Now that we are at the mid point of yet another record setting month for me in Hampshire County I figured I would post regarding the last few days and summarize where I stand at this point of the month. I currently stand at 119 species for the month which is already six ahead of my best previous November in the county with half of the month still left to go. Today began with a very cold start at Arcadia with temps around 20 and a heavy frost. The cold temps kept activity somewhat muted even after the sun came up. I next headed over for a short walk in the East Meadows which was also fairly quiet. With the prediction for strong winds as the day wore on I decided to head for home with brief stops at Winsor Dam and Quabbin Park. The dam was quiet but that was not too surprising as migration conditions were not great the night before so there was no influx of waterfowl. The stop at Quabbin Park produced a flock of Red Crossbills and I managed to get some marginal photos and audio of them.
The forecast for Saturday was promising for bringing in waterfowl with sunny conditions and fairly strong west to northwest winds. With this in mind I headed to Winsor Dam but when I arrived the wind was light and out of the south with some fog and light drizzle...not what I was expecting. I ditch the idea of waiting at the dam in the hopes the conditions became more conducive for waterfowl migration and instead headed east to Hadley again (see below). No luck with any rarities near the mall but did get some great looks at some Pine Siskins. I spent some time along the river and turned up a decent selection of waterfowl but nothing too out of the ordinary for mid November. The Spotted Sandpiper that has been around continued to show well and I got some photos of it. After my time in Hadley I stopped back at Winsor Dam just as the weekend zoo of people was ramping up. Besides the typical Common Loon I had a pair of Common Goldeneyes well out from the dam plus a flyover group of Red Crossbills. Eventually the sun came out from time to time and it got breezy but not in time to entice any large number of ducks to move.
With overcast and drizzle conditions on Friday the 13th I headed over to Winsor Dam and despite the poor conditions and limited visibility at times Ted and I turned up some good birds including a group of five Red throated Loons that showed up just as Ted was about to leave. We also had a few other species of waterfowl, a late Sandpiper and more flyover irruptives including Evening Grosbeak and Red Crossbills. I made multiple stops back to the dam over the course of the morning and the only other noteworthy species was a female Red breasted Merganser that flew in and settled on the water. The weather never cleared out until just before sunset and I happened to be down at the Holyoke Dam around that time picking up a dead Northern Saw Whet Owl from another birder. The owl is destined for the collection at UMASS. It was tough viewing at the dam but I did manage to pick out a Greater Yellowlegs below the dam as I scanned through the various species. I tried to relocate the bird after the initial discovery to get a photo but it disappeared among the myriad of hiding spots among the rocks.
I was suppose to make it down to the Stafford Cidery in Connecticut for the opening night of my photo show but due to some unforeseen circumstances that was not possible. I hope to get down at least once or twice over the next month that the show is open down there. Check out the website for details on the great hard cidery down there and see their Facebook page for more details on the photo show.
On Thursday I started off my morning at Winsor Dam where I had a smattering of waterfowl plus a Bonaparte's Gull. I had hoped to turn up more waterfowl given the conditions but I had no luck. Instead of spending more time trying to find waterfowl around Quabbin I headed over to Hadley to try to relocate some of the unusual warblers (and others) near the mall and get photos of the ones I missed yesterday. Although the Tennessee Warblers could not be relocated I did get better looks and marginal photos of the Wilson's Warbler and found two Gray Catbirds. I checked a few other spots in Hadley and the best sighting was a continued Spotted Sandpiper along the river.
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