After looking for them for the last week plus I finally found some Black Scoters this morning at Quabbin and with them I have seen the last mostly guaranteed species for the year. Any new species going forward will have to be some degree of rarity through the end of the year. I now stand at 240 species in Hampshire County which is my second highest total YTD behind 2021 when I had 246 at this point and that year ended up being my highest with 249 species. I caught up with the first Black Scoters of the morning in Quabbin Park at Hank's Meadow and got to watch an odd interaction of the scoters with a few Ring billed Gulls. The scoters were in a tight group and milling around in typical scoter fashion with no active diving and fishing. As I watched the group a few Ring billed Gulls appeared and repeatedly dove at the scoters forcing them to dive below the water. They continued this for several minutes before the scoters finally got tired of it and took off. The gulls were not trying to steal any fish the scoters were finding as the scoters were not hunting so no idea why the gulls kept harassing them. Birds always surprise you with new behavior.
A brief update on Hurricane Melissa that is now a Cat 5 storm with 175 MPH winds. It is forecast to maintain nearly this strength as it turns northeast and makes landfall in central Jamaica. The amount of rain and wind will be catastrophic to the island and it will take years for the island to fully recover. Hopefully the impacts to both the birds and people will be as minimal as possible but this storm is going to be hugely impactful.
No comments:
Post a Comment