Waterfowl begins arriving despite the cold and northerly winds

Greater White fronted Goose, Connecticut River, Hadley, MA, Mar 6, 2021

Greater White fronted Goose, Connecticut River, Hadley, MA, Mar 6, 2021

Bufflehead, Connecticut River, Hadley, MA, Mar 6, 2021

Wood Ducks (and an American Wigeon), Connecticut River, Hadley, MA, Mar 6, 2021

American Wigeons, Connecticut River, Hadley, MA, Mar 6, 2021

Northern Pintails, Connecticut River, Hadley, MA, Mar 6, 2021

The first week of March has come to an end and overall the month has been colder than normal with a persistent northerly wind for most of the week.  The continued cold weather has kept many areas ice covered but thankfully the Connecticut River has been relatively ice free which has resulted in some nice conglomerations of waterfowl over the last few days.  I didn't make it over to the river today instead staying close to home in the Quabbin area (which featured little in the way of waterfowl).  Yesterday I managed to get two stops in along the river on my way into work some overtime and on my way home.  The morning stop produced a total of nine species of waterfowl with highlights including 69 Wood Ducks, 4 American Wigeon and a pair of Northern Pintails but no sign of the Greater White fronted Goose or Cackling Goose I found at the same location yesterday morning (more on that below).  A brief late afternoon stop did turn the Greater White fronted Goose up as well as none other species of waterfowl including a Bufflehead and an amazing 145 Wood Ducks.  The windy weather and tough lighting conditions late in the day made viewing tough but with a scope you could get decent looks at all the birds.  Thankfully many others got to enjoy the Greater White fronted Goose as well as other waterfowl (the Cackling Goose never turned back up).  So far for the month I have found a total of 15 species of waterfowl and I suspect with the forecast for warming temperatures courtesy of southerly winds I should be able to add to that number.

Greater White fronted Goose, Connecticut River, Hadley, MA, Mar 5, 2021

Ring necked Ducks, Connecticut River, Hadley, MA, Mar 5, 2021

I had an entirely free morning on Friday and decided to hit a few spots looking for waterfowl.  With the continued colder than normal temperatures some of the small inlets along the Connecticut River froze back up but the main river remained open.  My most productive stop was in the southern part of Hadley where I had a nice gathering of waterfowl including a Greater White fronted Goose and a Cackling Goose among several hundred Canada Geese as well as a half dozen species of ducks including my first American Wigeon for the year.  I managed to get some distant photos of the Greater White fronted Goose but I missed on the Cackling Goose which I was unable to relocate after getting distracted by the GWFG (several groups of geese flew out heading north and I assume the Cackling Goose was with them.  With a strong north wind (producing wind chills below zero early on) I suspect the geese didn't go too far but I was unable to relocate them in any fields I checked in Hadley and Amherst.