Wild weather day and some late day waterfowl at UMASS

Green winged Teal, UMASS campus pond, Amherst, MA, Feb 16, 2016

Gadwall, UMASS campus pond, Amherst, MA, Feb 16, 2016

The day started out with some snow/sleet/freezing rain with temperatures around freezing and ended with a windswept rain and temperatures in the mid 50's!  The swing in temperatures from yesterday morning (at -17) to early this afternoon (54) is quite extreme in this area...from near record lows to near record highs in a day and a half.  I saw a post about a nice selection of waterfowl at the UMASS campus pond and I made a brief stop there in the evening on my way home.  The conditions were far from ideal with the rain and wind (and the optics fogging due to the rapid temperatures change).  I eventually got looks at both a Gadwall and a Green winged Teal in among the 130+ Mallards, half a dozen Black Ducks and a couple Canada Geese.  The Green winged Teal was new for the year and became species #92.  I managed a few photos of both species despite the poor conditions but they are not my best work.