New Year's Day birding

Yellow rumped Warbler 'myrtle', Arcadia, Northampton, MA, Jan 1, 2020

Bald Eagle, Arcadia, Northampton, MA, Jan 1, 2020

Hooded Mergansers, Arcadia, Northampton, MA, Jan 1, 2020

I started off the new year with a post work trip down to Arcadia where I quickly caught up with a continued group of Yellow rumped Warblers (making it my 33rd month in a row of finding a warbler in Hampshire County).  Arcadia also featured a few other notable species including a flyby female Wood Duck, at least three Northern Flickers and a group of four Red winged Blackbirds.  No luck relocating the group of Field Sparrows that have been around but I didn't spend too much time looking.

Long tailed Duck, Alexandra Dawson Conservation Area, Hadley, MA, Jan 1, 2020

Long tailed Duck, Alexandra Dawson Conservation Area, Hadley, MA, Jan 1, 2020

Common Mergansers, Honey Pot, Hadley, MA, Jan 1, 2020

White throated Sparrow, East Meadows, Northampton, MA, Jan 1, 2020

After my time at Arcadia I headed over to the East Meadows briefly before continuing across the river into Hadley where I stopped at Aqua Vitae Road, Honey Pot before making a detour to Alexandra Dawson Conservation Area after getting a text from Mike L.  Highlights at each stop included 100+ Horned Larks and at least one Lapland Longspur in the East Meadows, a Vesper Sparrow at the Honey Pot and a male Long tailed Duck at Alexandra Dawson's (found by Mike).

Bufflehead with Common Goldeneyes, Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, MA, Jan 1, 2020

Bufflehead with Common Goldeneyes, Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, MA, Jan 1, 2020

Winsor Dam (with ice on hills), Quabbin Park, MA, Jan 1, 2020

My final stop of the morning before heading home to get Wilson was to Winsor Dam where I had a male Bufflehead in with a group of Common Goldeneye as well as a Common Loon.  Over the course of the morning at the stops mentioned above as well as a few others I found 54 species with several of those being fairly unusual to rare...a good start to 2020.

Also had a few mammals for the day including an unusual for January Eastern Chipmunk in Belchertown.