January has been super productive for me so far with several continued rarities, some lingering species and irruptives adding to a record setting number of species. In fact I have already had 94 species in Hampshire County for the month which has already surpassed my previous best January, which occurred last year when I had a total of 93 species for the entire month (most years I end up with a monthly total in the mid to upper 80's but I also typically spend a week or two in the tropics for the month but Covid has stopped those plans). It will be interesting to see how many more species will show themselves before the end of the month. Weather wise the month has been milder than normal with little in the way of snow and doesn't feel like a typical January at all. The longer range forecast points toward cooling temperatures and more storminess for the end of the month. I was not able to get out too much for the second week of the month due to work and other obligations but I nonetheless managed to get some birding in and found a number of good birds including multiple unusual sparrows, a Gray Catbird, two Eastern Phoebes today (one is rare in winter so having two on the same day in January around here is unprecedented), Lapland Longspurs, a few new raptors for the year as well as other stuff. Among the 'other stuff' was a leucistic Canada Goose that has been present at the UMASS campus pond for the last couple days. I had this same bird at Arcadia on January 6th...I assume the colder temperatures pushed the bird to its new ice free location. In addition the bird looks somewhat similar to another Canada Goose I had in the area back in late February and early March of 2017.
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