After another way too busy shift at work I got out this morning and headed out mainly in search of geese and other waterfowl (and whatever else I could find for newly arriving birds). It was still relatively warm for the time of year with light winds but the heavy rain overnight and snow melt made a muddy mess of any dirt road. There was a bit of thick fog in places to start the morning which made viewing tough at times. I hit a few fields and other areas in Hadley and South Hadley as I worked my way toward the Holyoke Dam. Most areas were fairly quiet although I did have at least two very early Tree Swallows below the Holyoke Dam popping in and out of the fog. I also tried for Yellow rumped Warblers in a few locations along the river and came up empty. As I came back north on the west side of the river the fog lifted so I decided to try the very muddy East Meadows for geese and was rewarded with several thousand birds scattered throughout the fields. I immediately noticed a decent sized group of Snow Geese among the hordes of Canada Geese. I then spent the next half hour slowly scanning through the geese in search of unusual species and odd individuals and had success on both endeavors. I found the continued Pink Goose sitting contently at the south end of the meadows as well as the continued pale bodied Canada Goose plus the very uniquely plumaged overall pale Canada Goose that has now shown for a fifth straight winter (I would love to know where this bird stays during the warmer months). I made a post about this really neat looking individual in the fall of 2023. Beyond the geese there were other notables around including 16 Killdeer, two Rough legged Hawks, 280+ Horned Larks, at least two American Pipits and a Lapland Longspur. Around 10:30 the Snow Geese suddenly lifted off followed quickly by all the other geese with large groups heading in various directions. I figured I would stop by the Coolidge Bridge as it looked like some of the geese headed in that direction. I arrived to find hundreds of geese present with more and more arriving over time including my first of the year Greater White fronted Geese as well the individual banded in Greenland.
On my way to work yesterday I stopped off for a bit at the Coolidge Bridge and found 1200+ Canada Geese including the banded bird from Greenland plus the pale bodied bird. I also had a few other birds that had some characteristics of a Cackling Goose but not enough to make me think a pure Cackling Goose.
For those with an interest in the great show of geese check out the post from a a couple days ago that has more unusual geese photos and additional info on the neck banded bird. March is off to a great start for me in Hampshire County with 81 species so far with waterfowl figuring prominently (a big change from last year which featured a horrible waterfowl migration overall). In fact I'm at my highest point for the first week of March ever in the county with one day left (although with high winds tomorrow out of the north I doubt I will find too much new stuff but one never knows!).
No comments:
Post a Comment