To start off the new month of March I headed out early and although I still didn't feel great I thought I would try to take advantage of warmer weather and sunny, calm conditions. I hit a variety of areas with quite a bit of birding from near the car. My main goal was to find a warbler to start the month and I succeeded with a flyover Yellow rumped Warbler at Arcadia. Unfortunately I was unable to find where the bird landed so no chance for a photo. During the remainder of my time out I had a total of 61 species, which is surprisingly the best first day of March I have ever had here (could have added a few more species if I felt up to it). Highlights for the morning (besides the warbler) included eleven species of waterfowl including a Common Loon, a couple Black Vultures, a Lapland Longspur and my first Fox Sparrow of the year.
I took advantage of the calm before our next storm to check a few areas in Amherst and Hadley. I decided to take an early morning swing by the campus pond at UMASS to see the continued Double crested Cormorant that has been present since the end of February. I then headed down to a couple spots along the river in the hopes of finding a Yellow rumped Warbler that I could actual get photos of but I had no luck. A lot of the snow we had has settled in the past few days so there is only a couple inches of crusty snow left plus some icy spots so walking was a bit tough at time but it was nice to be outside for a longer period of time compared to the first days of the month.
Our next storm arrived overnight Friday into Saturday with a few more inches of heavy, wet snow. I spent the entire day at home with multiple trips outside to both clean up the snow and to play with Wilson in the snow...he certainly loves the snow.
I had to work on Monday and made just a couple brief stop on my way in without finding anything noteworthy. After work on Tuesday morning I decided to head north and check the area around Great Pond. It was still below freezing when I arrived but was thawing by the time I left and mud would definitely be an issue if I stayed longer. The big draw was of course waterfowl and I spent over an hour scanning the water from a variety of viewpoints (I also kept my ears and eyes out for an early Tree Swallow but no luck with finding one). I had a total of nine species of waterfowl plus a fairly rare intergrade (or hybrid depending on which taxonomic classification one uses). The intergrade was an American Green winged Teal x Eurasian Green winged Teal in among a large flock of American Green winged Teal. I have found this hybrid combo twice before in Hampshire County including one I found in Hadley in late March 2018 and another in Belchertown in early April 2021. I got out of the Great Pond area before it got too muddy and heading north to cross the river and then head south again on the east side of the Connecticut River with a couple stops in Hadley with the main focus again being waterfowl. I had a total of seven species of waterfowl in Hadley with great counts of Northern Pintails. Just as I was getting ready to leave I noticed Cory had a sighting of a Yellow rumped Warbler in the area but I was unable to relocate it. I made it back home late in the morning and took Wilson for a walk. I noticed a post about a female Canvasback in Northampton but I didn't have the energy to drive back over to look for it but I did let others know about it...perhaps it will hang around and I can relocate it tomorrow morning if I have time.
