Rarities and lingering species including warblers, Eastern Phoebe, Gray Catbird, Lapland Longspurs and others over the last week

Yellow rumped Warbler 'myrtle', Arcadia, Easthampton, MA, Jan 25, 2020

Lapland Longspur, Aqua Vitae Rd, Hadley, MA, Jan 26, 2020

Lapland Longspur, Aqua Vitae Rd, Hadley, MA, Jan 26, 2020

Eastern Phoebe, Hadley, MA, Jan 27, 2020

Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, MA, Jan 27, 2020

 Common Mergansers, Quabbin Park, MA, Jan 28, 2020

Over the past week since I returned from my most recent trip down to Costa Rica (plus a short stop in Florida on the way home) I have been out catching up with a few lingering species and rarities in between days at work.  I covered one major rarity in an earlier post with the occurrence of a Pine Warbler at a private residence in Granby which I caught up with on Thursday the 23rd.  My next rarity I got on my way to work on Friday morning with a Black Vulture hanging out in a residential neighborhood in Easthampton (where a couple have been seen on and off for a couple weeks).  After work on Friday I picked up a Chipping Sparrow hanging out with juncos in the same general area where I had the vulture the day before in Easthampton.  I then made my way over Arcadia where I found at least three Yellow rumped Warblers continuing to survive the winter.  With a little more time available on Sunday morning I followed up on a report of a Gray Catbird at UMASS and had the bird call a few times and briefly show but no luck getting a photo.  I had more luck getting photos of the continued Lapland Longspurs along Aqua Vitae Road with a large group of larks.  I tried once again (and failed) to track down the Eastern Phoebe that Cory E. has had on and off for the entire winter in the area of the Hadley DPW and Hadley Cove.  I actually ran across Cory while there and we discussed the bird a bit and our thoughts were it is probably surviving on insects that are surviving the winter in close proximity to the wastewater treatment plant.  I started my Monday morning at Winsor Dam where I had hundreds of gulls (mainly Ring billed Gulls) but no luck turning up anything unusual in among the hordes.  After waiting in vain for the gates at Quabbin Park to open I gave up on making it into the park and instead headed home before continuing on to Hadley where I had a dentist appointment.  Before my appointment I caught up with 600+ Canada Geese at the athletic fields at UMASS (no unusual geese with them unfortunately).  Once my appointment was over I headed back over to the area of the Hadley DPW and after a bit heard the Eastern Phoebe call a few times and show itself briefly (thankfully long enough to get some distant photos).  *Please note that the DPW area should not be entered at anytime without prior permission*.  Eastern Phoebe is a very unusual species to have around western Massachusetts in winter with just a couple winter records.  I tried my luck with trying to turn up some unusual gulls at Winsor Dam once again on Tuesday morning and this time I had better luck with a non adult Iceland Gull in among the hundreds of Ring billed Gulls and Herring Gulls.  The bird only settled briefly on the water before all the gulls were put up by a Bald Eagle and the bird was not relocated (assumed it took off to the southwest with a large group of gulls).  There seems to be a nice uptick in unusual gulls the last week or so in the general area with most (as usual) up in Turners Falls.  After my time at the dam I headed into Quabbin Park where I had an impressive gathering of Common Mergansers with at least 173 present...sadly nothing else unusual with them.

So far for the month I have seen 90 species in Hampshire County, which is my highest ever total for the month of January and illustrates the number of lingering species and rarities around...some certainly hanging on due to the relatively warm conditions overall and lack of heavy snow.  We shall see if the last few days of the month produce any more new species.