The remnants of Hurricane Delta worked through the area yesterday with some rain, wind out of the northeast and cool temperatures. I started my morning out at Winsor Dam where I had some Canada Geese moving before it was even light. Other waterfowl of note seen during my early stop included an unidentified scoter flying past, a Red breasted Merganser, four Red necked Grebes and 11 Common Loons. After an hour at the dam I decided to head over to the East Meadows to try again for the Nelson's Sparrow before the heavy rain forecast for Monday into Tuesday made access down there impossible. Mary and Joe were already there when I arrived and the bird had been a no show so far. We looked for awhile without success although Mary did have an interesting sparrow that never turned back up. Overall sparrow numbers were down from the previous days so perhaps the Nelson's Sparrow had moved on. I figured I would make a swing past North Hadley on my way home in the hopes of turning the Brewer's Blackbird Scott had yesterday back up but when I arrived at the spot there was some farm work going on and the immediate area was basically devoid of birds. As the rain continued to increase I figured I would try my luck at Winsor Dam again and this stop turned out to be even more productive. I had a distant group of four scoters that remained unidentified but thankfully another foursome of scoters flew in and these proved to be two each of Black Scoter and Surf Scoter. The scoters showed quite well for quite awhile before they drifted further away to the northwest. Scanning among the several Common Loons present eventually turned up a Red throated Loon that retained a bit of its breeding colors. I got the word on the various unusual species present and as I was leaving additional birders started to arrive. A trip back to Winsor Dam later in the day found the scoters still present as well as a flyover of at least one Evening Grosbeak.
A front coming in from the west picked up the remaining moisture from the remnants of Hurricane Delta and dumped rain on the area for most of the day occasionally heavy at times. I made a few different stops at Winsor Dam and a couple spots in Quabbin Park. It was much less productive than yesterday with the only waterfowl at Winsor Dam being a single White winged Scoter and a couple Common Loons. Quabbin Park was also fairly quiet with the most active spot being the Route 9 marsh.
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