After a badly needed night of sleep I headed out before sunrise with my first stop being to Silvio Conte NWR-Fort River in Hadley to see if the three Northern Shovelers stuck around after being seen yesterday. I had a number of woodcocks and owls before it got light enough to see much. As it brightened up I noticed a single female shoveler with a few Mallards. They all flew out rather early and after waiting a bit in the hopes they would return I came up empty. I then headed over to Hadley Cove where I had a couple Snow Geese, several hundred Canada Geese and a hybrid goose that was either a Canada Goose x Greater White fronted Goose or Canada Goose x domestic goose (likely Graylag). A neat looking bird whatever the parentage was. There were eight other species of waterfowl present besides the geese. I tried a few fields in Amherst and Hadley for geese without too much luck before returning to Fort River again to check again for the shovelers (I had not luck but others turned them back up later in the morning). I then headed to Quabbin and Lake Wallace and had a few more species for the day. A total of a lucky 13 species of waterfowl for the morning. I then headed home to take Wilson for his 14th birthday walk...very happy he is still chugging along. By the end of the day I reached 103 species for the month in Hampshire County, just four species behind my highest March total ever here (set back in 2021) with still half of the month left to go.
After getting out of yet another way too busy shift yesterday I headed out to try to catch up with a group of Redheads seen along the river the day before. I was not surprised that I didn't relocate them but it was worth the effort as I had decent numbers and variety of waterfowl with 14 species including my first Blue winged Teal of the year here (a male flying north along the river with some Green winged Teal)...the Blue winged Teal became species #100 for the month for me in the county...my earliest date I have reached 100 species ever for March here. I wish I had the energy to spend even more time looking for arriving early season migrants but I was too exhausted.
The 13th marked a sad milestone as it has now been 15 years since we lost our good boy Kody. He really was the best and I still miss him.
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