The snowstorm came to an end by early this morning after delivering around a foot of snow and keeping me home cleaning up for a good part of the morning. I had to run some errands late in the morning and I took the opportunity to make a few quick stops along the way. Winsor Dam was probably the most productive with a Chipping Sparrow in a mixed sparrow/junco flock and a flyby Common Goldeneye. I also turned up one of the continued Rusty Blackbirds in Amherst. The snow will make it tough to access some areas until a little settling and melting occurs and some parking areas get plowed out. On my way into working an overnight shift I made a brief stop in Hadley and had at least two Short eared Owls hunting over the snow covered fields.
With the beginning of a new month yesterday I had plans to get out early before the snow arrived but I had to temporarily modify the plan when I woke up to find the snow had already started and we had a couple inches of snow (so much for the forecast of it not starting until mid to late morning). I thought I would be stuck at home all day but the snow let up around eight so I took the short ride over to Winsor Dam in the hopes of finding some waterfowl. I started scanning the water and quickly found some interesting species including a female Lesser Scaup and a total of ten Ring necked Ducks (as well as a few other expected species). I was in the midst of getting some photos of the interesting species when a Bald Eagle came in and flushed everything (eagles can be real asses). With nothing left to look at on the water and the winds being fairly strong I took a look at the radar and it appeared a hole in the snow shield was occurring so I decided to go back to my original plan for the morning to go over to the Hadley area in search of some continued rarities with the biggest target being a Yellow rumped Warbler.
I arrived in Hadley a bit after 8:30 and immediately set out in search of a couple of continued rarities (Eastern Phoebe and Yellow rumped Warbler) that have been in the same area for the winter (although the warbler has been missed more than it has been seen during previous visits to the area). I met Cory not long after I arrived and he had not seen either species. In addition the winds were continuing to increase which made the prospects of seeing either species fairly low. Nonetheless I figured I would give it a try. After a bit of looking I saw the Eastern Phoebe hanging it is usual spot near the waste water treatment plant and I got a few distant photos. Although I thought I had heard a few chip notes from the warbler earlier during my time there I was never able to be sure and the call was distant. I was about to give up and move to another location and then I heard the bird calling fairly close but still could not see it. After a minute or so it flew over my head and landed briefly in a tree nearby before dropping down into the DPW yard (which is strictly off limits). I managed a few marginal photos of the warbler before it took off. Seeing the warbler was the main goal for the day and I was very happy to find it given the weather conditions. The sighting of the Yellow rumped Warbler became the 46th month in a row I have seen at least one warbler species in Hampshire County. More on the warbler can be found at the following link. I then headed over to the Honey Pot in the hopes of turning up a Rough legged Hawk but no luck with that species once again. Even without seeing the hawk I did find some good stuff including at least 130 Common Redpolls (no sign of a Hoary Redpoll), a Lapland Longspur in with some Horned Larks and a juvenile White crowned Sparrow in a mixed species flock of sparrows. My next stop was over to nearby Aqua Vitae Road to check out the sparrow flocks that have been hanging out there. The most unusual species I had there was a Swamp Sparrow but I didn't spend a lot of time looking for other stuff as I wanted to head toward home before the snow started up again.
