More scouting for the Northampton Christmas Bird Count

Barred Owl, Hatfield, MA, Dec 14, 2018

Snow Goose, Great Pond, Hatfield, MA, Dec 14, 2018

Snow Goose, Great Pond, Hatfield, MA, Dec 14, 2018

White throated Sparrow, Great Pond, Hatfield, MA, Dec 14, 2018

White throated Sparrows, Great Pond, Hatfield, MA, Dec 14, 2018

Black Ducks, Great Pond, Hatfield, MA, Dec 14, 2018

Canada Goose with extensive white on neck, Great Pond, Hatfield, MA, Dec 14, 2018

Common Goldeneyes, Hatfield, MA, Dec 14, 2018

Eastern Coyote, Hatfield, MA, Dec 14, 2018

I spent a majority of the morning today continuing to scout for the upcoming Northampton Christmas Bird Count (CBC) that takes place this coming Sunday.  It was a pleasant morning checking the northern portion of the area (Great Pond and areas north along the river in Hatfield) assigned to our group.  I started off along the river before dawn where I had some small groups of waterfowl along the river but little in the way of land birds although I did have a day hunting Barred Owl on my way out of the area.  My next stop was over to Great Pond trying to catch back up with the Common Gallinule I found there about a week ago (no luck despite much effort).  I did have a nice selection of waterfowl including a Snow Goose in among the few hundred Canada Geese (one of which had extensive white on the neck), at least 122 Black Ducks (my highest count ever for a single location in the county), hundreds of Mallards, a Green winged Teal and a Northern Pintail.  I also had a few pockets of birds along the shore including dozens of White throated Sparrows. After a few hours in the area of the pond I headed back along the river where I picked up even more waterfowl including an impressive 79 Common Goldeneyes.  Overall for the morning I had 37 species within our CBC area.  Tough to say what will turn up on Sunday but hopefully some of the birds from this morning will stick around and if not some can become count week species for our area. The Snow Goose became species #90 for Hampshire County in December...a total I have not reached before and one I should be able to add to before the month comes to an end...I'm going to try for a hundred but it will be tough to get there.  Full eBird lists from the morning below:
https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S50654663
https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S50654667
https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S50655480
https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S50656163
https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S50656158

Snow Goose, UMASS, Amherst, MA, Dec 14, 2018

Canada Goose hybrid, UMASS, Amherst, MA, Dec 14, 2018

I made a brief stop by UMASS where I found a Snow Goose and the hybrid Canada Goose among the hundreds of Canada Geese on the fields and in the campus pond.  I ran out of time to scan through the flock on the pond completely to see if the Cackling Goose was still there.