'Gambel's' White crowned Sparrow back at the Honey Pot as well as species #100 for the county this year

'Gambel's' White crowned Sparrow, Honey Pot, Hadley, MA, Mar 5, 2016

'Gambel's' White crowned Sparrow, Honey Pot, Hadley, MA, Mar 5, 2016

Mute Swans, Honey Pot, Hadley, MA, Mar 5, 2016

Ring necked Ducks, Beaver Lake, Ware, MA, Mar 5, 2016

Canada Goose with white on neck, Amherst, MA, Mar 5, 2016

I planned on staying around the south Quabbin area this morning but the northerly winds at Quabbin were too strong so I headed over to the Hadley/Amherst area instead.  I spent over an hour at the Honey Pot trying my luck at tracking down sparrows and I managed to relocate the 'Gambel's' White crowned Sparrow that I last had there on January 31st (I assume it is the same individual as this subspecies is quite rare around here and the bird was in roughly the same spot as previously seen).  I also had an adult White crowned Sparrow of the eastern race that was singing and a somewhat early Swamp Sparrow which became species #100 for the county this year.  I beat my previous date to get to 100 species in the county by a week and a half...a very good year so far.  Decent numbers of American Tree Sparrows and Song Sparrows were around too...full eBird list here:  http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S27973025

I found a large group of geese in a field off Meadow Street in Amherst that contained over 1300 individuals but I had no luck turning up anything beyond Canada Geese (one did have some extra white on its neck but that was the only unusual one among the large group).

A stop by Beaver Lake in Ware turned up even more Ring necked Ducks then were there yesterday plus a few other species of waterfowl but nothing too unusual.