February has come to an end and I far exceeded my goals of beating my previous best February in Hampshire County that I set last year (with 97 species) and finding at least a hundred species in the county for the month (something I had never done before and the only month I have never had a hundred species in). I finished the month with an amazing 108 species! The most impressive day for me occurred on Thursday late in the afternoon into the early evening. I was beat from a long night of work and almost took a nap in the late afternoon but powered through with the thought of just going to bed early. I was checking my emails late in the afternoon and noticed a well timed message from David Spector saying he found a male Redhead at the small boat cove at Quabbin. I immediately headed over to Quabbin before the gates closed and made it to the boat cove a little before five and found just a few Mallards present. I was afraid the Redhead had already left but figured I would drive over to Winsor Dam and hope the bird had moved out of the cove. I arrived at the dam and the waters were nearly still with no wind (a far cry from my earlier stop on my way home from work when it was very choppy due to the wind)....the proverbial calm before the storm. I started scanning and found a few ducks (including an unusual Lesser Scaup) and an ever increasing flock of gulls. On my second sweep I had the Redhead flying north and watched it as it continued north before finally settling on the water too far out for photos. Redhead is a very rare species around here and it is only the second one I have ever had in the county with my last one back in late March of 2005 in Northampton (a few others have shown up in the last several years but I have always been away when they showed up). The Redhead also added a new species for me to both my Winsor Dam list (now at 213 species) and my overall Quabbin list (252 species). As I continued to scan I had a male Gadwall fly in and settle on the water. The gull flock continued to increase and a large portion of the birds were in close enough to view quite well. As I picked though the hundreds of gulls present I turned up at least a couple Iceland Gulls plus a Lesser Black backed Gull in addition to a couple Great Black backed Gulls and tons of Ring billed Gulls and Herring Gulls. I got the message out to as many people as I could regarding all the rare birds present but giving the lateness of the day I knew only those fairly close would have any opportunity to view the spectacle. There were several hundred gulls present and I'm sure there may have been something else noteworthy in the flock but many birds were distant and the light was not the best as the evening wore on. Unfortunately no one was able to make it there before it was too far to see much of anything. It was yet another one of those special moments at Winsor Dam that are seldom repeated but the prospect of which keeps me coming back. More on the rest of the last week of the month below.
The last week of February began with a warm up that peaked on Wednesday when the highs reached into the 60's. On Tuesday I stayed in the south Quabbin area where I started my morning at Winsor Dam and had a spectacular sunrise but not much for birds. A few stops along the Swift River turned up several species of waterfowl including large numbers of Hooded Mergansers and increased numbers of Ring necked Ducks. A return to Winsor Dam turned up a few more Ring necked Ducks. I had to work on Wednesday so could only get in a few birding stops on the way in but I didn't find anything unusual. The yard continued to produce a number of banded Black capped Chickadees.
After getting out of work on Thursday morning I made my way over to Arcadia and had a Bufflehead and increased numbers of Common Mergansers on the rapidly increasing ice free sections of the Mill River and Oxbow plus a bonus Mink that popped out as I was leaving. The weather had turned much colder and more February like. I made a few other brief stops on the way home including Winsor Dam that was completely ice free. Friday brought us a snow storm with about 6-8 inches of snow and the journey into work was a long one.
After work on Saturday morning I headed for home to start the clean up from the storm but I did make a quick stop in Hadley and had a few continued unusual sparrows. I then went right to Winsor Dam where I found a Horned Grebe and a Common Loon (both somewhat unusual in February). It was really cold with temps in the single numbers to start the morning. Once home I cleaned up the snow and then played with Wilson outside quite a bit. I made a late afternoon/early evening stop at Winsor Dam and found another large gathering of gulls with several hundred gulls present once again with the highlight being an Iceland Gull. There was also a Lesser Scaup still hanging around in the area but it was way out on the water.
On the last day of the month I made the trip over to Great Pond to try to relocate the Northern Shoveler found there yesterday. It was very cold and windy when I arrived and I was afraid the overnight cold would have refrozen the entire pond but thankfully there was some open water and I started scanning the area. I found a large number of Wood Ducks (at least 48) and then came across the Northern Shoveler. I got some distant shots of the birds through the scope and totally froze my fingers in the process. There were also several Green winged Teal present as well as a Great Blue Heron flying away when I arrived. I walked a little along some of the hedgerows and the reward for freezing my ass off was a calling Swamp Sparrow, a White crowned Sparrow and a Fox Sparrow. I tried a few spots on my way home for additional waterfowl but came up empty. Nonetheless it was a great end to a spectacular February.
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