After a morning of birding and then walking Wilson (more on that below) I was at home around noon and got a text from my friend Pat with a photo of a Black bellied Whistling Duck. Pat is a waterfowl hunter so knows his ducks and knows a species that is unusual here. I immediately texted him back on the location and it was at McCray's Farm in South Hadley on a small farm pond. I grabbed my camera and headed out the door and made a few calls to some other birders on my way there. This would be a second occurrence ever in Hampshire County (or any of the three counties in the Connecticut River valley). The first was earlier this year in late June when seven showed up for a day in Amherst along the rail trail. I missed those as I was on my way out to the Canadian Rockies and then over to Vancouver Island. It was a tough one to miss and most every other birder in the area got to see them (except Scott who also was not around when they showed up...he was my first call today to let him know the species showed back up). I arrived at the farm to find the place an absolute zoo with a fall festival of some sort going on with loads of people and little parking. I eventually found a spot to scan the small pond and found the Black bellied Whistling Duck happily feeding among the other waterfowl. It would occasionally be up on the land but as soon as people came along it would move down to the water or into the water itself. I got a bunch of photos before leaving the area. The species become #307 for me in Hampshire County (at least for now until the latest taxonomic update comes in October...more on that in an upcoming post). This is my first new species for me in the county this year and the first one since the Say's Phoebe that showed up in December last year. Full album of photos of the Black bellied Whistling Duck located at the following link.
During the morning I birded several spots in Ware and Belchertown and there was certainly a decent amount of migration overnight with a noticeable increase in a few species like both species of kinglets, White throated Sparrows and Yellow rumped Warblers. I also had a single Red throated Loon at Winsor Dam. Overall for the morning I had just under 70 species so a good morning for sure for late September.
Fantastic, Larry! I was extremely sad that you missed them the first time around. Thrilled that one showed up again for you. Congrats!
ReplyDeleteI was sad too but certainly glad to see this one today! It was tough to miss the first ones!
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