When I was at work yesterday I got a message from Mike L. letting me know he had a male Yellow headed Blackbird among a large mixed flock of Common Grackles, Red winged Blackbirds and Brown headed Cowbirds in some farm fields in the north part of Hadley. At least one other person was able to relocate the bird yesterday but I know a few others that checked struck out but the flock was moving around a lot and would settle into areas where the views were obscured. I had plans to check once I got out of work but when we got a bit more snow than expected in the morning I was not sure I would be able to track down the bird as fresh snow cover can move the blackbird flocks to new areas. Nonetheless I figured I would still try. The snow was still coming down as I crossed the river and I decided to first make a stop at the Honey Pot and see if the snow concentrated at birds there. The flocks of Horned Larks were impressive with over 400 birds present. I had at least one, possibly more, Lapland Longspurs among the flocks. I had the longspur briefly on the ground but then the flocks whirled up again and I lost track of it as various groups broke off to other areas of the Honey Pot. I heard another bird a little bit later but it could have been the same individual. No sign of the long staying Smith's Longspur, but it could be lurking somewhere in the area (the last substantiated report was from Feb 1). I then headed north to look for the Yellow headed Blackbird. I arrived in the area where Mike had it but there were no birds around that area so I tried a couple other spots before I finally saw a flock of a couple hundred birds (all which turned out to be Common Grackles). I scanned through the distant flock as it flew around and occasionally landed in trees and found nothing unusual. I then noticed several hundred birds coming in and flying around the area with some going north and others south. More and more small flocks also moved in and I then relocated to yet another area. As I drove one of the roads I could see thousands of birds settling into a corn stubble field but there was no close place to pull over safely to view them. I eventually found a spot where I could scan the flock distantly and after a bit of watching I saw the Yellow headed Blackbird fly down to the field and disappear from view among the corn stalks. I caught sight of it one more time briefly as the flocks wheeled around the fields. I took a bunch of distant photos but after going through them I didn't capture the Yellow headed Blackbird in any of them. I spent about another half hour trying to relocate it without luck. The various flocks were moving all over the various fields in the area but being at the right spot at the right time to see it is not easy. Yellow headed Blackbird is a rare species in the valley but I have had some good luck with them the last few years including two last year with one in February and another in early November plus two more in 2021 with one in September and another in October. Prior to those sightings I have only had the species a couple other times and that was back in November 2014 and multiple day in October 2012.
After taking Wilson for a walk I spent some time in the yard checking out the large numbers of Black capped Chickadees coming into the remaining feeder I have up. Among the 20+ birds were at least five banded birds including a male that was originally banded in 2019 and then recaptured in June 2021. The other four birds were all banded in July 2021
