I first noticed a large gathering of vultures at the Holyoke Dam on June 15th when I made a stop after work, arriving at the dam around 8:30am. At that point I had 78 Turkey Vultures and three Black Vultures. Another stop on June 21st (a bit earlier in the morning...around 7:30am) produced an even larger gathering with 102 Turkey Vultures and 4 Black Vultures (my largest gathering of vultures I have ever had in Hampshire County). With the larger numbers present early and birds already in the air when I arrived on both of these previous mornings I really wanted to get there at first light and I did that today. Unfortunately (and quite surprisingly) I could only turn up a single Turkey Vulture! I made a few stops at the dam over the course of the early morning but the vultures never arrived. Not really sure on the reason why there were so few today. I will stop down that way again over the next few weeks to see if the large numbers return.
The Holyoke Dam has become a great location to get high counts of Turkey Vultures in the county with my highest counts prior to this year all coming from that location over the last few years with the previous high count of 72 back on July 4, 2018.
In addition to the vultures, the area around the dam has featured some notable species or high counts of common species including at least 285 Chimney Swifts, a least a dozen Double crested Cormorants, an Osprey and a banded Bald Eagle over the course of my multiple visits.
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