January has come to a very cold and slightly snowy end after being mainly dry and warmer than average for most of the month. The last couple days have featured the coldest days of the winter so far with highs in the teens and lows at night at or below zero with a fairly strong northerly wind. This has resulted in many of the previously open bodies of water freezing over. With the cold weather and work commitments I have not been out too much to end the month but have nonetheless gotten a little birding in. I focused mainly on checking on continued rarities and as well as trying to turn up new species for the year.
On the 26th I spent some time in the Honey Pot in Hadley looking through the large Common Redpoll flocks in search of a Hoary Redpoll but found none. Raptors in the area kept all the birds very alert and resulted in the flocks being flushed multiple times.
After work on the 28th I stopped by to see if the Eastern Phoebe was still around in Hadley and I found the bird fairly quickly (it looks to be doing well and possibly making it two winters in a row that the species has overwintered in the area of the waste water treatment plant).
On Saturday I got out of work on a very cold (-6 degrees) morning and headed over to a spot in Amherst that has had a few Rusty Blackbirds and almost immediately I turned up three and got a few photos with the phone through binoculars. I next headed to Winsor Dam to check for waterfowl and turned up all three species of mergansers plus a Northern Pintail. A trip into Quabbin Park didn't turn up anything unexpected and large areas of the reservoir were iced over. A bit later in the day Joe found a Double crested Cormorant so I made a quick trip back in the early afternoon and saw that bird.
For the last day of the month I started yet another very cold morning off at Winsor Dam with temps at -1 and a slight breeze and the reservoir was nearly devoid of birds. I then spent a couple hours in the Hadley and Amherst area in search of other new species for the year but found nothing new.
I managed to shatter my record for species for a January in Hampshire County seeing a total of 105, with my previous best year being 93 (an average January producing in the high 70's to mid 80's for species). The large total is a certainly a combination of factors including some continued rarities, warmer than normal conditions, several species of irruptives around and me being stuck here due to the pandemic.
I also checked the trail cam at home along the Jabish Brook and turned up a number of mammals with the highlight being a continued Bobcat that showed up several times.
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