American Coots, Great Pond, Hatfield, MA, Nov 3, 2022
American Coots, Great Pond, Hatfield, MA, Nov 3, 2022
Blackbirds leaving roost, Great Pond, Hatfield, MA, Nov 3, 2022
Black capped Chickadee without a tail (AKA Chickadee Antpitta), Great Pond, Hatfield, MA, Nov 3, 2022
Rusty Blackbird, Great Pond, Hatfield, MA, Nov 3, 2022
Song Sparrow, Great Pond, Hatfield, MA, Nov 3, 2022
Fox Sparrow, Great Pond, Hatfield, MA, Nov 3, 2022
House Finch, Great Pond, Hatfield, MA, Nov 3, 2022
Yellow rumped Warbler 'myrtle', Great Pond, Hatfield, MA, Nov 3, 2022
I headed over to Hatfield before dawn to check some areas in the area of Great Pond in the hopes of finding some lingering warblers once things warmed up. I made a few stops along the river and turned up several Eastern Screech Owls plus a Snow Bunting flying around and calling before the sun came up. I then spent the next few hours at
Great Pond looking for late warblers and other lingering species. Thankfully there were no hunters around for the morning and it was a pleasure to be outside, even if it was a bit chilly early on before the sun started warming things up a bit. I turned up a nice high count of American Coots among the limited diversity of waterfowl. I could hear lots of calling from blackbirds and grackles that were roosting at the pond and eventually the hordes took off in mass over the course of about ten minutes when thousands of birds streamed out to the south. I was scanning through the masses and as a group of a thousand plus Common Grackles flew by low I picked out a lone male Yellow headed Blackbird among them. The birds were gone before I had a chance to try to get the camera for a photo. I got the word out about the bird as quick as I could and amazingly Cory turned up what was almost certainly the same bird flying south and calling along the river in Hadley perhaps ten minutes after I saw it in Hatfield. I suspect the bird will return to roost at Great Pond again so hopefully others will get to see it. Yellow headed Blackbird is a fairly rare species here and I have had six records of the species ever in Hampshire County with all but one being in fall and the other being in
February this year. The post about the one I had in
October of last year has more links to other sightings over the years. Always a fun species to turn up among the hordes of blackbirds and grackles. Besides the species mentioned above there were lots of other stuff among the 51 species present including loads of House Finches and American Goldfinches and eight species of sparrows but just one species of warbler.
Turkey Vulture, Silvio Conte NWR-Fort River, Hadley, MA, Nov 3, 2022
Red breasted Mergansers, Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, MA, Nov 3, 2022
Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, MA, Nov 3, 2022
After my time at Great Pond I started my way toward home but did stop for a short visit to Silvio Conte NWR-Fort River looking for warblers but finding none at all. It was not a totally unproductive stop as I had three Turkey Vultures and three Evening Grosbeaks that flew by calling and headed off to the southeast...the grosbeaks look to be staging an incursion into the area that is just beginning and hopefully lots more will follow. I also made a brief stop at a dead calm Winsor Dam where I had nine species of waterfowl including a couple Red breasted Mergansers and a distant Red throated Loon.
Ruddy Ducks, Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, MA, Nov 2, 2022
Ruddy Ducks, Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, MA, Nov 2, 2022
Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, MA, Nov 2, 2022
On the second I headed out mainly in search of lingering warblers and despite hitting a number of spots in Hadley and Amherst I only managed to find some Yellow rumped Warblers. While I was out I heard about ten Ruddy Ducks at
Winsor Dam and eventually I made my way over there and the ducks were still present. Ten is a great count for this species that can be tough to find in the county for some reason. I also had a high count of 22 Long tailed Ducks plus a couple Greater Yellowlegs. It was a nice and warm day eventually with highs that hit 70.
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