The beginning of the last week of October featured well above normal temps in the upper 70's to low 80's (including multiple record high temps) and it has been a great to not be cold at the end of October. I was able to get out a bit on each day although other obligations kept my time outside shorter than I would have liked. Nothing extremely unusual but a number of lingering species continue (I yet again focused mainly on warblers, as expected). I made a stop down to Arcadia on my way home from work after getting a delayed start when my car battery died. The highlights there included two Canada Geese with nearly totally black faces, a late Blue headed Vireo and Eastern Towhee and half a dozen Palm Warblers. On my way to work on Thursday morning I picked up another Eastern Towhee at Pines Edge Conservation Area. After work on Friday morning I stopped at a few spots on my way home without finding anything unusual. Friday was the first day I could take Wilson for a real walk since his surgery three weeks before and I was anxious to get back home and pick him up....more on my boy below. On Saturday I started my morning on the rail trail in Ware and spent an hour and half there and found some late species as well as my first Fox Sparrow of the fall. I made a few more stops as the temps continued to climb but didn't find anything too unusual beyond a close encounter of a Bobcat....some of the best looks I have had of a Bobcat in a few years.
The end of the month from Sunday to Tuesday was much different than the previous few days with slightly below average temps and some rain and with the change to colder weather I caught a bit of a cold...not surprising as I'm built for the tropics and not this arctic hellscape. After a night of northerly winds I started my morning on Sunday at Winsor Dam in the hopes of finding some waterfowl before the forecasted rain moved in. Although not as active as I expected it to be there was still some waterfowl moving. After about an hour and half I wanted to get some warbler searching in so I headed to a spot in Belchertown and found a couple late Blue headed Vireos and some Yellow rumped Warblers. The rain then started lightly and picked up as the day wore on. I did make a couple more stops at Winsor Dam and added some species including two more scoter species. Monday was a rainy, cold day with highs that never got out of the 40's. I made a few stops at Winsor Dam and found some decent waterfowl grounded by the weather including 22 Common Loons, a Red throated Loon, Bufflehead, Long tailed Duck and White winged Scoters. I also had a couple of slightly late Eastern Phoebes there in the afternoon. On Halloween I hit a few spots in Amherst and Hadley and turned up some decent stuff despite the cool temps with an Eastern Phoebe and a Common Yellowthroat at Silvio Conte NWR-Fort River.
I checked the camera on the water feature and found a number of captures. I recently found that Windscapes (a trail camera company) started selling their Birdcam again. I always liked their camera for capturing birds at either the water feature or the feeders as it could be dialed in to the exact distance and produce higher quality images. I bought two of the new Birdcams and installed one at the water feature on the 27th and got a few captures before I buttoned up the water feature for the winter.
Now more on Wilson. He had his surgery three weeks ago and the healing process has continued as he gets more comfortable with having one of his toes missing. At the three week mark he finally reached the point when we could start taking him for real walks and he did very well (beyond picking up some ticks). It was great to be able to get back out on the trail with my boy. Now we are at the point of deciding if we do any follow up treatment as far as chemo and/or radiation. All options are expensive and invasive and have multiple side effects. Still trying to decide exactly what to do but in the end the focus will be on his quality of life...if only one could see into the future with various different treatment decisions the choice would be much easier to make!
