekend and into Monday before cooling down again on Tuesday with highs again back in the low 50's.  Waterfowl migration should be the heaviest tomorrow and again on Tuesday morning.  Hopefully something unusual shows up.