White winged Scoters, Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, MA, Oct 2, 2022
White winged Scoters, Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, MA, Oct 2, 2022
Black Scoters, Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, MA, Oct 2, 2022
Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, MA, Oct 2, 2022
Palm Warbler 'yellow', Ware, MA, Oct 2, 2022
Yellow throated Vireo, Home, Belchertown, MA, Oct 2, 2022
The second day of the month brought strong northeast winds thanks to the interaction between the remnants of Hurricane Ian and a high pressure system off to the north. The winds blew all day long with little let up until sunset. I made a stop at Winsor Dam at dawn but did not have any luck with waterfowl so I tried a couple other spots for waterfowl and still came up with little. I tried to track down some passerines in Ware but the pickings were slim although I did have a brief view of a late Cape May Warbler. I then decided to head back to
Winsor Dam and it turned out to be much more productive then during my earlier stop. Scott and Mary were already there and we started picking out some waterfowl moving as well as a variety of raptors. I had thoughts that some scoters might arrive with the strong northeast winds and I was not wrong. We first had some White winged Scoters in a few small groups that eventually totaled at least 41 individuals. A group of 8 Black Scoters then arrived and settled on the water way out before taking off again and landing again...the Black Scoters are a little early but given the conditions not too surprising. All the scoters were adult males with no females or juvenile birds present making ID in the windy conditions a bit easier. The next notable waterfowl species was a group of ten Northern Pintails that arrived with a few American Black Ducks. The pintails were the opposite of the scoters with all of them being females. Overall we had a half dozen species of waterfowl and I'm sure more came through during the course of the day.
I stayed home for the rest of the afternoon but I noticed some movement outside so stepped out and ran across a mixed species flock that contained a late Yellow throated Vireo among lots of other stuff.
Common Yellowthroat, Silvio Conte NWR-Fort River, Hadley, MA, Oct 1, 2022
Cackling Goose, UMASS, Amherst, MA, Oct 1, 2022
Winsor Dam, Quabbin Park, MA, Oct 1, 2022
Green Heron, Lake Wallace, Belchertown, MA, Oct 1, 2022
Ruby crowned Kinglet, Belchertown, MA, Oct 1, 2022
Winter Wren, Belchertown, MA, Oct 1, 2022
October started with the arrival of the remnants of Hurricane Ian that devastated areas in Florida. Although the forecast called for the rain to start late morning the rain actually arrived by around seven instead. I stayed out as it was not raining too heavily but the conditions kept bird activity low. I started off in Hadley and had a little flurry of thrushes early with Swainson's Thrushes, a late Wood Thrush and a Gray cheeked Thrush. I tried to get recordings but the birds were either too distant or nearby jays made so much noise the recording only captured them. There were also at least four American Woodcocks flying around near dawn. Songbird activity was slow but there were lots of sparrows around a high count for the date for Common Yellowthroats. The rain continued and although a few more short walks I still failed to turn up many passerines. I then made a stop at UMASS to see if the Cackling Geese were around and I turned up one mixed with the Canada Geese. A stop at Lake Wallace before I went home to wait out the rain turned up two late Green Herons. Once the rain stopped I took Wilson for a walk and then made another attempt at turning up some passerines (primarily warblers) and I finally came across a mixed flock and added several species for the day. All and all a fairly decent day despite the less than ideal weather with 75 species total.
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