Today dawned rainy and foggy with limited visibility but I tried my luck at Winsor Dam at dawn nonetheless. The visibility was just too poor at first light so I left to run some errands and then returned to the dam around 7:30 in the hopes of finding something interesting. The rain was even heavier than earlier but I decided to wait a bit and see if a break in the rain developed. After about thirty minutes the rain let up a bit, the fog lifted slightly and I was able to start scanning the nearly calm waters. I turned up a dozen Common Loons scattered around the reservoir as well as a Bonaparte's Gull. In addition there were a few notable flyby species including a slightly late Yellow rumped Warbler and at least three Evening Grosbeaks. As I was scanning I noticed a group of Canada Geese flying in from the north and got the scope on them right away in the hopes of perhaps turning up a Snow Goose or even a Greater White fronted Goose in the mix. Much to my surprise I found an odd goose in among the flock but not one of the two mentioned above. Instead it was a much, much rarer Barnacle Goose! I got fantastic looks of the bird through the scope quickly noting the various field marks eliminating any other species. I immediately knew I had to try to get some documentation photos of this incredible rarity but my good camera was not quickly accessible and I didn't want to take my eyes off the bird so I took out my iPhone and snapped off as many shots as I could before the flock disappeared off to the southwest. Trying to get photos of moving birds in bad light with just the scope and phone can be a bit of a challenge and you just hope a few come out well enough to identify the species. I came away with a few shots that showed the overall build of the bird with the white face, black neck and chest and overall grayish remainder of the body. After this group disappeared a few more small flocks of Canada Geese came through following roughly the same flight line and then the weather closed back in again and the visibility dropped. I quickly reviewed a few of the photos and it looked like I got a few that at least were good enough to show the field marks. Barnacle Goose is a very rare bird to the northeast (but steadily increasing as the Greenland population of the species has continued to increase). The species is on the review list for the state. This record is the third in Hampshire County (with one in Amherst in 2008 and another this year in Northampton when an adult and four hybrids were present) and I have managed to see two of the three records (becoming my 299th species in the county when I saw the one in Northampton earlier this year). In addition this species becomes the 251st species I have seen at Quabbin overall and my 212th species just at Winsor Dam. I made a few more stops over the course of the day as a front moved in and the winds switched to the northwest. There were lots of Bald Eagles around but unfortunately no hoped for Golden Eagles. The Bonaparte's Gull continued and looked to be quite comfortable sitting on the water. Full album of photos of the Barnacle Goose at the following link.
The last few days have been relatively quiet without too much in the way of unusual stuff as late fall as truly arrived with continued cooling temperatures (with a slight reprieve for a couple days) and less and less in the way of species diversity although the ongoing irruption of a variety of species have kept things interesting.
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