A few local spots this morning

Great Blue Herons at nest, Lake Wallace, Aug 3, 2013

Great Blue Herons at nest, Lake Wallace, Aug 3, 2013

Belted Kingfisher, Lake Wallace, Aug 3, 2013

Dawn at Lake Wallace, Aug 3, 2013

As I was not sure how long it would stay dry this morning I stuck close to home with visits to Lake Wallace, Quabbin Park and the fish hatchery in Belchertown. I started before dawn at Lake Wallace and had the Great Blue Herons still in their nest, several Belted Kingfishers, 50+ Wood Ducks, three other species of waterfowl and a total of 32 species in just under a half hour. A couple of River Otters were also moving around and capturing several fish. 

White tailed Deer (adult with fawn), Quabbin Park, Aug 3, 2013

I then headed over to Quabbin Park with stops at the Route 9 marsh, Gate 52, Goodnough Dike, Enfield lookout and Winsor Dam. No sign of the seven Great Egrets that had been at the marsh yesterday despite a couple of stops to check. I had a handful of shorebirds with four Spotted Sandpipers and two Least Sandpipers. The amount of bird song has dropped off quite a bit but there are still some vocal species including Eastern Wood Pewee, Eastern Towhee and Red eyed Vireo. Surprisingly the Bald Eagles are still in the nest at Winsor Dam although they are both doing a lot of wing stretching and jumping around so I would expect them to fledge very soon. Also ran across a couple of White tailed Deer with fawns.

At the fish hatchery I stopped briefly to see if any Killdeer were around and I found at least 16 of them plus a couple of Spotted Sandpipers working through the various walkways between the concrete ponds.