American Bittern...Finally!

American Bittern, Cummington, MA, Apr 29, 2013

American Bittern, Cummington, MA, Apr 29, 2013

I woke up early once again so I headed out early starting out at the Barrett Street marsh before dawn.  Yet again I had several Virginia Rails calling but nothing more unusual.  Given the south winds last night and the indication of quite a bit of migration on the radar I headed over to UMASS to see if indeed there was a large influx.  Yet again the birds were few and far between with little in the way of warblers around.  There certainly was some increase in numbers of species that had already arrived but little new stuff.  The only new bird for the morning there was a flyby Baltimore Oriole (#157).  With the lack of new activity at UMASS I decided to head back across the river and at the last minute decided to head up to Cummington to hopefully catch up with an American Bittern (#158).  This time I had success right away when a bird flushed and then settled down in the reeds and started calling...always fun to see and hear.  Somehow I missed seeing this species last year but I was not going to let that happen again!  The Virginia Rails were also quite vocal here. 

Rusty Blackbird, Arcadia, Northampton, MA, Apr 29, 2013

 

Rusty Blackbird, Arcadia, Northampton, MA, Apr 29, 2013

 

Great Blue Herons, Arcadia, Northampton, MA, Apr 29, 2013

I headed back down to the valley and decided to try my luck at Arcadia.  This proved to be a productive stop almost right away when I had a Chestnut-sided Warbler (#159).  I spent most of my time in the general area of the heron rookery trying to see if I could find any unusual herons/egrets among the 50+ nesting Great Blue Herons (nothing else besides a Green Heron).  During my walk around the area I had a number of Yellow rumped Warblers moving through but nothing unusual with them. There were several Yellow Warbler and Warbling Vireos in the area, with a few showing quite well.  I added Bobolink (#160) and then Least Flycatcher (#161) to my county list for the year.  Other notable sightings included a presumed pair of Eastern Meadowlarks chasing each other around the large field that typically hosts several pairs of Bobolinks and a Rusty Blackbird that called over and over as it fed.

With the morning rapidly coming to a close I headed home to pick up Wilson and head out for more walks.  We started at Jabish Canal and had a few expected birds here including a Red shouldered Hawk.  The most unusual bird was one I never got a look at but certainly kept me looking for quite some time.  It sounded a lot like a Red headed Woodpecker but I was never able to see what species was actually making the sound.  I recorded the call but not sure that will really solve the ID mystery.  It could have been an odd sounding Red bellied Woodpecker but I really would have liked to have seen the individual making the call.  After our walk along the canal we decided to take one more short walk along the land trust trail.  This walk produced one more new species for the year when we ran across a couple Bank Swallow (#162)

Banded Canada Goose, Belchertown, MA, Apr 29, 2013

Banded Canada Goose, Belchertown, MA, Apr 29, 2013

I also ran across a dead Canada Goose along the train tracks near the Jabish Canal.  I reported the federal band on the bird and found that the bird was a female banded in Belchertown on 6/30/2011 and was hatched prior to 2010.  I presume the bird was hit by a passing train.

Neck tagged Canada Goose from Greenland!

Tagged Canada Goose, Hadley Cove, Hadley, MA, Mar 23, 2013

Tagged Canada Goose, Hadley Cove, Hadley, MA, Mar 23, 2013

As mentioned in an earlier post from March 23 I found a neck tagged Canada Goose at Hadley Cove:(http://quabbinbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2013/03/greater-white-fronted-goose-or-geese.html
 I have just gotten back some detailed information about this individual from researchers in Denmark.  The bird (a male) was originally tagged in west Greenland on July 17, 2008!  Very cool.  It has been seen a few other times over the last several years (list included at bottom of post).  With all the recent Greater White fronted Geese around I guess it is not completely unexpected that a Canada Goose joined them in their trip down from Greenland.  It is very interesting to me to track the journeys that certain individual birds take over the course of their lifetimes.  I have seen (and reported) several tagged geese over the years but this one is the farthest travelling individual I have yet found.  This is the first time I have gotten back a personal e-mail (with quite a bit of detail) from a researcher on a tagged bird I have found.  I have included the e-mail below:

Thank you very sincerely for your reports of the Canada Geese marked with the yellow collar GJA From just south of Hatfield, Hampshire County, Mass.on 23 March 2013 for which we are extremely grateful! I am very happy to tell you that this Canada Geese was marked by our banding team in Greenland and that we are extremely excited about the news! GJA was caught as part of a project to mark Greenland White-fronted and Canada Geese in west Greenland in the summer of 2008 and was recaptured nearby on another lake in summer 2009!
GJA was caught and banded on a lake simply known as Lake T to the banding team (very few lakes in this area have Greenlandic names) which is at 67°07'58"N 50°34'02"W in an area known as Isunngua, immediately north of the airport at Kangerlussuaq in west Greenland. This has been a study area for our investigations on and off over many years. It was an adult male when caught, part of a flock of 42 non-breeding adults trapped on 17th July 2008. It was retrapped the following year on Lake U (67°08'04"N 50°34'26"W) on 18th July 2009.

I have taken the liberty of attaching two files below for your information - one containing the listing with your observation along with others from this year so far and a pdf file containing a short paper describing our earlier findings (this file need Adobe Reader to open - let me know if you cannot open this). If you would like a little more information about the project last summer, you can find this at:http://greenland10.wikispaces.com/ with an update from this year via the link on the bottom of the list in the Word document.You may also be interested to read of other sightings of these geese from North Maine (including photographs) athttp://northernmainebirds.blogspot.com/

Needless to say, if you hear of any other reports of ringed or collared Canada Geese (especially those beginning with G since these are ours) please do not hesitate to report them to us here - needless to state, we would be extremely interested to know whether any other collars turn up in this area.
Do not hesitate to get in touch if you would like further information!

All very best wishes and enormous thanks again for taking the trouble to report these birds!
T

Tony Fox
Research Professor

Department of Wildlife Ecology and Biodiversity
National Environmental Research Institute
University of Aarhus
Kalø
Grenåvej 14
DK-8410 Rønde
Denmark

Below I have also included the various sightings of this particular goose since it was initially captured back in 2009.  Interesting in that the bird travelled quite a bit further south this winter.  Keep your eyes out over the next few weeks for neck tagged geese (especially tags that start with "G"). 

GJA caught Isunngua, west Greenland, July 2008

 

GJA         18.07.2009              Lake U, Isunngua, West Greenland                                                          RESIGHT                                GWGS

GJA         12.04.2010              Beaudet Reservoir, Victoriaville, Quebec, Canada 46°04’N 71°58’W      RESIGHT                                CR

GJA         21.04.2010              Beaudet Reservoir, Victoriaville, Quebec, Canada 46°04’N 71°58’W      RESIGHT                                CR

GJA         21.05.2010              Near Lake P, Isunngua, West Greenland                                                  RESIGHT                                HTH

GJA         19.03.2012              Bassin de Chambly, Saint-Mathias-sur-Richelieu, near Montreal,

Canada, 45°27'40.1”N 73°16'23.6” W                                     RESIGHT                                RBE

GJA         31.07.2012              Lakes Q and R, Isunngua, West Greenland                                                              RESIGHT                                HTH

GJA         23.03.2013              Hadley Cove, Hatfield, Hampshire County, Massachusetts, USA

42°19’49.95”N 72°35’17.92”W                                                              RESIGHT                                LT

Thanks to the researchers for providing all this detailed information on this bird I have included in this post.

Info on the neck tagged Canada Geese

Canada Goose with neck tag "18MA", Connecticut River below Coolidge Bridge, Northampton, MA, Jan 27, 2013

I just got back the details from the USGS on the neck banded Canada Geese I saw a few days ago below the Coolidge Bridge in Northampton.  The two yellow neck tags labeled “34MA” and “18MA” belong to geese that were tagged in Massachusetts.  The bird with tag “34MA” is a female banded in Springfield on July 5, 2005 and hatched in 2004 or earlier.  It was tagged by the Massachusetts Division of Fish and Wildlife.  The goose with tag “18MA” is also a female and was banded in Colrain on July 7, 2005 and the bird hatched in 2005.  As always, interesting to see the information on any tagged/marked birds I have come across.

Meanwhile around here the first day of February started off windy and cold and stayed windy all day.  I stopped briefly at a location overlooking the Connecticut River below the Coolidge Bridge again to check on waterfowl.  With the warm temperatures and rain all the ice was gone and the concentrations of waterfowl were no longer around.  There were a few hundred Canada Geese, a few dozen Mallards, a few Black Ducks and a single female Northern Pintail. 

As far as I know there was only a brief flyby sighting of the Gyrfalcon today despite the efforts of many.  I'm sure there will be lots of people looking for it this weekend.  Hopefully their efforts will be met with success.

A new Quabbin bird and tagged goose from last week

Northern Shovelers, Quabbin Park, MA, April 4, 2012

Northern Shovelers, Quabbin Park, MA, April 4, 2012

On a brief stop this morning at Winsor Dam before work I had a species I had never seen at Quabbin before: Northern Shovelers.  I had a pair together out on the calm waters.  I managed a distant digiscope shot with my iPhone.  It is an distant, blurry but identifiable shot of the pair.  It is quite rare now that I get a new species for Quabbin.  It is indeed odd that I have had Sooty Tern and White-tailed Tropicbird at Quabbin before I had a Northern Shoveler!  In addition to the shovelers I had two pairs of Bufflehead, four Black Ducks, four Mallards and a single Canada Goose plus an immature Bald Eagle catching a large fish just off shore as well as an adult eagle on the nest.

Tagged Canada Goose, Barton's Cove, Turners Falls, MA, April 4, 2012

The information on the tagged goose I saw last week at Barton's Cove came back yesterday and here is what I found about the goose.  She was tagged on July 5, 2011 in Varennes, Quebec (about 10 miles northeast of Montreal).  She certainly has travelled around a bit so far.  Always interesting to see where various tagged birds came from. 

Amherst to Turners Falls and back

Song Sparrow singing at dawn, rail trial, Amherst, MA, Mar 30, 2012

Wood Duck, rail trial, Amherst, MA, Mar 30, 2012

I spent the morning travelling from Amherst/Hadley up through Hatfield to Turners Falls and back down through Amherst.  I began at dawn on the rail trail in Amherst beginning at Station Road and going up to Hop Brook and back.  The morning started off quite cool with a slight breeze.  The best bird was a Sora that whinnied once.  Oddly in the same area was a Starling that gave a perfect imitation of the short Sora call.  I believe the actual Sora used this call once in response to the Starling...very unusual to witness!  You don't need to use playback, you just need a starling with you!  I next travelled over to Hadley Cove and had a total of 33 Green-winged Teal here plus several Wood Ducks and a few mallards.

Rusty Blackbird, Great Pond, Hatfield, MA, Mar 30, 2012

I then crossed the river and headed up to Great Pond in Hatfield. There was little in the way of waterfowl here (a pair each of Green-winged Teal and Wood Ducks). There were however some good birds around. One of the first birds I saw was a Yellow-rumped Warbler (the third warbler species for the month of March). Once down at the pond I started hearing Rusty Blackbirds and had a few fairly close for a short time before they flew across the pond. There were at least sixteen rusties here and almost certainly more as they moved around quite a bit and the bad light made it tough to view some areas. Glad to see there are still some around. 

I then headed north up to Turner's Falls to check Barton's Cove and the power canal.  When I arrived on the Gill side I ran into James Smith.  There was a pair of Ring-necked Ducks, a few Mallards, a couple Mute and 80+ Canada Geese including a neck tagged individual.  It was too far away to see well from the Gill side so I headed over the bridge.  The goose had a red neck tag with white writing with the code "F5C4" plus a federal leg tag I was unable to read.  I reported the bird to the federal banding website http://www.reportband.gov/  and will update when and if I get info back.  There was also a leg banded goose in the group that I could read partially.  The numbers on the aluminum band on that individual was "1078" but that was all I could see...not enough to report. 

A quick stop at the power canal produced little waterfowl but did find 49 Tree Swallows feeding low over the water.

Other brief stops on my way south produced little of note.  There were oddly no groups of geese found in any of the fields I passed during my entire morning.  I assume a large number of the geese have already moved north.

Quabbin Park and areas around Hadley and Amherst

Eastern Meadowlark, Moody Bridge Rd, Hadley, MA, Mar 12, 2012

Canada Goose (tagged), Rt 9 marsh, Quabbin Park, MA, Mar 12, 2012

I spent the first part of my day off checking around Quabbin Park and then headed off to Hadley to run some errands and check a few spots for new arrivals.  The weather at Quabbin was perfect for viewing the water as it was clear and very little wind.  I arrived there right before dawn and had an American Woodcock 'peenting' a few times.  As far as waterfowl goes there were 7 Ring-necked Ducks, 18 Common Mergansers, 3 Hooded Mergansers,a few Mallards and a few Canada Geese (including a tagged individual..I reported this bird last week but have not heard back regarding the background of it).  Besides the waterfowl here I ran across a Great Blue Heron coming into the Route 9 marsh as well as a group of three red Fox Sparrows. 

Eastern Meadowlark, Moody Bridge Rd, Hadley, MA, Mar 12, 2012

Eastern Meadowlark, Moody Bridge Rd, Hadley, MA, Mar 12, 2012

As I was heading out of Quabbin I got a call from Jacob Drucker about a large goose flock near Moody Bridge Rd.  I needed run a few errands over that way so I headed over toward Hadley.  I ran into Jacob along the road and talked to him briefly.  We both had distant looks at the continuing western, dark morph Red-Tailed Hawk.  The light was terrible for photos so I didn't get any.  I then checked Moody Bridge Road and tried to catch up with Jacob again but got sidetracked looking at another Fox Sparrow.  Following my stops here I made a brief stop at Hadley Cove and had 29 Green-winged Teal (no luck finding anything different among them).  I then came back to Moody Bridge Road and had the flock of Canada Geese Jacob discovered this AM but there was nothing unusual with them.  There were at least three Eastern Meadowlarks singing in the fields and from the tops of the trees.  There seemed to be a marked increase in the number of Killdeer, Northern Flickers, blackbirds and grackles as well as Fox Sparrow.  Certainly some good migration last evening.  Before heading home I stopped briefly at the US Fish and Wildlife building but no Bohemians (only 22 cedars).  Once I got home I picked up Wilson and headed to Covey WMA and enjoyed the balmy conditions as the temperature soared into the high 60's to near 70.  I ran across a single Tree Swallow here plus my first butterflies of the season (two Eastern Comma's).