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.
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