Cold and windy morning at Winsor Dam produces a Greater White fronted Goose and my highest count of Black Ducks in the county ever

Greater White fronted Goose with Canada Geese, Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, MA, Nov 8, 2019

Greater White fronted Goose with Canada Geese, Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, MA, Nov 8, 2019

Northern Pintails and Black Duck, Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, MA, Nov 8, 2019

Northern Pintails and Black Ducks, Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, MA, Nov 8, 2019

Black Ducks and a Mallard, Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, MA, Nov 8, 2019

Bald Eagle, Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, MA, Nov 8, 2019

Northern Pintails, Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, MA, Nov 8, 2019

Long tailed Ducks, Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, MA, Nov 8, 2019

Quite a morning at Winsor Dam but damn cold!  The day dawned clear but cold with a steadily increasing wind out of the northwest that kept the high temperature to a record setting 34 degrees but that high only occurred much later in the day.  I arrived before dawn at the dam and started scanning for birds but didn't find anything on the water besides gulls (almost all ring billed gulls).  As the sun started coming up the waterfowl started arriving and continued for the next couple hours before slowing down quite a bit.  The highlights for waterfowl at the dam included a flyby Greater White fronted Goose moving southwest with a group of Canada Geese, my largest ever count of Black Ducks in Hampshire County (174 individuals beating my previous highest total by more than fifty birds) and a fairly high count of Northern Pintails.  There were a number of other species of waterfowl about but all were in fairly low numbers.  The biggest surprise was the total lack of any scoter species...very odd given the date and the conditions.  The Greater White fronted Goose was a new species for me both at Winsor Dam and Quabbin in general bringing my total at the dam to 205 and my Quabbin total to 247.  The goose was my 37th species of waterfowl I have recorded at the dam over the years (other oddities I have found here in November include King Eider and Pacific Loon...strangely both on November 11th).  In addition to the waterfowl other notables included a late Osprey, several Bald Eagles, a flyby American Pipit and a small group of Snow Buntings.

Canada Goose with odd markings, Quabbin Park, MA, Nov 8, 2019

Wood Ducks, Quabbin Park, MA, Nov 8, 2019

Hooded Mergansers, Quabbin Park, MA, Nov 8, 2019

After freezing at the dam I ran some errands but made a quick stop at the Route 9 marsh were I found a group of Canada Geese including an individual with extensive white on its neck (an entire album of unusually marked Canada Geese can be found here), 17 Wood Ducks, 21 Hooded Mergansers, a few more Black Ducks and Mallards plus a Greater Yellowlegs.  Overall for the morning I ended up with a dozen species of waterfowl.

Black capped Chickadee with leg bands, Home, Belchertown, MA, Nov 7, 2019

Black capped Chickadee with leg bands, Home, Belchertown, MA, Nov 8, 2019

I put out a few suet feeders several days ago and the camera captured a number of birds so far including both Black capped Chickadees that got banded in the yard this summer as part of the neighborhood nestwatch program.