When I headed out into the cold on the first of December my main goal was to try to track down a warbler in Hampshire County for the month and I was thankfully successful in that quest (more on the warblers and other stuff for the day at the end of the post). What I did not expect to find was a first Hampshire County record of Harlequin Duck but that is exactly what happened. After spending a few hours in Hadley and Amherst I headed toward home with the plan for a brief stop at Winsor Dam before going home to finish packing for a trip down to the tropics and away from this winter weather. I set up the scope and started scanning and came across a few Common Loons and some Ring billed Gulls and then came across a single distant duck tucked in close to the far end of the dam. I immediately noticed the white spot at the rear of the head and fairly short bill. The distance was far and views less than stellar even at 60x but I was able to quickly eliminate any other species from contention except a female Harlequin Duck. I got a few distant photos and videos to get some documentation on what I knew to be a major rarity if my ID was correct. Although fairly confident I wanted to get some closer looks before calling it for sure. I walked out along the dam and despite some looking I could not locate it. I had a fear it had taken off unseen as I walked out but hoped it was just staying in close enough to the rocks on the dam to be out of view from the dam itself. I then walked back to my original vantage point and saw it was still in roughly the same spot. I then studied the bird a bit more and was certain it was a Harlequin Duck. I got the word out to a number of birders and posted the report to eBird. I then lost track of the bird as it swam around the corner of the dam into an area that was not visible from the admin building area where I was viewing from. I then left and headed home and hoped some others would relocate it. I got some texts about an hour later that others indeed did see it again and got some better views from the dam itself so I headed back again and got some much better views as it continued to play hide and seek along the face of the dam. As far as I can tell it appears to be a first Hampshire County record and it becomes the fifth first Hampshire County record I have personally found. Four out of five of these first county records I have found have been at Winsor Dam! The dam has also produced loads of other rarities for me over the years and is where I have seen more species then any other single location in the county with my species count there now at 221 species. An amazing spot for sure (at least with enough time spent looking). The duck brings my Hampshire County list back up to 307 (after briefly dropping to 306 with the loss of Hoary Redpoll as a species after the latest taxonomic update).
Besides the Harlequin Duck I had a number of other notable species to start off December including the previous mentioned Yellow rumped Warblers plus both Black Vultures and Turkey Vulture as well as Red Crossbill.
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