A few sightings from the last couple days

Common Mergansers, Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, MA, Feb 16, 2020

Common Merganser, Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, MA, Feb 16, 2020

Common Loon way out (one of two), Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, MA, Feb 16, 2020

Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, MA, Feb 16, 2020

This morning was the best I have felt in a week plus since returning from Colombia where I picked up a nasty cold right at the end of the trip so I actually made it outside for a bit.  I tried my luck in the southern Quabbin area looking mainly for waterfowl with the most notable sighting being a couple of Common Loons at Winsor Dam.  The only other waterfowl I found during my few stops were a number of Common Mergansers and a couple Hooded Mergansers.  The main water at Winsor Dam was almost totally ice free but many other areas around Quabbin Park and along the Swift River were totally iced in.  Nonetheless it was still nice to get out even if there was not too much to see.

Yellow rumped Warbler 'myrtle', East Meadows, Northampton, MA, Feb 15, 2020

Northern Flicker, East Meadows, Northampton, MA, Feb 15, 2020

Red winged Blackbirds, East Meadows, Northampton, MA, Feb 15, 2020

I headed out to bird on a very cold Saturday morning (near zero) but I didn't have the energy to venture far from the car so I stopped at a few spots where I would not have to leave the warmth of the car.  I stopped at UMASS and had just a few geese on the nearly totally frozen pond.  No luck finding any geese in any of the fields I checked in Amherst and Hadley.  The Connecticut River was nearly frozen solid with the only waterfowl around being flyovers.  The best bird of the morning was a Gray Catbird calling from a thicket along the river at the Honey Pot.  Other notables around included at least half a dozen Savannah Sparrows along Aqua Vitae Road.  By the afternoon I was feeling even better and needed to run some errands so I took the opportunity to check out Arcadia and then over to the East Meadows.  My stop at Arcadia failed to turn up anything unusual but I was surprised to find several hundred geese loafing on the almost totally ice covered marsh (I tried to find something unusual among them but they almost all had their heads tucked in so no luck).  The East Meadows were a bit more active with at least three Yellow rumped Warblers continuing as well as four Northern Flickers, three Fish Crows and flock of 50+ Red winged Blackbirds.  Oddly I also had a pair of Great Horned Owls calling back and forth at midday plus an Eastern Screech Owl that trilled a few times.

Bobcat, Home, Belchertown, MA, Feb 11, 2020

Bobcat, Home, Belchertown, MA, Feb 6, 2020

I finally got around to checking the camera along the brook and found multiple captures of a Bobcat as well as numerous Raccoons.