After another exhausting shift at work I got out and immediately headed over to the area around Winsor Dam at Quabbin Park to assist for a time with the annual Quabbin Christmas Bird Count (CBC). There have been a number of unusual in the area I help cover including Say's Phoebe, Eastern Phoebe and Pine Warblers. The Say's Phoebe had not been seen since December 22nd despite multiple people (including myself) looking. The Eastern Phoebe was even more sporadic with just a few sightings in December with the last one also being on the 22nd. I had at least one Pine Warbler as recently as two days ago. I briefly saw David and his group when I arrived and after a brief talk with David I decided to cover the area around the admin building mainly looking for any of the Pine Warbler and possibly the Say's Phoebe. I spent about an hour and a half in the light rain and didn't find any of the above mentioned species. I still had some good stuff including a scaup species that flew by, a couple Red Crossbills, nearly 80 Dark eyed Juncos and a good number of White throated Sparrows. I then decided to explore the permit only area along Blue Meadow Road. Again no luck with any of the above three target species but I did have at least four Red Crossbills, 22 Pine Siskins, 79 White throated Sparrows and 84 Red winged Blackbirds. I poked around the dam a little more before leaving without finding anything new. I ended my couple hours there with a total of 33 species (full trip list here). Later in the day both phoebe species were rediscovered in the area and it really makes me wonder where they have been hiding and how long they will remain as we continue to move into winter with the arrival of the new year.
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