More waterfowl today

PHOTOS TO COME

The waterfowl show continued this morning despite not having as much time as I would have liked due to a doctors appointment down in Springfield.  I had a few hours free in the morning and I made the most of it with waterfowl being the main focus with 14 species found even with no rare geese around.  I was up well before dawn so went looking for owls and found three species (including a Short eared Owl) before heading to the East Meadows to look for waterfowl.  I checked out an area along the river and had thousands of birds with the majority being Canada Geese with a decent showing of various duck species.  Lots of stuff moved out at dawn so I may have missed something among them.  After about 45 minutes there I headed further south to check another area along the river in Hadley.  When I arrived there were thousands of geese present as well as several species of ducks.  I then walked about a mile along the river mainly looking for early migrant passerines and finding few.  As I was getting back to my car there was a deafening roar of geese and I got to witness the arrival of 6000+ geese that came in from the East Meadows.  Try as I might I failed to find any rare geese among the nearly 9000 geese present.  I would have loved to wade through the hordes again but I had to go to my appointment.  Once I was finished in Springfield I headed back to Quabbin with a stop at Winsor Dam where I had a selection of waterfowl way out at the edge of the ice.  I then decided to take advantage of a little free time and temps in the 50's and walk down to the waters edge at Gate 5.  There was a good selection of species there despite the windy conditions.  It was nice to not need gloves and see lots of birds around.