Thursday, December 16, 2021

Limited birding the last several days still turns up some notable species


Cackling Goose, UMASS, Amherst, MA, Dec 13, 2021
Snow Goose, UMASS, Amherst, MA, Dec 13, 2021
Black Ducks and a Mallard x Black Duck hybrid, Mitch's Way, Hadley, MA, Dec 14, 2021
White winged Scoter, Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, MA, Dec 15, 2021
Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, MA, Dec 15, 2021
Yellow rumped Warbler 'myrtle', Mitch's Way, Hadley, MA, Dec 16, 2021
Northern Harrier, Honey Pot, Hadley, MA, Dec 16, 2021
Red winged Blackbirds, Mitch's Way, Hadley, MA, Dec 16, 2021
Belted Kingfisher, Mitch's Way, Hadley, MA, Dec 16, 2021

I have had very little time to get out birding over the last several days after returning from my Mexico/Florida vacation.  Most of my birding activity has centered on brief stops either right near the house or spots while running errands or going to/from doctors appointments.  This morning was the first chance I have gotten to be out a few hours and I made the most of it and had a few notable species including at least one Yellow rumped Warbler (which now makes 56 continuous months of seeing and photographing at least one warbler species in Hampshire County).  Even with very limited time on the last few days I still got a few unusual species/numbers including a continued Cackling Goose at UMASS (along with a Snow Goose), a White crowned Sparrow in Hadley (which defied my attempts to photograph it), lots of Black Ducks, a White winged Scoter  and Bonaparte's Gull at Winsor Dam, a Turkey Vulture in Hadley and above typical numbers of Northern Harriers, Belted Kingfishers and Red winged Blackbirds for this time of year.  The warm up looks to come to an end by Saturday when we are forecast to get a mix of snow and rain with temps in the 30's and then cold after the storm through next week.  

Black capped Chickadee with leg bands, Home, Belchertown, MA, Dec 16, 2021
Black capped Chickadees with leg bands, Home, Belchertown, MA, Dec 16, 2021
Black capped Chickadee with leg bands, Home, Belchertown, MA, Dec 16, 2021
Black capped Chickadee with leg bands, Home, Belchertown, MA, Dec 16, 2021
Black capped Chickadee with leg bands, Home, Belchertown, MA, Dec 16, 2021
Black capped Chickadees with leg bands, Home, Belchertown, MA, Dec 16, 2021
Black capped Chickadee with leg bands, Home, Belchertown, MA, Dec 16, 2021

I finally got the feeders out after vacation and the birds immediately showed up including a number of banded Black capped Chickadees and I put on the camera late yesterday to try to capture some of the individuals and I had some success.

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