I made it on to the restricted Prescott Peninsula at Quabbin to conduct the first of my field bird surveys for the year. It is part of an ongoing study of the small remaining fragments of farm fields left on the peninsula. On the vast peninsula some of these small fields hold the only populations of a number of species of bird on the peninsula that require more open areas. It was beautiful weather with clear skies, no wind and low humidity. I started my surveys a little before five and then stayed on the peninsula for the next two and half hours completing most of the field locations. The usually most productive and largest field recently had a prescribed burn done. It will be interesting to see the impact (if any) that comes from the burn. Most of the species I would expect to be present were indeed present so no major impact for this year beyond the density of a few species are lower likely due to a reduction in available cover and breeding locations. One of the oddest finds happened while surveying the fields where an old observatory once stood. I saw a yellow bird flying high from tree to another and expected it to be an oriole but instead I saw a bright yellow overall bird with jet black wings...a male Scarlet Tanager with some type of pigment issue. The yellow was not the dull yellow of a fall plumaged bird but instead seemed more like the bright yellow one would see on a Western Tanager. I have seen a few adult male Scarlet Tanager over the years that have a less vibrant red color, to the point of looking more orange. The individual today was unlike any I have ever seen. I poked around a bit to see what I could find regarding the likelihood of this plumage abnormality and did not find much. David Sibley wrote a short article about it...link here: yellow Scarlet Tanager and it is interesting he lives not too far away and his article also mentioned another one in Washington, MA the same year. Perhaps this area of western Massachusetts hosts a population more inclined to have this abnormality? A very cool looking individual and one I hope to relocate on subsequent surveys. I made a couple other stops before heading home to pick up Wilson for his first real post surgery walk and he did well.
