Surner Birding

Rough-Legged Hawks- honey Pot/So.Maple Street, Hadley

2012-01-28T22:44:00.000-05:00

Spent the morning chasing down a couple of Light-morph Rough-Legged Hawks in the Hadley area.
Rough-Legged Hawks may make an appearance in western mass each year ,either one day wonders or a bird or two seen during migration but most birders can go a few years without catching up to one. So when two different birds seemed content on hanging around for the last few days around South Maple Street and the Honey Pot....It was time to go. The Rough-Legged Hawk nests far to the north and west of New England and can start to show up in Massachusetts by the second week in October, but more likely to be encountered later into November.

The most I've ever had in one day in western Massachusetts was seven a few years back, also in Hadley. Historically there have been some amazing numbers here in the valley, but you have to go back to the 1870's and 1880's when Edward Damon prowled the meadows of Northampton and Hadley with his gun. During those years he would collect up to sixty Rough-legs a year. Some of these birds made it to a number of museums in the region. Below are a few photos of the two Rough-leggeds I caught up to today. Both birds appeared to be juveniles-lighter eyes and lack of solid tail band among other things. The other interesting bird of the day was a Clay-colored sparrow, a bird found by Ian Davies and Evan Dalton a few days earlier. After about an hour we finally located the sparrow. It really didn't provide me with any great photo opportunities, but was able to get reasonable looks.

Scott

Rough-legged Hawk- Light morph. HoneyPot, Hadley.

Rough-legged Hawk- Light morph. So.Maple Street. (Not quite has cooperative as the honey Pot bird)

Rough-legged Hawk- So.Maple Street.

American Kestrel-male. Honey Pot

Clay-colored Sparrow (bottom bird-back shot) also horrible photo!

Merlin- honey Pot

Dark-eyed Junco

Northern Cardinal- last week in the Honey Pot

Song Sparrow

American Tree Sparrow.

Savannah Sparrow- Honey Pot

2012-01-26T21:23:00.001-05:00

Hello Folks,

Its certainly been a few months since my last post, perhaps I'm just getting over the October Snowstorm....probably not, just been busy with the Holidays and Christmas bird Counts. I managed to participate in three Christmas Bird counts this season-Northampton, Quabbin and Greenfield.While all three were fun, the Greenfield count had the edge this year. I joined Josh Rose and James Smith as we birded the Power Canel, Barton's Cove and the Rod & Gun Club in Turner's Falls. The theme of the day was FOG! not just fog, but industrial Fog. The fog really didn't clear until about 2:30pm, but the highlights of the day was away from the water. We birded the power lines near the canal and it turned out to be great. Highlights - Hermit Thrushes, Field Sparrows, Ruby-crowned Kinglet and a first for the Greenfield count..Common Yellowthroat first detected by James. Below are a few photos....

American Kestrel- Honeypot/Hadley. Northampton CBC

Carolina Wren- Hadley/Northampton CBC

Bald Eagle-Hadley/Northampton CBC

Fox Sparrow-Honeypot/Northampton CBC

Black-capped Chickadee-Hadley/Northampton CBC

American Robin- Hadley/Northampton CBC

Gray Catbird-No.Hadley/Northampton CBC

Porcupine- Quabbin CBC. Gate 43

Common Mergansers- Quabbin CBC Gate 43

Hooded Merganser- Rod-Gun Club. Greenfield CBC

Field Sparrow-Greenfield CBC. One of six.

Hermit Thrush- Greenfield CBC. Front & side views.

October Snowstorm-trick or treat

2011-11-13T11:27:00.000-05:00

Black Scoter-Barton's Cove

October Snowstorm =”Nightmare”

I headed up to the Turner’s Falls Power canal on Saturday October 29th in hopes of locating the Pink-footed Goose that James Smith found earlier in the week . After an hour of scanning through the few hundred Canada Geese that were hanging out at the canal, I along with others came up empty. After departing the canal area I headed up to Barton’s Cove.The highlights were a frosty looking Great blue Heron, a female Black Scoter, a Brant and five American Coots. The Brant was especially nice since one can easily miss them here in western Massachusetts, and the American Coots……although there were only five, it has been a big year for them here in Massachusetts, with hundreds and hundreds being reported throughout the Baystate.

The main event was forecasted for Saturday night into Sunday morning, a rare October Snowstorm!

The storm began quite a bit earlier than originally forecasted- and by 8:30pm we lost all power, and power would not return until the following Saturday! I headed out early Sunday morning to plow out various locations in the Belchertown and Amherst area, and that’s when I quickly came to the realization that the area was hit extremely hard by this storm. The amount of downed trees, powerlines was nothing I have ever witnessed here in the valley. Despite the inconvenience of the situation, life does go on- but come Saturday afternoon both Valerie and I were very happy to get power and the internet back ON! Below are a few shots from the storm and recent birds.

Scott

Great blue Heron-Barton's Cove. Looking a little cold- Snowstorm just hours away.

Brant- Barton's Cove.

Early Sunday morning- Rte 9 in Belchertown. From here to center of Belchertown...Closed!

Rte 9-Belchertown

Baker Street-Amherst.

Baker Street- Only active feeder on the street.

Bay Road in Belchertown....the devastation continues

Rusty Blackbird- One of two- A first for my feeder.

Chipping Sparrow- lingering

Rusty Blackbird-

Western Kingbird- This bird still continues in New Salem-at least as of 2:30 today (Sat 11-12-11) found by Bill Lafley.

Break out the Orange

2011-10-15T22:32:00.000-04:00

Its October……break out the Orange!

Worked my way out to the East Meadows this morning in search of Sparrows and whatever else the meadows would give up. I made my way past the Red Barn and tried to avoid the mammoth puddles the recent rains had created, parked and starting out into the fields –“GUN SHOTS” I looked around a bit and suddenly found hunters emerging from the cornfields.. I was the only one not wearing “ORANGE” October 14th –the beginning of the Hunting Season…..needless to say I didn’t venture out to far after that. All was not lost….A few American Kestrels, (10) Rusty Blackbirds, American Pipits, Horned Larks , (3) Palm Warblers and lots of Savannah Sparrows.

After departing the hunting festival that was going on in the East Meadows, I headed to the West Meadows, hoping the color orange wasn’t going to be a fashion requirement. I encountered (5) (getting late) Bobolinks, Many Savannah, Swamp, and Song Sparrows, (4) White-crowned and (2) Vesper Sparrows. All in all- a nice morning. Complete list below

Orange...the color of the month.

Savannah Sparrow- one of dozens & dozens.

Boblink....West Meadows.

Swamp Sparrow....very common migrate in early to mid October.

Palm Warbler-

Vesper Sparrow-always unexpected

Vesper Sparrow-back view

Ruby-crowned Kinglet

Golden-crowned Kinglet..In our area -migration just kicking in.

Arcadia Wildlife Sanctuary and West Meadows--IBA, Hampshire, US-MA

Oct 14, 2011 10:00 AM - 12:30 PM
40 species

Wood Duck 2
Mallard 12
Double-crested Cormorant 3
Turkey Vulture 4
Bald Eagle 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk 1
Red-tailed Hawk 4
Killdeer 1
Ring-billed Gull 37
Herring Gull 7
Mourning Dove 6
Belted Kingfisher 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker 1
Downy Woodpecker 1
Northern Flicker 2
Blue Jay 6
American Crow 325
Black-capped Chickadee 4
Tufted Titmouse 2
Golden-crowned Kinglet 2
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 2
Eastern Bluebird 4
European Starling X
Cedar Waxwing 4
Nashville Warbler 1
Common Yellowthroat 1
Palm Warbler 7
Yellow-rumped Warbler 2
Vesper Sparrow 2
Savannah Sparrow 75
Song Sparrow 30
Swamp Sparrow 60
White-throated Sparrow 17
White-crowned Sparrow 4
Northern Cardinal 3
Bobolink 5
Red-winged Blackbird 80
House Finch 4
American Goldfinch 2
House Sparrow 33

This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (http://ebird.org)

BBC Pelagic Trip- June 25th

2011-07-01T23:09:00.000-04:00

I haven’t had a lot of time this spring to update my blog, so I have a bit of catching up to do.

Last Saturday I joined the Brookline Bird club for their annual June Pelagic trip to the Nantucket Shoals, about 20-30 miles east of Chatham. The trip certainly didn’t start out on a high note…fairly heavy fog was present for the first couple hours of the trip. About two hours into the trip we had our first tease of the morning- a Skua appeared at the edge of the fog only to disappear right back into the soupy mess. A little while later the fog began to slowly lift and things began to really pick up.

The crew put out a chum slick once it started to clear and not long after the Storm-Petrels and Shearwaters started to appear in really good numbers.

The chum slick also brought in a very obliging Northern Fulmar. This bird made several passes around the boat and offered the photographers several opportunities to come away with a decent shot or two. We did encounter a few more Fulmars during the day including a dark morph, but the first one was the star of the Fulmar show.

The one memorable thing about this trip, at least to me was everyone on board was able to get really good looks at the majority of the birds that were encountered. The leaders worked very well together making sure everyone got on the birds.

Below is the official list compiled by Naeem Yusuff and the trip map provided by Steve Mirick

Scott

Common Loon 15
Northern Fulmar 2-3
Cory's Shearwater 12
Great Shearwater 376
Sooty Shearwater 1,303
Manx Shearwater 2
Wilson's Storm-Petrel 300
Leach's Storm-Petrel 8
Northern Gannet 1
Laughing Gull 2
Herring Gull 210
Great Black-backed Gull 225
Common Tern 4
skua sp. 1
Pomarine Jaeger 1

Parasitic Jaeger 1

Common Murre1

Great Shearwater

Northern Fulmar-Light morph.

Northern Fulmar

Parasitic Jaeger

Pomarine Jaeger- both Jaegers put on a nice show.

Pomarine Jaeger

Sooty Shearwater

Wilson's Storm- Petrel

South Monomoy Island

Gray Seals on South Monomoy.

Spring Birding Class-New Salem to Turner's Falls

2011-03-12T21:23:00.001-05:00

Spring Birding class-Trip #2.

Saturday March 12th- We left the Hitchcock Center in Amherst for areas to the North this morning. Our hope was to cash in on lingering Bohemian Waxwings, Evening Grosbeaks and Redpolls. Recent reports from New Salem had Bohemian Waxwings coming to a couple of Crabapple Trees near the Center of town. We arrived around 8:00am and looked around a bit, no luck. We met up with Bill Lafley, who had reported the movement of the Waxwings throughout the week. After about ten minutes the Waxwings came flew in to the top of a deciduous tree near the overstuffed Crabapple Trees. They gave everyone killer looks through the scope, we enjoyed them for about twenty minutes and they just went up and out of sight...pretty lucky. We turned around to face Bill's house and we had American Goldfinches, (4) Pine Siskins and a flock of about (30) Common Redpolls coming into his feeder, Very Nice!

We left New Salem and headed to Royalston...."one of the most reliable locations for Evening Grosbeaks in Western Mass", We arrived around 10am and almost instantly had a group of (18) at a feeding station just down from the Library. These are very cool birds, and the group thought so as well. Also in the area, more Pine siskins, Common Redpolls and Redwinged Blackbirds. My hope was to maybe get one of these target birds, but not all four. (Bohemian Waxwing, Evening Grosbeak, Pine Siskin and Common Redpoll) Not only did we get all four, but more important...everyone got great looks!

So it's now 11:00am, time running out and was hoping to still get to Barton's Cove in Turners Falls. The class is scheduled to end at 12:00, but the group was willing to go a little longer. My last target bird was a Redhead Duck that was found earlier in the week at The Turner's Falls Canal, with other sightings at Barton's Cove and the Rod & Gun Club-both in Turner's Falls. We quickly pulled into Barton's Cove on the Gill side, and found (47) Hooded Mergansers, a handful of Common Mergansers, (3) Common Goldeneye, (2) Bald Eagles and a Glaucous Gull-1st winter, but no Redhead. The last stop of the day would be to the Rod & Gun Club on the other side of the River. We pull into the Rod & Gun Club and they had some sort of a function going on...so we quickly parked and scan the water. There was virtually no ducks except a group of (37) Ring-necked Ducks and one lone drake Redhead....very nice. One can easily go without seeing a Redhead Duck in the valley for several seasons.A great way to end the day.

Scott

These two photos of Bohemian Waxwings were taken a couple of weeks earlier in Windsor, Mass...you get the idea.

Evening Grosbeak- Royalston Center

Evening Grosbeak-female

Bald Eagle-Imm. This bird kept both ducks and gulls on alert.

Ring-necked Ducks and male Redhead Duck- Rod & Gun Club in Turner's Falls.

Long Winter.....

2011-02-13T21:53:00.001-05:00

This has been a tough winter here in the Northeast, three feet of snow, almost thirty days of the mercury never rising above thirty-two degrees and Ice dams galore. But, there is a small light at the end of the tunnel....Northern Cardinals, Carolina Wrens and Titmice have started singing, spring is on the way.

Over the past month I've had a couple of days to get out and do a little birding and photography here in the Valley. Below are some recent photos......

Cedar Waxwing - Recently there has been a flock of 135 descending upon the downtown area of Amherst. This photo was taken on So.Pleasant Street, near Amherst College.

Field Sparrow- Always a good bird in winter. The past several winters we get one at our feeding station..on-off.

Carolina Wren- You know it's a tough winter when they start visiting our feeder. This bird is holding up just fine. Carolina Wrens seem to be dealing with New England winters far better than they use too.

Old Barn in the Deerfield Meadows. Just a cold day!

Horned Lark- flocks of 50 to 260 have been reported in the valley this winter. This bird and others put on a great show off of Stillwater Road in deerfield.

Lesser Blacked-backed Gull- This adult continues to put on a late afternoon show at Barton's cove in Turners Falls.

Bohemian Waxwing- I was lucky to come across two birds in Deerfield a few weeks ago. for the most part, the large numbers of Bohemians have been staying north of us. Hopefully that will change in the coming weeks.

Lapland Longspurs- A few of these birds, along with the Horned Larks put on a great show off of Stillwater Rd in Deerfield. Other Longspurs have also been report several times in the Hadley area.

Horned Lark & Lapland Longspur- Deerfield

Lapland Longspur

Red-breasted Nuthatch-Amherst.

SDS

Quabbin C.B.C.

2011-01-06T17:42:00.000-05:00

Christmas Count Season ends with the Quabbin Count.

On January 1st, 2011 the Quabbin Christmas bird count was held under the best possible conditions one could hope for, for a January day in New England. I started out by meeting James smith in the center of Hardwick, at 3:30am. (My little section of the count) During the next two and a half hours we tallied (9) Great Horned Owls, (4) Northern Saw-whet Owls and a Porcupine. One of the Saw-whet Owls put on a great show, strong, consistent vocalizations and even made a couple of appearances.

By 6:45am we made our way to the local Cumbies (The only store open) and met Mike Locher and David Peake-Jones. Both gentlemen were out owling since midnight! There numbers might not have been as strong has ours, but the variety was notably better. Along with Great Horned and Saw-whet Owls, they nabbed a Barred and Eastern Screech-Owl. (Well done)

While in the parking lot of the Cumbies, a sizable flock of Common Redpolls made there way overhead….perhaps a good sign. After getting some supplies we headed back to the Hardwick area. As I mentioned earlier, the day itself was one of the highlights….by early afternoon the mercury would top off at 50 Degrees! The warm temperatures would bring out the best in the local woodpeckers; they must have thought spring had sprung. Woodpeckers were drumming, calling all over the place, especially the Pleated Woodpecker. In our area alone we had (9) and the area to our north would record (24). By the end of the day a new High count for Pleated Woodpecker would not only surpass the pervious high, but just crushed it. The new mark is now (61) the old record was (31) and that was several years ago. Red-bellied Woodpeckers and Northern flickers would also establish new highs.

Around 10am we were joined by my wife Valerie and her mom, Priscilla Moor. We immediately headed for Gate 43 of the Quabbin, an area known as the Horse shoe Dam. This area provides us with are only real opportunity for waterfowl, Eagles and maybe a Raven or two. Once we arrived at the fishing area my fears were confirmed, very little open water. December had been just a little too cold for this area of the Quabbin, and froze up just about everything except right around the dam. However, much to my surprise….a Belted Kingfisher came screaming in to lay his claim to this little oasis. He did have a little competition….Valerie had found two River Otters just playing and feeding on the other side of the causeway. I was able to get some decent photos of the two before they just disappeared under the ice. While we were taking in the Otters, James had a Snow bunting fly over, that bird ended up being the only one for the count. Other notables were a couple of Bald Eagles, Common Ravens and a lone Coyote out on the ice.

Temperature wise, the day just got warmer and warmer, and we ended up birding in sweatshirts for the rest of the afternoon. Our best bird of the day came near the end…James spied a Merlin on top of a tree, a good ways out. This would only be the second one ever recorded on the count. After dropping James off at his car, Valerie, Priscilla and I got four large pizzas to go from Lazy Mary’s Pizzeria just off the Hardwick Common and headed back to the tally at the Quabbin Headquarters in Belchertown. Below are the numbers from the day, total species were about average and we ended with 10 species of mammals. All in all, a Nice Day!

Scott

Purple Finch-male. One of three found on the count.

White-breasted Nuthatch.

Red-bellied Woodpecker- Their numbers continue to grow. A new high count of 35.

Carolina Wrens- Also a new high count...11

Merlin- only the second one recorded on the count. However, in recent years- Merlins have become a little more common in winter than they once were.

River Otter- These two put on a nice little show for our group.

Perhaps making some statement about our intrusion or my photography!

Below are the final count totals.

Canada Goose -1
American Black Duck -56
Mallard -94
Common Goldeneye-1
Hooded Merganaser-42
Common Merganser-474
Ruffed Grouse-10
Wild Turkey-183
Common Loon-3
Horned Grebe-2
Bald Eagle- 19 (13Ad) (6 Imm)
Sharp-shinned Hawk-4
Cooper’s Hawk -6
Northern Goshawk-2
Red-tailed Hawk-19
Rough-legged Hawk-1. (Dark Morph)
Merlin-1
Ring-billed Gull-107
Rock Pigeon-70
Mourning Dove-134
Eastern Screech-Owl-2
Great Horned Owl -42HC
Barred Owl-15
Northern Saw-whet Owl-13
Belted Kingfisher-6 ties HC
Red-bellied Woodpecker 35HC
Downy Woodpecker-112
Hairy Woodpecker-42
Northern flicker-10HC
Pileated Woodpecker-61HC
Northern Shrike-2
Blue Jay-424
American Crow-180
Common Raven-25
Black-capped Chickadee-868
Tufted Titmouse-193
Red-breasted Nuthatch-71
White-breasted Nuthatch-209
Brown Creeper-43
Carolina Wren-11HC
Winter Wren-2
Golden-crowned Kinglet-100
Eastern Bluebird-26
Hermit Thrush-1
American Robin-1861
Northern Mockingbird-8
European Starling-309
Cedar Waxwing-71
American Tree Sparrow-150
Song Sparrow-19
White-throated Sparrow-25
Dark-eyed Junco-406
Snow Bunting-1
Northern Cardinal-73
Red-winged Blackbird-1
Purple Finch-3
House Finch-25
Red Crossbill-2
Common Redpoll-82
Pine Siskin-20
American Goldfinch-149
Evening Grosbeak-1
House Sparrow-405
Total 63 species
Snow Goose -1 cw
Mammals

River Otter-5
Coyote- 2 (day time sightings) (3 packs heard during owling)
Red Squirrel-41
Gray Squirrel -40 (Black Squirrel-2)
Beaver-1
Porcupine-2
Rabbit-1
Moose-1
White-tailed Deer-20
White-footed Mouse-4

Christmas Bird Counts

2010-12-26T16:07:00.000-05:00

Christmas count Season:

Tis this season to be Merry and count birds. The first Christmas Bird Counts were started in 1900, when twenty five were conducted. Last year, 2,160 counts were done on a national level. Here in New England the counts break down as follows….Massachusetts 33, Maine 29, Vermont 18, Rhode Island 4, New Hampshire 17, and 16 in Connecticut.

Locally, I participate on the Northampton and Quabbin counts, and added the Sturbridge count to my list of firsts. As mentioned, I did the Sturbridge count for the first time this year with my wife Valerie. Now, Valerie is a veteran of the Sturbridge count and has never missed one. This particular count is held on a week day, often making it difficult for me to break away from work. Our section of the count is called Elf Hill. This area is in the Brookfield’s. Our highlight of the day happened to be the second bird that we observed…..American Woodcock!! This was the first Woodcock I’ve ever come across on a Christmas Count. However, this was not a first for the Sturbridge count, there was a prior record! The day was cold with a noticeable breeze…making it real cold. It wasn’t a record count, but my recollection was around 73 species, making it a respectable count.

Northampton Count:

The Northampton count was held under ideal conditions on Sunday the 19th. I was joined again this year by James Smith of Gill. James and I started at 3AM in Amherst. I have a relatively small owling area, but it can be quite good. The Owling conditions were simply unbelievable…no wind, clear, but a little chilly. In two and a half hours of Owling, we had five species! Great Horned – 2, Eastern Screech Owl -3, Northern Saw-whet Owl -1, Barred Owl-1 and the gem of the morning was a calling Long-eared Owl. Our Barred Owl was brought in by a calling Screech Owl near Umass. That little owl made a vocalization just before the Barred Owl appeared, a sound that James or I had never heard before. Of course, if something were chasing and trying to eat us, I’m sure James and I would make a whole bunch of noises that that many of our friends have never heard us make before. We felt the little owl had a pretty good head start and that it probably eluded his uninvited guest.

The daylight portion of our count also proved to be quite productive. My area is along the river in Hadley, and I’ve covered this area since the early 80’s. We ended the day with 49 species, highlights…..Merlin, Peregrine Falcon, American Kestrel, American Pipit-2, and 4 White-cr. Sparrows. Overall, the count did very well….an unofficial 87 species, just four shy of the record.

Next up….The Quabbin Count.

Merlin- Above) This bird found by James Smith. This is the darkest appearing Merlin I've seen here in the Northeast.

White-crowned Sparrow (Imm) Two or four birds we had this day. Certainly the most I've ever had on the Northampton count.

White-crowned Sparrow- Imm. Hadley

Savannah Sparrow- This individual was on the pale side of the Savannah Sparrows we encountered.

American Woodcock- Sturbridge C.B.C. 12-14-10

Muskrat- Brookfield Area 12-14-10

Odds & Ends...Photos from past weeks

2010-11-21T20:36:00.002-05:00

I've posted some recent photos from trips close to home and up to the North Shore and Southern Maine.

Cattle Egret - Easier to find in the eastern part of the state than here in the west. Always nice to locate one. (Hellcat/Plum Is. Oct 31,2010)

Shorebirds on the move....Even though the Curlew Sandpiper hadn't been seen in four days prior to our trip, we headed out to Sandy Point. These Dunlin, Black-bellied Plovers and Sanderlings were on the move...When looking for rare shorebirds, a Peregrine Falcon is not what you want.

Peregrine Falcon- A great bird, but not when scoping through large flocks of shorebirds.

Sandhill Crane- Bird of the day on October 31st....definitely a treat!

King Eider-young male in Ogunquit Maine. (Perkins Cove)

Perkins Cove- Ogunquit, Maine.

Gray Kingbird- 2nd State record for Maine. (Perkins Cove)

Fox Sparrow- Goodell Street Feeder.

White-throated Sparrow- Feeder.

Tundra Swans- Quabbin Res. This group of 19 was found by the Hampshire Bird Club (Tom Gagnon & Larry Therrien leading) Nov. 20, 2010

Cackling Goose- Umass Campus Pond/Amherst. 11-21-2010

Cackling Goose- Bird #2 at the Campus Pond.

American robin and Winter berry

Chasing the Curlew Sandpiper....

2010-11-01T22:00:00.000-04:00

Curlew Sandpiper- Juv

Curlew Sandpipers are not very common migrant in the state, if fact you could make a reasonable case that they are down right...rare. However- It seems one or two get found every year, but usually adults. This bird that was found by Suzanne Sullivan in early October was a juvenile, a plumage that I've never encountered before. So I headed out early Saturday morning on the 23rd and headed directly to the south end of Plum Island to Sandy Point. The tide was on the rise and I first came upon the Curlew out of the mud flats. After photographing the bird for a while, I move towards the beach where I relocated it roosting with White-rumped Sandpipers and Semipalmated Plovers in the dunes. I was pretty impressed that this bird hung around for as long as it did, the last report on October 28th.

From Plum Island, I headed to Concord to take in the Barnacle Goose that had been recently found by David Sibley. I arrived in the late afternoon and was please to find the bird with a flock of Canada Geese.

Curlew Sandpiper

Dunlin- Sandy Point

Semipalmated Plover

White-rumped Sandpiper

This napping Raccoon was right next to the main road at the Plum Island airport.

Barnacle Goose- Concord.

Berkshire Lakes

2010-11-01T20:53:00.000-04:00

It's been a few weeks since I've been able to update my blog, and during that time I've had the opportunity to visit the Berkshire Lakes region as well as Plum Island on the North Shore. I headed up to the Pittsfield area on October 17th to take in the fall colors and locate some waterfowl on the various Lakes and Reservoirs. Ian Davies and I departed early from Amherst and made it to Windsor just at dawn. Although we had quietly hoped for an early Northern Shrike or perhaps a Northern Goshawk, (denied on both accounts) we had a nice dawn movement of birds. (American Robins 1500, Sharp-shinned Hawk (14), Common Raven 4, American Pipit 3, Palm Warbler 6, Field sparrow 2, Lincolns Sparrow 1, Eastern Meadowlark 1, Rusty Blackbird 1, Purple Finch 8, Pine Siskins 3)

From windsor, we headed to Cheshire Reservoir and the large lakes around the Pittsfield area. Both Chershire and Pontoosuc Lake in Pittsfield would be the most productive bodies of water this day.(variety) Some of the highlights...(Gadwall 2, American wigeon 1, Northern Pintail 1, Green-winged Teal 6, Ring-necked duck 1, Greater Scaup 2, Black Scoter 5, Red-breasted Merganser 5, Pied-billed Grebes 4, American Coot 6 ) Our last stop at Mud Pond yielded a good number of Ring-necked Ducks (610) and one Ruddy Duck.

Black Scoter- Cheshire Reservoir

Canada Geese...coming in

Another perfect landing with fall colors

American Coot

Fall colors.....love New England in the fall.

Next.....Plum Island area

Redheads- Turners Falls Canal

2010-10-19T21:08:00.000-04:00

Redhead Ducks and one Lesser Scaup.

I read James Smith's post the other day on Massbird, and was pleased to hear the Redhead Ducks were still present at the Power Canal in Turner's Falls. So late Saturday afternoon I headed up hoping these elusive ducks would still be around. After a sort walk down the road, I came upon a decent gathering of waterfowl, which included the six Redheads. Redhead Ducks in the valley are by no means an annual visitor, in fact, an active birder could easily miss this species several years in a row. So the six birds in Turner's Falls was really nice to see. Besides the Redheads, a Northern Shoveler, Northern Pintail, American Wigeon, Lesser Scaup and Common Mergansers put of a nice late afternoon show. American Wigeon

American Wigeon in flight.

Redhead-female

Redheads

Redhead -airborne

Northern Shoveler-

Common Merganser-female

Hampshire Bird Club - Cape Cod

2010-10-06T21:29:00.003-04:00

Palm Warbler- Middleboro. One of the few brave birds that teed -up in the wind.

The Hampshire Bird Club spent three days last weekend on Cape Cod. The trip started out in Middleboro at the Cumberland Farms fields, this area has a terrific track record of not only producing rare birds, but large numbers of birds. However, this area is less productive when the the winds are out of the southeast at 25mph. The remains of tropical storm Nicole were moving into the region as we began our trip. Despite the wind, we did manage to pull out a nice show of Northern Harriers, Tree Swallows and an Upland Sandpiper. Anytime one comes across an Upland Sandpiper away from an Air force Base nowadays is indeed a plus. On this day, landbirds were almost non-existant- just a few brave Catbirds, Boblinks and Palm Warblers were able to tee-up on a weedy stalk for a brief moment. The one bright spot, at least for a while...the heavy rains had not yet arrived.

With the strong southeasterly winds throughout the day and into the evening, I thought we might have a chance for a seabird show at First Encounter Beach in Eastham the next morning! So we got everyone to First Encounter by 6:45am and hoped for the best. The winds had shifted to the northwest and the skies were clear and blue. A quick scan and large numbers of Northern Gannets immediately came into view.
The next couple of hours were pretty good, large numbers of Gannets (400+) along with decent numbers Cory's and Great Shearwaters. A few distant Parasitic Jaegers, White-winged and Surf Scoters, Forster's Terns and an American Golden-Plover.

The Moon at First Encounter Beach.......

Looking out at Cape Cod Bay.

Northern Gannets

Red-breasted Nuthatch- Beach Forest in Provincetown.

Forster's Tern- Wellfleet Harbor.

Peregrine Falcon (Imm) Wellfleet Bay

Red Squirrel- Wellfleet.

Summer Tanager- Wellfleet Bay Sanctuary- Mass Audubon.

Looking out from Hemenway Rd in Eastham. (Coast Guard Beach in background)

Black-crowned Night-Herons coming out.

Yellow-crowned Night-Heron- Imm.

Fort Hill in Eastham.

After First Encounter, we headed down to Provincetown to bird the Beach Forest. Land birding at the Beach Forest would not go down in history as one of those amazing moments, and basically set the theme for the rest of the weekend. By late afternoon we made our way to the Mass Audubon Sanctuary at Wellfleet, there had been a Dickcissel report fairly recently, but not that we could locate this day. After birding the grounds we were just about back to
the visitors center and we stopped back at a large thicket where we had had a Scarlet Tanager twenty minutes earlier. Now this thicket wasn't busting with birds, the Tanager, Catbird, Robin, a handful of Chickadees and some House Sparrows, and that was about it. But we stopped for a few moments when Marylou Splain got on the Tanager at the top of the thicket. It took what seemed like five minutes to get onto this bird because it was fairly well concealed, then I finally got it. Something about the color of this thing was not right, I kept slowly moving to the right, trying to get a better view....Hey, I think this is a Summer Tanager! ... and the bird just dropped right into the heart of the thicket. We spent the next 30 minutes just getting quick views of the bird until finally it popped out and all were able to get a quick but decent look at the Summer Tanager!!

After the Tanager, we headed to Hemenway Road in Eastham. This area is famous for watching the Night-Herons coming out of their daytime roost, and especially for the Yellow-crowned Night-heron. We ended up with (44) Black-crowned Night-Herons and (6) Yellow-crowned Night-Herons...Nice way to end the day.

Sunday brought more clouds, a steady north easterly wind and even less landbirds. We ended the trip at Cow Yard Lane in Chatham. In recent years this has become a fairly decent shorebird spot at low tide, we added Marbled Godwit (5), American Oystercatcher, Willets (Western race), Black-bellied Plovers, Ruddy Turnstone, Dunlin and over a hundred Gray Seals. We ended with 109 species, all in all a very nice weekend.

Trip list and weather:

Weather:
Oct 1st, 2010 – Temp 75-82 degrees. A weakened tropical Storm (Nicole) passed through New England on Friday. The constant high winds (SE) 15-30mph made land birding very difficult. These winds would ultimately play a major role the next morning at First Encounter. The heavy rains that we dodge most of the day finally caught up with us by 2pm.

Oct 2nd, 2010 – We were met with clear skies, Northwesterly wind (5-20mph) and cooler temps 51-65.

Oct 3rd, 2010 – Temps 56-61, Cloudy with a noticeable 5-15mph Northeast wind.

Areas Covered:
Middleboro –Cumberland Farms Fields, Wareham (Tihonet Cranberry Bog), Sandy Neck Beach.

Eastham – First Encounter Beach, Stump Dump, Hemingway Rd, Fort Hill, Coast Guard Beach.

Truro – High Head.

Provincetown – Herring Cove, Beach Forest

Wellfleet – Mass Audubon, Harbor

Chatham –Cow Yard Lane.

Species
Canada Goose 12
Mute Swan- 4
Am. Black Duck 33
Mallard (1) chatham
Blue-winged Teal (10) Beach Forest
Common Eider (350+) most at First Encounter Beach.
Surf Scoter (8)
White-winged Scoter (9)
Wild Turkey (3)
Common Loon (9) First Encounter/Fort Hill/Sandy Neck
Cory’s Shearwater (50+) of the Shearwaters closest to the parking lot- Cory’s was the most common.
Great Shearwater (75+) Farther out.
Manx Shearwater (1) Scott.
Northern Gannet (400+) Best Looks from First Encounter.
Double-crested Cormorant (300+)
American Bittern (1) First Encounter. Scott
Great Blue Heron (15+)
Great Egret (9)
Snowy Egret (5)
Green Heron (1) Wellfleet
Black-crowned Night-Heron (42) Hemingway Rd-Eastham.
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron (6)
Turkey Vulture (15+)
Osprey (7)
Northern Harrier (6)
Sharp-shinned Hawk (3)
Cooper’s Hawk (3)
Red-tailed Hawk (3)
American Kestrel (3) Middleboro
Peregrine Falcon (2)
Black-bellied Plover (200+)
American Golden-Plover (1) First Encounter Flyby.
Semi Plover (20+)
American Oystercatcher (2) Cow Yard/Chatham.
Greater Yellowlegs (100)
Lesser Yellowlegs (5)
Solitary Sandpiper (2) Beach Forest
Willet-western race (6)
Upland Sandpiper (1) Middleboro
Whimbrel (2)
Marbled Godwit (5) Cow Yard Ln/Chatham.
Ruddy Turnstone (1) Cow Yard Ln. Chatham
Sanderling (100)
Semi Sandpiper (10+)
Dunlin (18)
Short-billed Dowitcher
Parasitic Jaeger (5)
Laughing Gull (80+)
Bonaparte’s Gull (3)
Ring-billed Gull (70+)
Herring Gull
Great black-backed Gull (80+)
Common Tern (300+)
Forster’s Tern (30)
Mourning Dove (15)
Belted Kingfisher (4)
Red-bellied Woodpecker (3)
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (3)
Downy Woodpecker (4)
Northern Flicker (3)
Eastern Phoebe (2)
Blue-headed Vireo (1)
Red-eyed Vireo (1)
Blue Jay (18+)
American Crow (100+)
Fish Crow (1)
Horned Lark (8) Middleboro
Tree Swallow (4000+) Most at Sandy Neck.
Barn Swallow (15)
Black-capped Chickadee (60)
Tufted Titmouse (16)
Red-breasted Nuthatch (12)
White-breasted Nuthatch (2)
Carolina Wren (3)
House Wren (1)
Golden-crowned kinglet (7)
Ruby-crowned Kinglet (1)
Eastern Bluebird (4)
American Robin
Gray Catbird
Northern Mockingbird (2)
E. Starling
American Pipit (3)
Cedar Waxwing (32)
Yellow-rumped Warbler (10)
Pine Warbler (3)
Palm Warbler (14 Western/ 1 Eastern)
Blackpoll Warbler (1)
American Redstart (1)
Scarlet Tanager (1)
Summer Tanager (1) Wellfleet. Mass Audubon
Eastern Towhee (4)
Chipping Sparrow (5)
Field Sparrow (4)
Savannah Sparrow (4)
Song Sparrow (15)
Swamp Sparrow (3)
White-thr.Sparrow (6)
White-cr. Sparrow (1 Imm)
Dark-eyed Junco (1)
Northern Cardinal
Indigo Bunting (3) High Head- Truro
Bobolink (5) Middleboro
Common Grackle
Red-winged Blackbird
Purple Finch (4) 1-High Head 3- Fort Hill
House Finch (38)
American Goldfinch
House Sparrow

109 Species

Scott

Hadley Area

2010-09-19T22:19:00.002-04:00

This morning Valerie and I birded a section along the Connecticut River in Hadley across the the North Hadley Sugar Shack. It started out pretty foggy, but eventually cleared up and became quite nice. We had a nice movement of birds throughout the morning and ended up with 42 species. Blue Jays and Black-capped Chickadees were the most numerous, small flocks moving along the tree line along the river. Northern Flickers (17) also were well represented.

One of the highlights was my fourth Philadelphia Vireo of the fall, Lincoln's Sparrow, 8 species of warblers and a very cooperative Scarlet Tanager. Later in the morning a few Broad-winged Hawks were seen going over the Honey Pot in Hadley, along with three American Kestrels and eight Barn Swallows. Another awesome event this weekend was the Broad-winged Hawk migration this weekend. Now I have a unique ability of missing this event. Most of the time it happens during the weekdays, but not this year. Tom Gagnon had 5100 at Goat's Peak (Mt. Tom) on Saturday (9-18) and the majority passed over the tower in a forty-five minute span in the latter have of the afternoon. On Sunday- another good push at Blueberry Hill and at Mt. Watatic, Mt. Watatic was the big winner with over 1,800.

Below are photos from today and over the last couple of weeks.....

Scott

Ruby-throated Hummingbird- Home feeder.

Great Blue Heron- Umass Marsh.

Great Egret- small marsh off of Stockwell Street-Hadley.

Scarlet Tanager- Hadley

White-throated Sparrow- can winter be far away?

Yellow-rumped Warbler- Hadley. Just the beginning.....Thousands on the way.

Eastern Phoebe- Looking better in the fall than in the spring.

American Golden-Plover-East Meadows in Northampton. (2 of 4 birds) Only ones this fall...so far!

Philadelphia Vireo- Hadley.

Pileated Woodpecker- Hadley.

Red-eyed Vireo- Hadley. One of twenty five that day.

Northern Harrier- East Meadows

House Wren-

Philadelphia Vireo- Hanging onto Cornstalks, East Meadows.

Northern Harriers- East Meadows

Location: Route 47, Hadley -- Across from Stockwell Rd

Observation date: 9/19/10
Number of species: 42

Double-crested Cormorant 1
Great Blue Heron 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk 2
Killdeer 3
Mourning Dove X
Eastern Screech-Owl 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker 3
Downy Woodpecker 4
Hairy Woodpecker 2
Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted) 16
Eastern Phoebe 1
Blue-headed Vireo 1
Warbling Vireo 1
Philadelphia Vireo 1
Red-eyed Vireo 6
Blue Jay 60
American Crow X
Black-capped Chickadee 55
Tufted Titmouse 8
White-breasted Nuthatch 8
Carolina Wren 2
House Wren 3
Hermit Thrush 1
American Robin 30
Gray Catbird 16
Cedar Waxwing 12C
Nashville Warbler 1
Northern Parula 1
Yellow Warbler 2
Magnolia Warbler 4
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) 1
Blackpoll Warbler 4
American Redstart 4
Common Yellowthroat 17
Song Sparrow 9
Lincoln's Sparrow 1
White-throated Sparrow 9
Scarlet Tanager 4
Northern Cardinal 10
Rose-breasted Grosbeak 2
Indigo Bunting 2
American Goldfinch 8

Quabbin HQ

2010-09-06T21:40:00.004-04:00

Headed out to Quabbin Headquarters this morning to find a few migrants. First stop was Windsor Dam, not a lot there...(1) Double-crested Cormorant and a fly-by American Kestrel. My next stop was the Marsh along Rte. 9 - Green Herons, a Greater Yellowlegs and three Kingfishers putting on a nice display.

Finally made my way to the Frank Windsor Memorial where I encountered the ever elusive Yellow-billed Cuckoo. This is a bird that I rarely encounter in Western Mass, especially in the fall. This area around the Memorial and the road up to the tower proved to be the most productive locations of the morning.

Photos below.

Belted Kingfisher-

Belted Kingfishers - Not quite sure what was going on here? But they didn't seem to be getting along that well.

Eastern Wood-Pewee's- Seems late August into September is the best time of year to "SEE" and hear this birds.

Yellow-billed Cuckoo - This turned out to be the bird of the morning. For me, Cuckoo's are generally hard to come back here in Western Mass, especially the Yellow-billed. So finding one and getting a photo is a real bonus.

Bald Eagle-Imm. This bird appeared over the Memorial area for just a few seconds before soaring out of sight.

Prairie Warbler - One of two birds found along the road to the tower. I located a total of ten species of warblers, all providing good looks.

Chestnut-sided Warbler - I love this fall plumage.

American Redstart- Indeed a beauitful male.

Below is the mornings list........

Location: Ware- Rte 9 Marsh –
Observation date: 9/5/10

Wood Duck 4
Green Heron 2
Greater Yellowlegs 1
Belted Kingfisher 3
Pileated Woodpecker 1
Eastern Wood-Pewee 1
Tree Swallow 5
Barn Swallow 2
Common Yellowthroat 1

Location: Quabbin Reservoir--Park HQ.- 9/5/10

Canada Goose
Double-crested Cormorant 1
Bald Eagle 2
Red-tailed Hawk 2
Mourning Dove 2
Yellow-billed Cuckoo 1
Ruby-throated Hummingbird 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker 2
Downy Woodpecker 3
Hairy Woodpecker 1
Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted) 1
Eastern Wood-Pewee 6
Eastern Phoebe 2
Great Crested Flycatcher 1
Red-eyed Vireo 8
Blue Jay X
American Crow X
Tree Swallow 5
Black-capped Chickadee 16
Tufted Titmouse 6
Red-breasted Nuthatch 1
White-breasted Nuthatch 4
Gray Catbird 3
Northern Parula 2
Chestnut-sided Warbler 2
Magnolia Warbler 4
Pine Warbler 1
Prairie Warbler 2
Bay-breasted Warbler 1
Black-and-white Warbler 1
American Redstart 3
Common Yellowthroat 1
Wilson's Warbler 1
Eastern Towhee 5
Chipping Sparrow X
Scarlet Tanager 3
Northern Cardinal 2
American Goldfinch X

Cheers,

Scott

Deerfield Herons & Cormorant

2010-08-21T22:00:00.002-04:00

Spent a few hours this morning with Valerie and Priscilla in the Hatfield, Deerfield area. In Hatfield, some of the fields are starting to get plowed under, but with everything so dry, it's going to take a little while before shorebirds start to find these fields appealing. There's also a little open water at the Bradstreet Marsh, thus a few Herons were visible. (List Below)

In Old Deerfield, at least one Imm. Black-crowned Night-Heron still continues to be seen where the road splits two ponds before heading out into the cornfields. Also present, Great Blue & Green Herons and a bunch of Wood Ducks. (List Below)

Black-crowned Night-Heron. (Imm)

Double-crested Cormorant (Imm) Also took down info on leg bands, hopefully we'll find out where this bird was banded. (9-23...this bird was banded near Kingston, Ontario during this past summer.)

Green Heron- Deerfield.

Location: Hatfield, Hampshire County, MA, US
Wood Duck 2
Great Blue Heron 2
Green Heron 5
Cooper's Hawk 1
Red-tailed Hawk 1
Hairy Woodpecker 1
Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted) 1
Great Crested Flycatcher 1
American Crow 125
Eastern Bluebird 4
Northern Mockingbird 2
Common Yellowthroat 1
Savannah Sparrow 4
Common Grackle 925

Location: Deerfield Meadows/Marsh
Wood Duck 22
Double-crested Cormorant 2
Green Heron 2
Black-crowned Night-Heron 1
Red-tailed Hawk 2
Ruby-throated Hummingbird 1
Belted Kingfisher 2

location: Sunderland

Wood Duck 1
Great Blue Heron 1
Great Egret 1

Belchertown- Yard

Solitary sandpiper-1
Co. Nighthawks -30

Kenai National Park/Seward, Alaska

2010-08-17T21:56:00.000-04:00

Arctic Tern- One of thousands seen on this trip. This shot was along rte 1 at an area known as Potter's Marsh.

Mew Gull- This is one common bird in Alaska.

Baby Moose-seen right along Rte 1 on our way down to the town of Seward.

The view from the Chinnook Restaurant was simply spectacular!

We arrived in Seward late Saturday afternoon only to learn the none of the ships had left the harbor the last two days because of eighteen foot seas out in Resurrection Bay. Soooo, the forecast was getting better, but it was unclear that we would be able to get out on Sunday? As it turned out, the weather was with us on Sunday, and would continue that way throughout our tour of Alaska.

We went with the Kenai Fjords Tours, They offer different tours depending on the size of the group and what you'd like to see. The boat pictured above is the boat we used to explore the Islands of the Kenai National Park. This smaller boat was one of the more expensive ways to see the park and Glaciers, but it was worth every penny. (Well done James and Birdfinders)

Harlequin Ducks- Heading out of the Harbor.

Marbled Murrelet- Several close encounters coming out of the Harbor and more would be encountered later on near Aialik Glacier. One of the big target birds on this trip was the Kittlitz's Murrelet, which we came across several pairs near the Glacier.

Sea Otter- Fairly approachable in the Harbor.

Dall's Porpoise- 300 lbs of tough to photograph mammal!

Aialik Glacier- Awesome

This Glacier moves 8-10 feet a day.

Ancient Murrelets

Rhinoceros Auklet

A real crowd favorite - Tufted Puffin

Kenai National Park

Horned Puffin

Almost like glass....beats 18 foot seas!

Black-legged Kittiwakes- Thousands....

Pelagic Cormorants

Steller's Sea Lions

Probably my most sought after mammal on this trip...Killer Whale. We lucked out into a pod on our way into port.

Killer Whales-Orcas

ALASKA

2010-07-27T18:31:00.000-04:00

Well, its been a month since Valerie and I returned from a fantastic trip to Alaska! We went along with Birdfinders, a British based Birding Tour Company that was led by our good friend James Smith. In a nutshell, we couldn't have asked for a better leader, great people and super weather. We ended with 170 species of birds, 30 species of mammals and great memories....almost seems like a dream.

We arrived in Alaska a day ahead of the group and were able to get in a full day of birding. The flight from Massachusetts was a long one, but nothing in comparison for our friends coming from England. The first day in Eagle River (Outside of Anchorage) we hiked in an area known as Arctic Valley. This area provided great looks at Gray Jay, Common Redpolls, Golden-crowned Sparrows, and a beautiful Rock Ptarmigan! (Well done James!)

In the next couple of weeks I'll try and update my blog more often with new photos from the different regions we visited in Alaska.(Seward, Denali, Nome and the Pribs) I took over a little more than 3000 photos which I have edited down quite a bit, but my Internet at home is still down, so I'm shuffling photos to my work computer.

Enjoy,

Scott

Valerie- Arctic Valley. Common Redpoll-below

Arctic Ground Squirrel

Fox Sparrow (Red)

Rock Ptarmigan-Still hanging onto his winter attire

Rock Ptarmigan- Close up!

Mt. Holyoke

2010-05-16T20:53:00.002-04:00

Mt. Holyoke.

Saturday May 15th, Incredible as it may sound, it didn’t rain today on the Spring Birding Class! The only thing we had to contend with was the wind….and it did blow hard at times. We arrived at the main entrance to Mt. Holyoke (Skinner State Park-So. Hadley, Mass) around 7:30AM, parked cars, grabbed our gear and headed up the road to the Summit House. The main gate we learned would remained close until Monday the 17th, however….in the grand scheme of things, it was much nicer not to constantly get out of the way of traffic heading up to the Summit house.

The walk up the road to the Summit House is really quite easy and the round trip is easily done in a half a day, with lots of stops along the way to look for birds. Our main goal was to locate two specific breeding warblers on Mt. Holyoke, Worm-eating and Cerulean Warblers. Ceruleans are the main attraction on Mt. Holyoke, while they breed in other locations in Massachusetts, (sparingly) the birds on Mt. Holyoke are the easiest to find.

Along the way up to the top, we encountered a beautiful Ovenbird that was singing his heart out, so much so, that he allowed all fifteen birders to get a look at him through the scope! About half an hour into to our walk we came upon our first target bird…Worm-eating Warbler. Once we located the bird, I set it up in the scope, and to my amazement it just stayed on the same branch, and again…everyone got to see it the scope!

Other species encountered on the way to the top….Winter Wren, Tennessee Warbler (singing) Bay-breasted Warbler, Scarlet Tanager, Eastern Wood-Pewee too mention a few. When we arrived at the lower parking lot at the Summit House, both Ceruleans were in full song and put on a very nice show. Other show stealers were two Indigo Buntings and a 1st year Red-tailed Hawk that gave us incredible views. We ended our trip up the mountain with forty eight species and despite the wind, were afforded some great looks at our target species.

Below our photos and trip list,

Good Birding,

Scott

Cerulean Warbler- Mt. Hoyoke

Cerulean Warbler

Indigo Bunting- Summit House- Mt. Holyoke.

Red-tailed Hawk.

Red-tailed Hawk- Up close & Personal.

Worm-eating Warbler- Mt. Holyoke.

Worm-eating Warbler- showing crown stripes.

As a foot note.....The Summit House will be closed for a while. The porches around the house need major repairs and that won't happen right away. On an up note.....The restrooms are still open!

Red-eyed Vireo- many seen and heard on the mountain.

On a completely different note- This Red-Headed Woodpecker was found by my friend James Smith while birding in Deerfield. James posted directions on Massbird a few days ago, this bird was not vocal at all when Valerie and I tried for it this morning. (Sunday) Red-headed Woodpecker is now a rare breeder in the state. Hope it finds a mate!

Location: Skinner State Park
Observation date: 5/15/10
Number of species: 48

Turkey Vulture 3
Bald Eagle 1
Broad-winged Hawk 1
Red-tailed Hawk 2
Mourning Dove 2
Chimney Swift 6
Downy Woodpecker 1
Hairy Woodpecker 1
Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted) 1
Pileated Woodpecker 1
Eastern Wood-Pewee 1
Eastern Phoebe 1
Great Crested Flycatcher 1
Yellow-throated Vireo 1
Blue-headed Vireo 2
Red-eyed Vireo 17
Blue Jay 8
American Crow X
Common Raven 2
Black-capped Chickadee 2
Tufted Titmouse 1
White-breasted Nuthatch 2
Winter Wren 1
Veery 1
Hermit Thrush 1
Wood Thrush 6
American Robin 15
Gray Catbird 2
Tennessee Warbler 1
Chestnut-sided Warbler 1
Magnolia Warbler 3
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) 2
Black-throated Green Warbler 4
Blackburnian Warbler 3
Bay-breasted Warbler 1
Cerulean Warbler 2
Black-and-white Warbler 4
American Redstart 6
Worm-eating Warbler 2
Ovenbird 7
Scarlet Tanager 4
Chipping Sparrow 2
Dark-eyed Junco (Slate-colored) 2
Rose-breasted Grosbeak 4
Indigo Bunting 2
Brown-headed Cowbird 1
Baltimore Oriole 1
American Goldfinch 1

Bony bonanza

2010-05-09T19:01:00.000-04:00

The running joke with the Hitchcock Centers Spring Birding class is, if there’s going to be one raining day in seven…it will be on the day the class is scheduled to meet. Such was the case yesterday (May 8, 2010) morning when we headed out around 6:30am. I was awaken around 4:45am with the flash of lighting and thunder, lying in bed and wondering if the lighting would at least cease, because the forecast for the morning was for on and off downpours.

Our trip was originally schedule to go to Mt. Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, but the Boston area forecast was no better. So I decided to keep it local and perhaps the rains would put something down along the river. I arrive at the Hitchcock Center just after 6:30am and found three hardy veteran’s of the spring class, who knew there leader would go out in just about anything. We birded Larch Hill conservation area and had about 10 species of Warblers, Black-throated blue, Magnolia and Wilson’s gave us the best views.

We left the center and drove around the back roads of Hadley hoping for a Cattle Egret in one of the many fields, but this was not meant to be today. A quick stop at the Doughnut Man in Hadley, (Unofficial favorite pit stop of the spring birding class) and then onto the Oxbow in Northampton. The Oxbow had a nice gathering of Bank and Tree Swallows, a flyby Double-crested Cormorant and a distant belted kingfisher.

After the Oxbow, we made our way up to Stillwater Rd in Deerfield to check out what was left of a small pool and to see if any migrating shorebirds had settled in. Historically this “spring” pool has produced some good spring shorebirds, Red-necked Phalarope, White-rumped Sandpiper, Semipalmated Plover to mention a few. Helga’s sharp eye caught a Solitary Sandpiper; we enjoyed nice views in the scope as we huddled under the hatchback of the car, trying to keep some what dry.

Next on the hit parade was the Deerfield Marsh, I played Virginia and Sora Rail recordings, but to my disappointment nobody called back. We just started driving out into the Deerfield Meadows when I noticed a smaller gull standing next to the ring-billed Gull- “Bonaparte’s” I said. A beautiful breeding plumaged bird that gave us a beyond believable looks at this very uncommon bird. Bonaparte’s are reported each spring, but one can easily go a few springs without encountering one. Although we didn’t know it at the time, this would be the first of seven that we would see in the next hour.

After Deerfield, we drove straight to Barton’s Cove in Turner’s Falls hoping for more storm related birds. Our first stop at the cove produced (2) Lesser Scaup, (4) Ring-necked Ducks and (6) Double-crested Cormorants, in the distance I could seen more Bonaparte’s Gulls on the nearby boat docks. We drove to this private marina and had great looks at (5) more Bonaparte’s Gulls! (3ad-2-1st yr) Certainly the most Bonaparte’s Gulls I’ve had at one time in many, many years of valley birding. From here we made our way back across the bridge to the Rod & Gun Club.

The Rod & Gun Club, although private has always allowed birders to visit and scan this section of the Connecticut River. We pulled up and had another Bonaparte’s Gull way out on a large dead stump on the other side of a tiny island. This made seven in less than an hour! But this outbreak was not just confined to the Franklin county area of Massachusetts. Later in the evening I read on Massbird that other inland sightings of Bonaparte’s Gulls had occurred in Worcester County and even in inland Connecticut.

Despite my excitement with the gulls, the best bird of the day was the breeding plumage White-winged Scoter we also came across at the Rod & Gun Club. For me at least, I’ve had less than five spring sightings of White-winged Scoter over the last thirty plus years of birding in the valley. Well, it was getting towards the end of the trip and we were just a stones throw from the Turner’s Falls Airport, so I said, lets see if the Grasshopper Sparrows had come back. Now, I wasn’t particularly hopeful, on – off rain, not real warm, but what the hell, were here! We pulled up to the gate, got out of the car and it’s teed up and singing his little heart out. Put it in the scope, stayed there until everyone had a killer look.

Ended the day on a high note……

Scott

Bonaparte's Gull- Deerfield Meadows

The Group @ Barton's Cove- Turner's Falls

Double-crested Cormorants- Barton's Cove.

Bonaparte's Gulls- Barton's Cove.

White-winged Scoter- Rod & Gun club/Turner's Falls.

Grasshopper Sparrow- Turner's Falls Airport.

Brown Thrasher- Montague Plains

Closer to home- Red-bellied Woodpecker.

Rose-breasted Grosbeak-female.

Rose-breasted Grosbeak- feeder.

Trying to get the perfect head shot....

Rainy Day Dreamer

Wild Turkey- Quabbin Park.

Quabbin Trip - May 1st.

2010-05-01T17:32:00.004-04:00

May 1st- Quabbin Reservoir.

Headed out this morning with the Hitchcock birding class to the Quabbin Reservoir, our goal was finding our first warbler wave of the season. While we did encounter eight species of Warblers, the numbers were pretty thin and song was almost non-existent. However, we had nice looks at a Prairie and Black-White Warblers, a brilliant Male Scarlet Tanager is always a crowd pleaser, but the show stealer was the Common Ravens nesting at the Spillway. With a scope we were able to detect 3 young at the nest and one of the adults seem to stand guard near the nest allowing for extended scope views and photos. The adult also made an array of calls and noises you would have trouble describing.

Later at Larch Hill in Amherst (Hitchcock Center) I had my first Hermit Thrush of the year, along with a Black-throated green Warbler, Northern Parula and a stealthy Swamp Sparrow. All in all a nice day with 11 species of warblers.

Trip list below....

SDS

Common Raven- Quabbin.

Black & White Warbler-Male. Quabbin

Pine Warbler-Female. Larch Hill- Amherst.

Turkey Vulture - Quabbin.

Quabbin Reservoir--Park HQ.

Observation date: 5/1/10
Number of species: 51

Canada Goose 8
Mallard 1
Wild Turkey 11
Common Loon 1
Double-crested Cormorant 9
Turkey Vulture 2
Sharp-shinned Hawk 1
Cooper's Hawk 1
Broad-winged Hawk 11
Spotted Sandpiper 2
Mourning Dove X
Chimney Swift 6
Red-bellied Woodpecker 3
Hairy Woodpecker 1
Eastern Phoebe 2
Blue-headed Vireo 1
Warbling Vireo 1
Blue Jay 15
American Crow X
Common Raven 5
Barn Swallow 1
Black-capped Chickadee X
Tufted Titmouse X
White-breasted Nuthatch 1
House Wren 1
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 3
American Robin X
Gray Catbird 1
Brown Thrasher 1
European Starling X
Nashville Warbler 2
Northern Parula 1
Black-throated Blue Warbler 1
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) 8
Pine Warbler 18
Prairie Warbler 1
Black-and-white Warbler 3
American Redstart 1
Scarlet Tanager 2
Eastern Towhee 4
Chipping Sparrow 25
Field Sparrow 1
Savannah Sparrow 2
Song Sparrow 3
White-throated Sparrow 15
Northern Cardinal 5
Red-winged Blackbird X
Common Grackle X
Brown-headed Cowbird 12
Baltimore Oriole 2
American Goldfinch X

2010-04-15T21:52:00.000-04:00

On my way home this evening I came up over the rise only to find the gates of the railroad crossing coming down….Damm. Lately these 6:00pm trains have been a little lengthy, so as I counted the cars as the train rolled passed I said to myself, it’s time to update the blog. It’s not that I haven’t been thinking about it, because I have, it’s just life has been a little busy.

The last time I updated my blog, I had just finished up my first class of the spring birding course…and of course it had to “SNOW”. All was not lost; we had a nice morning looking at horned Larks and Snow Buntings. The Second trip was supposed to go to Plum Island, this time the forecast was for heavy rains, steady winds and maybe a little sleet thrown in. We decided to stay closer to home, and the majority of the heavy weather held off until the afternoon, so we finished up the morning at Barton’s Cove in Turners Falls enjoying immature Bald Eagles flying about the cove and two adult Bald Eagles staying close to the nest, and a Red-breasted Merganser to add a little icing.

A quick look back over the past several weeks shows a fairly slow waterfowl migration here in the Valley. Numbers of ducks were very low this spring, probably due in part to the early warm up we had in March. Tree Sparrows seemed to have exited a little early this spring and Fox sparrow numbers were unimpressive. The warm weather brought in early migrates to the region, not necessarily here in the valley but along the Massachusetts coast….Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Yellow-throated Vireo, White-eyed Vireo and Prothonotary Warbler too mention just a few.

So another class heads out Saturday…..that can only mean cool temps and rain awaits the hardy group. Hopefully I’ll be able to start updating the blog a little more often.

Below are some photos from the past outings,

Enjoy,

Scott

Oh, the train count…..4 Engines and 103 cars.

(Adult) Northern Shrike- Pump Station off of Mt. Warner Road, Hadley.

Fox Sparrow- Mass Audubon - Arcadia Sanctuary

Imm. Bald Eagle- Barton's Cove/Turners Falls

Common Mergansers- Quabbin H.Q. This happen to be the largest group of Mergansers I encountered this spring. (150+)

Killdeer- Hadley

Wilson's Snipe- East Hadley Road in Hadley. One of the most reliable locations in Hampshire County in early spring.

Wilson's Snipe- Close Up.

Snowy First Class

2010-03-01T22:05:00.007-05:00

Hitchcock Center- Amherst

The 2010 Spring Birding Class started off looking like anything but “SPRING”. An over night snow fall left about four inches of wet snow through out the Amherst-Hadley area. Traditionally the first trip of the course heads to Gloucester and Plum Island, to cash in the coastal specialties like Harlequin Ducks, Purple Sandpipers, Black Guillemots, Razorbill’s and maybe a Snowy Owl, but with the bleak weather forecasted, I changed the venue and decided to stay local. Outside of the lower valley was a different story, many areas in the higher elevations received much more snow and the result was far fewer people made the early morning trek to the Hitchcock Center. Despite the snow, the roads were in good shape and the mild temperature and calm conditions made for reasonable late February morning.

We left the center and headed out towards Hadley, my hope was the new snow cover would make it easier in locating Horned Larks, Lapland Longspurs and Snow Buntings. The first hour and a half the theory was not playing out to well, only one Snow Bunting- and that was a flyover in the FOG. To this point the fields off of South Maple Street, East Hadley Rd, Aqua Vitae Rd in Hadley and the East Meadows in Northampton was a bust. When we headed into the Honey Pot section of Hadley, things turned around. Two decent flocks of Horned Larks and Snow Buntings put on a pretty good show for the small crown that braved the early morning elements. Also out there were several Red-tailed Hawks and one adult Bald Eagle.

From the Honey Pot to the “Donut Man” for tasty pastries, coffee and a restroom break, not necessarily in that order. From there we made our way north towards the Mt. Warner Road region, hoping for a Rough-legged Hawk at the end of Hawley Road, but it wasn’t meant to be. A consolation prize was a calling Common Raven, and then around the corner to an area known as the Pumping Station. This area has open fields along with a large area of thickets. Today this area proved to be quite active, (7) Northern Mockingbirds, Eastern Bluebird, Northern Flicker, Blue Jays, but the highlight, however brief was an adult Northern Shrike. A few members of the group were able to get a look through the scope before the bird flew behind the pump house and just disappeared?

All in all not a bad morning for the first class, we ended the trip with 35 species, but most importantly, we ended the day with happy birders. Some of the highlights....Ring-necked Pheasant (1), Bald Eagle (1), Belted Kingfisher (1), Northern Flicker (1), Northern Shrike (1), Common Raven (1), American Tree Sparrow (20), Savannah Sparrow (3) and Snow Buntings (65)

Mill Valley Rd-Hadley

Aqua Vitae Rd-Hadley- Snowy and Foggy

Red-tailed Hawk- East Hadley Rd- Hadley

Fresh Snow & Fresher Manure- A combination hard for Horned Larks & Snow Buntings to pass up.

Northern Mockingbird- Pump Station.

Mocker on the move!

Eastern bluebird- Pump Station.

Snow Buntings....Galore!

2010-01-25T21:03:00.000-05:00

As others have posted in recent days on Massbird, (Tom Gagnon, Mark Fairbrother and most recently Chris Ellison) the Snow Bunting show has been very impressive around the Hadley, Northampton and Montague areas. I headed out this morning in hopes of catching up with one of these large flocks the others have reported, not knowing at the time I would hit the jackpot in Hadley. My first stop was on East Hadley Rd/South Maple Street- I began scanning the field for any sign of life when a huge flock of Snow Buntings went up on the other side of the field! A conservative estimate of 400 Buntings began heading in the direction of Amherst. (A very impressive sight)

Snow Buntings- Hundreds!

I was hoping the flock would return, but they just faded away against the gray sky. So I headed for Aqua Vitae Rd thinking maybe the Rough-legged Hawk that has been widely reported in the Hadley/Northampton area might make an appearance, but it decided not too. I continued down Aqua Vitae Rd heading towards Rte 9 to the point where the field ends, when all of a sudden another enormous flock of Snow Buntings takes to the sky.

This flock of buntings was constantly up and down along the road, I back tracked to try and get a few photos and a better estimate of this flock, when all was said and done I estimated this flock to be 1100 strong. The entire flock eventually headed towards the river, then turned around and headed back over me and last seen heading west. The interesting question is how many Snow Buntings are out in the fields of Hadley, Montague, and Northampton right now? My one hour of birding in the two locations mentioned produced 1500 Snow Buntings. Interestingly enough…No Horned Larks

more.....Snow Buntings.

Snow Buntings heading towards the Connecticut River?

Buntings changing course again and flew right over me heading to other areas of Hadley.

Good Birding,

Scott

Chasing the Thrasher...

2010-01-19T21:12:00.001-05:00

Headed out to Salisbury State Park this morning with the hope of relocating the Sage Thrasher that had been seen as recently as Saturday afternoon. The Sage Thrasher is a resident of the western United States, but has shown a tendency to show up in the east from time to time. I believe this bird represents the third record for Massachusetts and I’m aware of one from Maine. As to when this bird actually made its way to Salisbury is anyone’s guess, but it was first discovered a week earlier.

I arrived around 8:30am to find several birders already fanned out in search of this western vagrant. Thrashers are interesting birds, they can be quite conspicuous when singing and defending a territory, but the minute you want to find one it’s like they tunnel underground and completely disappear. However, I was optimistic for a couple of reasons, one- the Thrasher was seen the day before (always a good thing) and two- I thought there would be a fair amount of birders in the area looking for it.

After about thirty minutes two birders found the Thrasher across the street where I had been looking. Everyone converged along the main road with spotting scopes, and were treated to excellent views of this wayward visitor. In fact, the Thrasher teed up for several minutes in a Cedar Tree eating berries.

After the Thrasher, I headed to the boat ramp and met up with Mark Lynch and Sheila Carroll. The harbor was pretty still, making it easy to scan the water and see what was out there. I found nice groups of Common Eiders, White-wing Scoters, Long-tailed Ducks, Bufflehead, Common Goldeneye and Red-breasted Mergansers. A nice winter plumage Red-throated Loon made an appearance along with a small group of Harbor Seals.

After Salisbury, I made my way over to the American Yacht Club in Newburyport. The main highlight was an Adult (Kumliens) Iceland Gull bathing on a small jetty. Also present was more of the same cast of characters that I encountered across the harbor.

From here I continued down the road and found Mark and Shelia heading back from the bridge. Shelia had pulled over to photograph an American kestrel that had been hanging out in the vicinity of the Plum Island Airport. I was just about to leave when the Kestrel came right in and teed up on the telephone lines and allowed me to get a couple of shots. Now, Kestrels in winter have gotten quite uncommon if not rare! In the last twenty years, their breeding and wintering numbers have just fallen off the chart! So I was pleased to see this female apparently doing well in the heart of a New England winter.

After leaving the Kestrel, or should I say when the Kestrel left me- I continued to Plum Island and entered the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge. My main goal was to locate a Snowy Owl! Word was that one to two Owls were being seen down at the Wardens. I arrived at the Wardens parking area and walked out to the point and scanned through the thousands of ice chunks that had been created by the river. After about ten minutes of scanning I noticed a white blob on top of a post, I found the owl! Certainly this encounter would rate in the top ten as the most unsatisfying view ever, but it was a Snowy Owl. Other birds encountered from this area included, Canada Goose, American Black Ducks, Mallards, Bufflehead, Common Goldeneye, Hooded and Red-breasted Mergansers. The waterfowl were keeping a watchful eye on three Bald Eagles majestically riding the ice flows down the river.

All in all a nice day in the Newburyport/Salisbury area! Now if the Ivory Gull would only hang around for a couple of more weeks in Provincetown, life would be even better.

Good Birding,

Scott

Sage Thrasher-
Salisbury State Park.

Red-tailed Hawk- Salisbury.

Riding the Ice in Newburyport Harbor....Great Black-backed & Herring Gulls.

Bufflehead- Newburyport

Iceland Gull- Newburyport.

Iceland Gull- Adult

American Kestrel- on the road to Plum Island.

Hooded Mergansers on Plum Island.

Quabbin Christmas Bird Count 12-26-09

2009-12-27T22:16:00.007-05:00

Gate 43 Fishing Area- Pretty much frozen up!

Twenty eight observers participated in the Quabbin Christmas Count under less than desirable conditions the day after Christmas. Although the weather conditions weren’t great, it could have been a whole lot worse. The freezing and steady rain that had been forecasted never really materialized, but the threat held back most of the observers from owling. Sixty Three Species were tallied, with four new high counts and one new species for the count, bringing the overall count total to 113.

As with other counts this season, huge numbers of White-throated Sparrows and Dark-eyed Junco’s continue their dominance in the fields and thickets around Western Massachusetts. Most of the birders participating in the Quabbin count reported large flocks of Junco’s and medium size groups of White-throated sparrows. The last time White-throated Sparrows made this much of splash on the Quabbin count was December 2000.

American Black Duck 46
Mallard 134
White-winged Scoter 1- 2nd record.
Bufflehead 1
Common Goldeneye 9
Hooded Merganser 26
Common Merganser 39

Common Merganser-female. Holding on to the last bit of open water near the Horse Shoe Dam.

Ruffed Grouse 8
Wild Turkey 76
Common Loon 9
Horned Grebe 9
Bald Eagle 21 (11 Imm) (10 Ad)
Sharp-shinned Hawk 5
Cooper’s Hawk 1
Red-tailed Hawk 15
Rough-legged Hawk 1 –New Species.
Golden Eagle 1 –Ad.
Ring-billed Gull 16
Herring Gull 21
Great Black-backed Gull 2
Gull Sp. 200
Rock Pigeon 66
Mourning Dove 74
Barred Owl 1
Northern Saw-whet Owl 1
Belted Kingfisher -2
Red-bellied Woodpecker 20
Downy Woodpecker 106
Hairy Woodpecker 46
Northern Flicker 3
Pileated Woodpecker 9
Northern Shrike 4

Northern Shrike- Adult. Gilbertville region.

Blue Jay 665
American Crow 157
Common Raven 33
Black-capped Chickadee 578
Tufted Titmouse 123
Red-breasted Nuthatch 47
White-breasted Nuthatch 156
Brown Creeper 38
Carolina Wren 1
Winter Wren 2
Golden-crowned Kinglet 95
Eastern Bluebird 11
Hermit Thrush 2
American Robin 1878 New High.
Northern Mockingbird 7
European Starling 138
Cedar Waxwing 76
Eastern Towhee 3 New High
American Tree Sparrow 129
Tree Sparrow- Hardwick

Fox Sparrow 1- 3rd record.
Song Sparrow 27
Swamp Sparrow 2
White-throated Sparrow 584 New High
Dark-eyed Junco 2297 New High
Snow Bunting 5
Northern Cardinal 74
Red-winged Blackbird 140
Purple Finch 2
House Finch 13
Red Crossbill 14
American Goldfinch 161
House Sparrow 410

Mammals

River Otter 1
Red Fox 1
Red Squirrel 17
Gray Squirrel 19
Eastern Cottontail 1
Snowshoe Hare 1
Whitetail Deer 13
Bobcat 1
Muskrat 1

A friendly face on a chilly afternoon.

Tracks I.D. (Although not seen- A fresh dusting of light snow reveled these animals)
Coyote
Moose
Raccoon

Good Birding,

Scott

Northampton C.B.C. Hadley area.

2009-12-25T21:08:00.002-05:00

Snow Bunting- Honey Pot, Hadley.

Northampton Christmas Count- This is the first Christmas count I ever participated in and haven’t missed it in the last 33 years. My area is along the river in Hadley, and includes such notable locations as the Hadley Cove, Aqua Vitae Rd, Honey Pot and North Hadley. The forecast for the count was anything but encouraging, up to 10” of snow was expected to hit us in the early hours of the count. I got up around 3:45 am to see what was happing- NOTHING! We had dodged a big “Snowstorm” bullet. The storm pulled a little farther to the east, sparing us the white stuff. Along the coast they got hammered with 15” of the white stuff.

One thing we did get from the storm was the WIND! Walking across the corn fields in Hadley at times was tough, eyes watering and facial muscles locked into place was not a pleasant experience. Because of the wind, many birds were hunkered down, but we did manage to pull out 44 species, and a couple of them were somewhat note worthy.
Like the year before, I was joined by my friend James Smith of Amherst. James keen eye and ear were a tremendous help birding in the blustery conditions. Visit James blog page @ Pioneer Birding to view photos.

Happy Holidays,

Scott

Location: Hadley, Hampshire County, MA, US
Observation date: 12/20/09
Notes: Northampton C.B.C.- Hadley Cove- Aqua Vitae Rd-Honey Pot & North Hadley.
Number of species: 44

Snow Goose- One bird in with hundreds of Canada Geese along the Connecticut River in Hadley.

Snow Goose 1
Canada Goose 1100
American Black Duck 9
Mallard 15
Northern Pintail 1 –female. (North Hadley)
Common Goldeneye 4
Common Merganser 21
Bald Eagle 3
Sharp-shinned Hawk 2
Cooper's Hawk 1
Red-tailed Hawk 10
Ring-billed Gull 2
Rock Pigeon 65
Mourning Dove 20
Belted Kingfisher 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker 7
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 1-
Downy Woodpecker 12
Hairy Woodpecker 2
Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted) 3
Pileated Woodpecker 1
Blue Jay 15
American Crow 165
Horned Lark 40
Black-capped Chickadee 16
Tufted Titmouse 13
White-breasted Nuthatch 13
Carolina Wren 2
Eastern Bluebird 6
American Robin 3
Northern Mockingbird 6
European Starling 71
American Tree Sparrow 110 Canada Geese- 1100 seen on the river in Hadley.

Clay-colored Sparrow 1- At the end of Meadow Street in Hadley. 3rd one I’ve had on the count. See James Smith Blog for photos…”Pioneer birding” James was able to get some pretty decent pics of the Clay-colored, considering this bird was not cooperating at all!

Savannah Sparrow 6

Song Sparrow 50

White-throated Sparrow 30

Dark-eyed Junco (Slate-colored) 30

Lapland Longspur 1

Snow Bunting 1

Northern Cardinal 30

House Finch 6

American Goldfinch 7

House Sparrow 10

(below) Eastern Bluebird in the Honey Pot.

Sunset at the East Meadows- looking towards Northampton, Mass.

December Broad-winged Hawk!

2009-12-18T21:49:00.002-05:00

Yesterday, (12/12/09) my daughter called me to report a hawk at her mother’s house in Belchertown. The bird was sitting in the front yard and didn’t appear to be in a hurry to go any where soon. I was away for the day and told her that perhaps the hawk had struck the house or some other object in the yard- just leave it be and it will probably take off once it gets its bearings. Fast forward to 7pm, Samantha stops by for a visit and reports the hawk is still in the front yard- WHAT!

It’s obvious at this point the hawk was in real trouble, so we immediately headed down the road armed with gloves, a towel and a box to capture this bird. The front yard was pitch black, (forgot the flashlight) but she knew the exact location and we pick up the hawk with little resistance. (Hoping it wasn’t dead) At this point I still didn’t know its true identity, but it was a small hawk with a short tail? We get back to my house, get the hawk into the light and out of the towel - I was STUNNED to be looking at an Adult BROAD-WINGED HAWK.

The Broad-winged was in tough shape-barely alive. The only noticeable injury to the bird was to its right eye, but it was still alive. I called Tom Ricardi in Conway, (Raptor Rehabilitator) and told him I had a Broad-winged Hawk for him….a little pause at his end. He told me to keep it warm and if it makes it through the night, give him a call in the morning and he’d take it from there. Long story shortened- I met Tom in South Deerfield this morning and handed the Broad-wing off to him. The hawk was still in trouble, but was alert and Tom was at least a little optimistic about its survival.

A quick look through the Birds of Massachusetts (Veit/Petersen) shows the latest date for a Broad-winged Hawk was from Wellfleet, Nov 18th, 1959.

Update 12/14/09 - I talked with Tom Ricardi this morning, the Broad-wing was still alive, but had yet to eat. Tom indicated this was not unusual with raptors recently brought into his care. The injury to the hawk’s right eye that I mentioned earlier was recent. The eye still had fresh blood around it, if it was an older injury it would have dried up by now. Tom reports that the next 4-5 days will be critical to its survival. If the bird begins to eat on its own, things will look pretty good. If Tom is able to rehab the bird-he'll release it next spring.

Update- 12/18/09 -I spoke with Tom Ricardi this evening, my curiosity got the best of me and I wanted to know if the hawk was still alive. I quickly learned from Tom that the Broad-wing had died the day before. The obvious injury to the right eye was the tip of the iceberg. The left eye which looked perfectly fine- was not. The hawk was blind in both eyes! And an area of his left wing was partially swollen. Tom also believes the bird suffered more internal head injuries. Tom even tried to force feed the bird, but thirty minutes later it came back up. The injuries were probably brought on by a collision with a car (we found the bird in the front yard-close to the road) or possibly a window. The only thing certain is the injuries were recent- A hawk with these injuries would not have lasted very long.

This species of hawk breeds throughout New England and points north. From mid to late September, given the right weather conditions, thousands can be seen from lookouts around interior New England. By the first week in October hundreds of thousands are winging their way pass the hawk watches around Veracruz, Mexico. So...why did this individual stay behind? No one will ever know for sure, but for all practical purposes, the hawk seemed to be in good shape until its encounter with a large object on December 12th.

I far as I know, this is the latest date for this species in Massachusetts and maybe New England!

Scott

Valerie with Broad-winged Hawk.

Tom Ricardi- looking over the Broad-wing.

Tail shot.

Heading to the rehab center.

HBC Trip to East side of Quabbin Reservoir.

2009-11-22T22:16:00.000-05:00

Hampshire Bird Club-East Quabbin Trip.

Yesterday, seventeen members of (Saturday November 21, 2009) the Hampshire Bird Club had its annual November trip to the East side of the Quabbin Reservoir. We met are leaders (Tom Gagnon/Larry Therrien) at the Quabbin Reservoir Headquarters on Rte 9 in Belchertown at 7AM.

Headquarters didn’t offer much so we loaded up and headed out towards the east side of the reservoir. We entered the reservoir through gate 45 off of Greenwich Rd in Hardwick. Our travels up the east side of the reservoir would take us to areas like Shaft 12, Baffle Dams, Shaft 11 (all around gate 43) Horse Shoe Dam fishing Area, Dana Spruces, Dana Commons, Pottapaug Pond, Graves Landing, and finishing up the trip through North Dana- exiting gate 35. We ended the day with 51 species of birds, 6 species of mammals and two dragonflies. The other story of the day was the weather- simply put….fantastic!

The two stand outs this day… an Imm Great Cormorant at the Baffle Dams, and (2) Black-bellied Plovers near gate 35. Other highlights, Northern Pintail (3-all females), White-winged Scoter (1-male), Long-tailed Duck (1-female), Red-breasted Merganser (1-female), Ruffed Grouse (1-drumming), Common loon (30), Bald Eagle (7), Barred Owl (1), Horned Lark (1), Brown Creeper (12), Winter Wren (1) and (2) Fox Sparrow.

Good birding, View from Baffle Dams- Quabbin

Scott

Great Cormorant-Baffle Dam Area.

Hooded Merganser.

Northern Pintail-female.

Horse Shoe Dam-Gate 43 Fishing Area

The group- this stop produced Red-breasted Merganser, Common Goldeneye and Bald Eagles.

Dana Center- All that's left of the buildings around the common is this Stone foundation.

Betsy- doing a little close up photography!

Tom on Beaver lodge @ Pottapaug Pond.

Common Loons- two of thirty birds.

North Dana

Meadowhawk on Sally's Shouldred- over 25 seen today.

Last stop of the day-called the old railroad line. This area had White-winged Scoter, Long-tailed Duck, Horned Grebe and two Black-bellied Plovers.

White-throated Sparrow- many seen throughout the trip.

Horned Grebe- one of four.

Berkshire Lakes 11/9/09

2009-11-11T22:42:00.007-05:00

Snow Bunting/Cheshire Reservoir

Sunday November 8th,

This was the last trip in a series of five fall birding classes I led for the Hitchcock Center for the Environment. (Amherst) The last trip was to an area with a series of Reservoirs, Lakes, and Ponds known as the Berkshire Lakes. (Berkshire county, Mass)

The weather started out clear, but a bit chilly- low 30 degrees, but would soon rise to an unprecedented 62 degrees by 1:00PM. Our first stop was to the Moran Refuge located just off Rte 9 in Windsor. This refuge is probably one of the best locations in the state, if not the best location for Northern Shrike. We pulled up to the first parking lot and join the Hampshire Bird club, who already had the Shrike in there scopes. After a few minutes the bird club departed and we hung around to make sure everyone got a decent, but distant view of this visitor from the north.

After about twenty minutes a Northern Harrier (Imm) appeared and gave everyone terrific views of this graceful raptor. The early morning sun against the brownish/orange color of the underparts made the bird glow. From the parking lot, we tried a side road for the off chance of stumbling upon an Evening Grosbeak or Crossbills….be no luck. Back to Rte 9 west- towards Pittsfield.

The lakes are known for there variety of waterfowl in the fall, our Stops included Cheshire Reservoir, Lake Pontoosuc and Onota in Pittsfield. In addition to the lakes mentioned, we would visit Richmond Pond and Mud Pond, but our schedule wouldn’t allow it this trip.

Without going into a play by play of each stop at each lake, the waterfowl numbers and variety were on the thin side. Basically it was just too nice of a day! The highlight at Cheshire Reservoir was a beautiful Snow Bunting that had work his way down from the arctic and afforded everyone killer looks. Below are the waterfowl numbers of the different locations…..

Location: Eugene Moran Wildlife Management Area--IBA

Ring-necked Pheasant 1 –On way home-Rte 9, Northern Harrier (1 Imm.) Northern Shrike( 1 Adult), Black-capped Chickadee10,Red-breasted Nuthatch 1, White-breasted Nuthatch 1, American Robin 10, Northern Cardinal1, and two American Goldfinch.

Location: Cheshire Lake
Canada goose 12, American Black Duck 4, Mallard 35, Ring-necked Duck 1, Bufflehead 11, Common Goldeneye 4, Belted Kingfisher 1, Brown Creeper 1, Snow Bunting 1

Pontoosuc Lake
Canada Goose 14, Mallard12, Bufflehead 9, Hooded Merganser 9, Common Merganser 110, Red-breasted Merganser 1, Red-necked Grebe 1,

Location: Onota Lake - Canada Goose 105, Wood Duck 1, American Black Duck 8, American Black Duck x Mallard (hybrid) 1, Mallard 26, Common Merganser 12

Good Birding,

Scott

Quabbin Area -Nov 1st.

2009-11-01T20:46:00.003-05:00

A quick trip to Quabbin H.Q. (Windsor Dam) this morning produced my first Scoters of the fall, along with a winter plumage Long-tailed Duck, 3 Lesser Scaups and 7 Buffleheads. A small group, but nice variety -which was welcomed compared to only two Common Loons found during yesterdays storm. From there I headed out to check a few fields in the Hadley area, hoping to locate a large flock or two of geese, Shorebirds, perhaps a late swallow along the river- but it wasn't ment to be. I ended up in the Honey Pot and had a few species of sparrows (Savannah, Song, White-cr) American Pipits and a couple flyover Lapland Longspurs. All in all a great morning to be out.

Good Birding,

Scott

Location: Quabbin Reservoir--Park HQ.
Observation date: 11/1/09

Canada Goose 1
Lesser Scaup 3
Surf Scoter 3
White-winged Scoter 1
Long-tailed Duck 1
Bufflehead 7
Wild Turkey 12
Common Loon 2
Accipiter sp. 1
Eastern Phoebe 1
American Crow 6
Black-capped Chickadee X
Carolina Wren 1
Golden-crowned Kinglet 4
American Robin 5
American Pipit 1
White-throated Sparrow X
Dark-eyed Junco (Slate-colored) X
American Goldfinch 1

Location: Honey Pot (Hadley)
Observation date: 11/1/09
Red-tailed Hawk 2
Ring-billed Gull 70
Rock Pigeon 24
Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted) 1
Blue Jay X
American Crow 70
American Robin 20
European Starling X
American Pipit 14
Savannah Sparrow 19
Song Sparrow 6
White-throated Sparrow X
White-crowned Sparrow (Eastern) 2
Dark-eyed Junco X
Lapland Longspur 2
Northern Cardinal 2
House Finch 5
American Goldfinch 1

Belchertown- Goodell Street
Sharp-shinned Hawk (1Ad)
Great Horned Owl (1)
Pileated Woodpecker (1)

Lesser Scaup- (digiscoped) Always a good bird for the Quabbin area.

Lesser Scaup & Surf Scoters. (digiscoped) Hanging out in the cove to the left of the the dam.

Buffleheads (digiscoped)

Sharp-shinned Hawk -Soaking up the morning sun on Goodell Street in Belchertown.

Monhegan Week

2009-10-12T22:17:00.372-04:00

Monhegan Island Week

A week of birding at one of New England’s finest migrate traps…Monhegan Island, Maine. As I have stated in earlier blog posts….This is one of my favorite birding locations in New England. It’s been several years since I’ve spent a week on the Island, and as usual, it was fantastic!

(Above) An amphibious vehicle that was used during the Vietnam War. It would carry personnel and large vehicles (tanks) It is use around Port Clyde to deliver Propane and Oil trucks and whatever else to various homes on the islands around Port Clyde, but not Monhegan. This thing goes about 10 miles an hour and the tires are "10 feet high". Last year while waiting for the boat to Monhegan...I watch them load a Propane truck into this thing...I could not see the Propane truck- "it just disappeared"

The Saturday crossing (Sept, 26) was uneventful, and that can be a good thing. Some crossings have been known to get a bit rough and little wet, but this day was smooth. Highlights of the crossing included numerous Black Guillemots, (already in their winter attire) hundreds of Common Eider, Northern Gannets (mostly sub-adults) and a handful of Harbor Porpoise.

Our main stay for the week was a lovely house near the Ice Pond. This area happens to be one of the better birding locations on the Island, but whether renting a house on the Island or staying at one of the Island Inns –you’re just foot steps away from great birding.

Although we never experienced one of Monhegan’s legendary avian fallouts, we did have a nice steady stream of birds all week. Our group consisted of Valerie and I, Bill and Nancy Buchanan, Lynn Rubinstein and Joe Shoenfeld, Together we tallied 104 species for the week. Some of the birding highlights….Cory’s (60)and Greater Shearwaters (15), hundreds of Northern Gannets, Great Cormorants, Black-crowned Night-Heron, 7 species of raptors, Sora Rail, Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers, (many) Western Kingbird, five species of Vireos-White-eyed, Blue-headed, Warbling, Philadelphia and Red-eyed, 17 species of warblers, Clay-colored and Lark Sparrows, Blue Grosbeak, and close to fifty Baltimore Orioles.

Another nice aspect of birding the Island this time of year is the birders”. The Island was well represented and covered by many individuals and birding tour companies. It was nice to catch up with Kristen Lundquist, Bill Longergin, and Pat Sanborn. I also was delighted to meet Pat Moynihan who years earlier participated in the Quabbin Christmas Count!! (The world just keeps closing in) and Joanne Stevens, both were friends of Pat Sanborn. It was also a treat to be joined by Sue and Mike Frazier, Judith Espinola and Susan Perry, all were first timers to the Island and judging by their reaction, they'll be back. Some of the tour companies present, Wings- Will Russell and Evan Obercian, Vermont Bird Tours –Bryan Pfeiffer, Derek Lovitch - Freeport Wild bird Supply, and Massachusetts Audubon Society.

I started birding Monhegan in May of 1984 and during all my visits in spring and fall, I had never witnessed “Trap Day”. Trap Day is the beginning of the lobster season for the Lobstermen that live on Monhegan. Traditionally the season always began on Jan 1st. A few years back they moved the start date to Dec 1st, but three years ago the season was extended to ten months and now begins on October 1st. Currently, there are eleven active lobstering boats on the Island. What makes Monhegan unique is they have their own fishing grounds – roughly a two mile area around the Island that they call their own. No other lobstering boats from the mainland can come within two miles of the Island, and no Monhegan lobster traps can go beyond the two mile limit. With the extension of the lobstering season, Monhegan can only put out three hundred traps, unlike the six hundred they used to deploy. So…a couple days before “Trap Day” the Island is very busy with everyone participating in moving all the lobster traps to the dock and getting the first wave loaded on the boats for the October 1st dawn send off. (See photos at end)

We certainly lucked out in the weather department, after Monday morning the rest of the week was outstanding - basically sunny to partly cloudy with temps in high 50’s to low 60’s. Below are a bunch of photos from the week…..

(Below) Lobster boat from the mainland heading in.

Lone Lobster boat in the late afternoon.

Monhegan Island- about 20 minutes away.

Looking down at the village from the Lighthouse.

Ice Pond- Islanders used the pond to harvest ice up until 1972.

Baltimore Oriole- after mid week- high count of fifty.

Bay-breasted Warbler- we had seventeen of the twenty species reported.

Cedar Waxwing- Juv

Black-throated Green Warbler.

Mourning Warbler- 1st fall bird near the Ice Pond.

Nashville Warbler- Worms took a beating that week.

(Below) Merlin on patrol.

Looking towards the cliffs of Whitehead.

above- Clay-colored Sparrow- one of eight reported. We had five at one time at the feeding station across from the Trailing Yew.

Indigo bunting- Not showing a lot of indigo this time of year.

Lark Sparrow- one of two birds.

Brown Thrasher

White-eyed Vireo- always a good bird on the Island. This bird stayed all week around our house at the Ice Pond.

(Below) Philadelphia Vireo.

Warbling vireo - The only one of the week.

(Below) American Pipit- A very tame individual near the Lighthouse.

(Below) Horned Lark-near the old ball field.

Lobster traps waiting to be loaded.

Lobster traps heading for the dock.

The Dock getting a bit busy!

Some of the boats loaded up for the Thursday morning departure.

Lights on and ready to roll- waiting for one crew!

Sea Hag getting restless....

Fireworks signal the beginning of the 2009-2010 season.

Back at the Ice Pond...Sora Rail put on a nice two day show for most of the birders on the Island.

Red-eyed Vireos made their presents known during the week...at least 40 a day.

Yellow-bellied sapsuckers- A late September/early October main Stay on Monhegan.

Blue-headed Vireo- Always a handful around.

Peregrine Falcon (Imm) Always a treat, but hard to get a handle on the numbers.

The many faces of the Yellow-rumped Warbler....What would a late September trip be to Monhegan Island without a billzillion of them.

Late afternoon- "Decking It"

Sunset over Manana- from the deck.

The return trip on Saturday to Port Clyde did get a little rough, but the highlight was the Cory's Shearwaters. We had a few individuals fly right in front of the boat, but a raft of thirty five was unexpected. Even though the weather was getting worse, huge flocks of Double-crested Cormorants were making their way south.

A great end to a great week!

Scott

H.B.C. South Beach Trip

2009-09-03T21:35:00.009-04:00

Hampshire Bird Club- Field Trip to South Beach.

The Hampshire Bird club’s final twenty fifth anniversary event was a field trip to perhaps the best shorebird staging area in New England- South Beach at the elbow of Cape Cod. Although the club runs trips to South Beach each summer, this year was a two part program conducted by Wayne Petersen. Wayne is director of Massachusetts Audubon Society’s IBA (Important Bird Areas) Program, tour leader and instructor. Without question Wayne’s passion is shorebirds, and it doesn’t take long to get caught up in his enthusiasm.

As I mentioned, this was a two part program….The first program was an Wednesday evening lecture and slide show at the Hitchcock Center in Amherst. We had an excellent turn out of close to 45 people for the 3 hour presentation. On Saturday (Aug 15th) 22 of us made our way to Chatham and Outermost Harbor Marina for an 8:30 departure. Once all of us had been drop off at the end of South Beach, Wayne gave a nice introduction on the history of South Beach and near by Monomoy N.W.R.

The weather this day was simply outstanding, which none of us took lightly, considering the wet summer us New Englanders have had to put up with. For the next seven and a half hours we slowly worked our way around the beach covering up to six miles, stopping and scanning the large flocks of Terns, Gulls and of course….Shorebirds. As it turned out, this would not be one of the more memorable trips in terms of shorebird diversity or numbers, but what was memorable for club members was the information on shorebird identification and biology Wayne brought forth throughout the day.

We ended the trip with fifteen species of shorebirds, (nothing fancy) hundreds of Laughing Gulls, a Lesser Black-backed Gull, five species of Terns…Roseate, Common, Forster’s, Least and Black and a nice close fly-by of a Cory’s Shearwater. Hey, even if the shorebirds weren’t quite up to par, the great weather and friends made for a memorable finish to the year long twenty fifth celebration of the Hampshire Bird club.

Cheers,

Scott

Club Members staging at Outermost Harbor.

Snowy Egret- South Beach

Black-bellied Plover (Adult)

Semipalmated Plover (Adult)

Short-billed Dowitcher (Adult)

Ruddy Turnstone

Hampshire Bird Club members taking in the finer points of Tern identification from Wayne.

Common Terns- South Beach

Common Tern

Sanderlings at rest.

White-rumped Sandpiper-Adult

Least Sandpiper- Juv.

Semipalmated Sandpiper- Adult.

Surf Scoter "Stomp"

American Oystercatcher- This bird was banded #59

Cory's Shearwater-flew along the shore and put on a great show.

Whimbrel in Hatfield

2009-08-24T21:18:00.002-04:00

Ruby-throated Hummingbird- One of four hummers coming to our feeders.

I spent the morning and early afternoon looking for shorebirds from Northfield south to Hatfield. I started off the morning at the same location as Saturday- the Turf Farm in Northfield. This farm has played host to some pretty impressive fallouts of shorebirds over the years. However, Saturday was not going to be one of those days... it was pretty quite with just two Least Sandpipers, a Solitary Sandpiper and about a dozen Killdeer. I was hoping that the bands of thunder storms that have been moving through our area would knock down a few birds as they made their way to the coast. So Sunday morning I decided to give it another try and headed back up to Northfield. Upon arrival, I was greeted by Jeff Johnstone, Mark Lynch and Sheila Carroll. They had been watching hundreds of Tree and Bank Swallows along a power line, a few Barns and a single Cliff Swallow added a little class to the motley bunch.

After a while we headed down the road to the Turf Farm (Jeff had already stopped by earlier with little success) to see if anything had put in. Jeff first got on a small flock of Least Sandpipers and then quickly announced that there was a Baird's Sandpiper in with the group. Mark just got on it when the flock flew slightly and came down more into the open- All of a sudden, there were Two!
Now a Baird’s Sandpiper anywhere in the state is good, but more than one is even sweeter. Besides the Least Sandpipers we picked out a Juvenile Semipalmated Sandpiper. Encouraged with our little win fall, Mark, Sheila and I headed south to the recently plowed fields of the Old Pilgrim Airport.

The Pilgrim Airport was once a grass strip airport, an old hanger sets well off the road and is now used to store farm equipment. Today the fields are used for growing various crops, and if plowed under at the right time- can lead to a shorebird bonanza. However, this day would only yield a decent number of Killdeer (57) and one Least Sandpiper. Mark and Sheila had to depart at this point and start to head back to Worcester.

I made my way down River Road- stopping briefly at the Brad Street Marsh, (3 Wood Ducks) and then proceeded down to the large potato fields near Cowbridge Road. I was immediately encouraged to see several large pools recently created by the heavy rains. A quick scan produced two Juvenile Greater Yellowlegs, not a bad start I thought. After I got the scope set up, the first bird that came into focus wasn’t a Greater Yellowlegs, but a Whimbrel!! Whimbrel’s are extremely scarce inland; in fact this one was only the third one I’ve seen in the valley in over thirty years of birding . I then made a number of phone calls to get the word out, after that I photographed the Whimbrel for the next thirty minutes. After about forty five minutes I decided to see what else I could find in this vast potato field. I drove down Cowbridge Road to get away from possibly flushing the Whimbrel.

I walked quite a way out into the muddy field trying to get the best vantage point on the other puddles created by the recent storms. About half way out a group of Least Sandpipers went up and settled down not to far from me. A quick scan found the Least’s plus a Semipalmated Sandpiper and another Baird’s Sandpiper! Another few minutes went by and I found myself searching the sky for an American Golden-Plover that was consistently calling- after a few moments I located the Plover and watched it land out in the field-only to never be seen again. Another nice surprise with the Golden Plover was a White-rumped Sandpiper. The White-rumped is not a bird one checks off their list each year out here in the valley, but like the Plover the White-rumped just disappeared into the potato field abyss. Another bird I heard was the Semipalmated Plover, but I was never able to see this bird.

Later in the Afternoon I received a call from Tom Gagnon, Tom called to report that not only he, but Bob Bieda and Harvey Allen had relocated the Whimbrel and found a Buff-breasted Sandpiper! Tom also reported that they had 8 Semipalmated Plovers (where were they?) And shorebird numbers were now up to 80 individuals. Like me, they were having some trouble relocating some of the birds once they landed… The Potato Field Abyss is real.
Not a bad day when you can come away with 10 plus species of shorebirds in the Connecticut River Valley.

As an extra…I’ve added an email that Peter Vickery posted on the Maine List serve about a story of a whimbrel named Hope. The email explains a tracking and monitoring program of Whimbrel’s. Hope you enjoy it!

Cheers,

Scott

Date: August 17, 2009 7:59:42 AM EDT
Subject: Fwd: Satellite-Tagged Whimbrel on 3,000+ mile flight

Begin forwarded message:
From: "Charles Duncan" <cduncan@manomet.org>
Date: August 15, 2009 10:18:10 AM EDT
To: "Jewel Suchecki" <jsucheck@maine.rr.com>, <ehynes@maineaudubon.com>
Cc: <news@pressherald.com>
Subject: FW: Satellite-Tagged Whimbrel on 3,000+ mile flight

Dear Julie and Eric--

I think the story below from Mike Wilson will interest Maine birders! It concerns a Whimbrel that Passed over our coast recently in her non-stop flight toward her wintering grounds.

All the best,

--Charles Duncan
Director, Shorebird Recovery Project

Flight of Hope
(Williamsburg, VA)---Hope, a whimbrel carrying a satellite transmitter,
is far out to sea flying south over the Atlantic toward her wintering
grounds in South America. The bird had been staging (building up energy
reserves in preparation for a migratory flight) on Southampton Island in the
Northern reach of Hudson Bay since 15 July before leaving on a non-stop flight
South on 10 August. The bird flew south over Hudson Bay, crossed the interior
Of Canada and New England to emerge from the coast of Maine and out over
The open ocean. Flying more than 1,600 kilometers (1000 miles) out over the
ocean and east of Bermuda, Hope then turned south and is now moving
toward the Caribbean. She has already flown non-stop for more than 5,100
kilometers (3,200 miles) but is still 400 kilometers (250 miles) from
the nearest land in the Virgin Islands. So far, Hope has been on the wing
for 4 days with an average flight speed of 60 kilometers/hour (37 miles/hour).

Hope was originally captured and fitted with a satellite transmitter
On 19 May, 2009 while staging on the Delmarva Peninsula of Virginia. She
Left Virginia on 26 May and flew to the western shore of James Bay in Canada.
She staged on James Bay for 3 weeks before flying to the MacKenzie River
near Alaska and then on to the Beaufort Sea where she staged for more
than 2 weeks before flying back to Hudson Bay. Hope has traveled more than
13,000 kilometers (8,000 miles) since late May.

Hope is one of several birds that have been fitted with state of the
Art 9.5-gram, satellite transmitters in a collaborative effort by the Center
For Conservation Biology at the College of William and Mary - Virginia
Commonwealth University and the Virginia Chapter of the Nature
Conservancy to discover migratory routes that connect breeding and winter areas and
To identify en route migratory staging areas that are critical to the
conservation of this declining species. Updated tracking maps may be viewed online.
http://www.ccb-wm.org/programs/migration/Whimbrel/whimbrel.htm

Background

The whimbrel is a large, holarctic, highly migratory shorebird. The
North American race includes two disjunct breeding populations both of
Which winter primarily in Central and South America. The western population
breeds in Alaska and the Northwest Territories of Canada. The eastern
population breeds south and west of Hudson Bay in Manitoba and Ontario.
Both populations are of high conservation concern due to dramatic
Declines in recent decades.

Satellite tracking represents only one aspect of a broader,
Integrated investigation of whimbrel migration. During the past 2 years, the
Center for Conservation in partnership with The Nature Conservancy and the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service has used conventional transmitters to examine
Stop over duration, conducted aerial surveys to estimate seasonal
Numbers collected feather samples to locate summer and winter areas through
stable-isotope analysis, and has initiated a whimbrel watch program.
Continued research is planned to further link populations across
staging, breeding, and wintering areas and to determine the ecological
requirements of whimbrels staging along the peninsula.

Media Contacts: Bryan Watts, Executive Director, Center for Conservation
Biology, College of William and Mary & Virginia Commonwealth University,
Williamsburg, VA. Phone 757-221-2247, email bdwatt@wm.edu
Barry Truit, Chief Conservation Scientist, The Nature Conservancy,
Virginia Coast Reserve Program. Phone 757-442-3049, email btruitt@tnc.org

Here's an update on Hope, the Whimbrel, forwarded from the WaterbirdsNetwork list serve.

Exciting stuff!!
All the best,--Charles Duncan, DirectorShorebird Recovery ProjectFlight of Hope

(Williamsburg, VA)---Hope, a whimbrel carrying a satellitetransmitter, has been observed foraging on Great Pond in the U.S. VirginIslands. Great Pond is a Birdlife International Important Bird Area onthe island of St. Croix known for White-crowned Pigeons, Green-throatedCaribs, and Antillean Crested Hummingbirds.http://www.birdlife.org/regional/caribbean/factsheet.html?action=SitHTMDetails.asp&sid=21950&m=0The site is a large pond fringed with black mangroves. Lisa Yntema hasmonitored the site for 5 years. She observed and photographed Hope on 20 August. Hope made landfall on St. Croix on the evening of 14 August aftercompleting an extraordinary 100 hour, 5,720 kilometer (3,500 mile) flight out overthe open ocean. She left South Hampton Island in upper Hudson Bay on 10August, flying south over Hudson Bay, crossed the interior or Canada and NewEngland to emerge from the coast of Maine and out over the open Atlantic. Sheflew east beyond Bermuda before turning south and down to St. Croix. We expect Hope to stage for a period of 2-3 weeks before making her way down tothe coast of South America for the winter.

Whimbrel- Hatfield, MA 8/23/09.

HBC Trip-Yellowstone 2009

2009-08-18T21:06:00.009-04:00

Hampshire Bird Club- Wyoming, Trip July 2009. Part two- Yellowstone.

We left Jackson Hole early on a raining Friday morning as we made our way towards Yellowstone National Park. We made a few stops along the way, but for the most part headed directly to the gates. The bottom line…Yellowstone was everything we thought it was going to be and more. The beauty of the Mammoth Hot Springs, (and smell) Old Faithful, Yellowstone Lake, Mt.Washburn, Lamar and Hayden Valley’s were simply spectacular. Hard to believe, but birds were not our only focus. Our group quickly got caught up in the hunt for large mammals around the park. Undoubtedly we were far better prepared than most of the other visitors to Yellowstone. With are high powered telescopes and binoculars we fast became a crowd favorite at certain roadside haunts.

Everyone in the group was on the constant lookout for the two most sought after mammals-Grizzly Bear and Wolves, and we were not going to be disappointed. In mid afternoon on day two in Yellowstone we found a fairly large Grizzly Bear in Lamar Valley. Although not close, we were afforded nice looks through are scopes and watched the bear for over fifteen minutes. A little further down the road a Black Bear made an appearance as it slowly worked its way through the field.

This of course was a birding trip….and we did have some interesting sightings. We had one of only ten Trumpeter Swans currently in Yellowstone in the summer. Close to 180 Barrow’s Goldeneye’s, Common Loon, American White Pelican, Swanson’s Hawk, Golden Eagle, American Kestrel’s (many-nice to see since they are becoming scare in New England) Prairie Falcon, Sora Rail, Sandhill Crane, White-throated Swift (3), Clark’s Nutcracker, American Dipper, Lazuli Bunting, Red Crossbill and abundant Pine Siskins.

Early Monday morning- it was decided not to head to Red Rock National Wildlife Refuge, but instead head to Hayden Valley and look for the Wolf Pack. We missed the Wolves by only 10 minutes the other day and wanted to give it one more shot before heading back to Jackson Hole. We made a beeline directly for Hayden Valley on Monday morning. After waiting for the road construction that was on going throughout the park we made it to the lookout…only to learn that we just missed the wolf pack by 10 seconds!!!! Quickly following the advice of one of the volunteer naturalists, we got back in the cars and back tracked a few hundred yards to the next turn out and waited.
The naturalists predicted the wolves would cross the road between the two pullouts to get to a recent carcass- BINGO!! Right on cue the wolf pack came out from the forest and cross about 200 yards in front of us. Plain and simply, it was just an amazing amount of luck. After the wolf encounter, we just worked are way back towards Jackson Hole and finish off our adventure with a trip up to Rendezvous Mountain and a rafting trip down the Snake River.

Next blog entry….HBC trip to South Beach.

Scott

Old Faithful

Yellowstone

Elk- Along the West Entrance Road.

Elk

This was anything but uncommon in Hayden Valley. On one occasion, the Buffalo caused a 45 minute delay. To move the herd along- The Park Rangers would drive up and down the road making some type of clicking sound over their PA system. This seem to work reasonably well.

The sign going into Teton N.P. said....Hitting a 2000 lbs Buffalo will ruin your day and your car.

Another Buffalo jam about to begin....

Buffalo coming out of the Snake River. These animals were very good swimmers.

Sandhill Crane in West Yellowstone, Montana.

White-throated Swift- Yellowstone. Not a great photo, but not bad considering the speed of these guys.

Mountain Bluebird- on top of Mt. Washburn.

River Otter- at the base of the Jackson Hole Dam.

American White Pelican- Hayden Valley.

Bald Eagle- This adult had a nest right along the West Entrance Rd into Yellowstone.

One of four wolves that made up the Hayden Valley Wolf Pack.

Wolf- Talk about luck...that guy in the first car had a look of a lifetime.

Just coming out of the forest.

Jackson Hole/Grand Teton National Park

2009-08-09T19:45:00.009-04:00

The Hampshire Bird Club trip to Jackson Hole, Grand Teton National Park and Yellowstone National Park was simply AWESOME! The flights to and from Jackson Hole, Wyoming couldn't have been better and the weather was outstanding. A total of 11 birders made the trek from western & central Massachusetts, and the leader was Tom Gagnon. Tom once worked for a few summers in Teton N.P. in the mid sixties and has been back a few times since then-his knowledge of the area was most impressive.

The trip was billed as a birding trip (of course) with an intense focus on Mammals! We came away with 118 species of birds (not bad-could have been a little better) and 23 species of mammals. We did very well with large mammals!! Buffalo, Pronghorn Antelope, Elk, Mule Deer, Moose, Big Horned, Sheep, Black Bear, Grizzly Bear, Coyote and 4 Wolves :)

As I mentioned, the weather was absolutely fantastic. Mornings started out anywhere from 39-48 degrees and climbed to mid 70"s, a couple of days made it to the low 90's. A few passing thunderstorms, (one with hail) and one foggy morning was the extent of the bad weather.

Some of the birding hightlights around Jackson Hole & Teton N.P. .......Trumpeter Swan (4), Dusky Grouse (7), White Pelican (2), Swainson's Hawk (8), Golden Eagle (2), Sora Rail, Sandhill Crane, Great Gray Owl (1), Calliope, Broad-tailed & Rufous Hummingbirds, Williamson's & Red-naped Sapsuckers, Lewis's Woodpecker (1), Dusky Flycatcher, Gray Jay (2), Clark's Nutcracker, Black-billed Magpie, Violet-green Swallows,
Mountain Chickadee, Mountain Bluebird, Sage Thrasher (2), Macgillivray's Warbler (9), Western Tanager, Green-tailed Towhee, Brewer's Sparrow, Lazuli Bunting (2), Western Meadowlark (6), Yellow-headed Blackbird, Brewer's Blackbird, Cassin's Finch, Red Crossbill and many Pine siskins. ( To enlarge the photos...just click on photo.)

Early morning view of the Tetons from signal Mt.

Dusky Grouse (female) Signal Mt. Parking lot.

Dusky Grouse (male)

Rainbow on Elk N.W.R. in Jackson Hole. After the roughly (7500) Elk depart the refuge in the spring, the Boy Scouts go out and collect all the Elk Antlers. At some point in time- they hold an auction somewhere around Jackson Hole and sell the Antlers....Last year they took in 98,000.00 of which half is theirs to keep. NOT A BAD FUND RAISER!!!

Scott & Valerie

Trumpeter Swans...Flat Creek at Elk N.W.R.

A huge surprise was this Lewis's Woodpecker! The Woodpecker was nesting in the park.

Swainson's Hawk

Green-tailed Towhee

Big Horned Sheep. We found a group of three just outside Jackson Hole, our only ones of the trip.

A view of the Tetons

Another great Surprise was this Great Gray Owl in Teton Park.

Moose

Western Tanager- Very common around the Tetons and Yellowstone.

Photos of Yellowstone will appear in the next few days,

Cheers,

Scott

Crown of Maine - June 18-22

2009-07-05T19:41:00.014-04:00

Crown of Maine- Hampshire Bird Club Trip

On June 18Th, roughly 15 birders from the Hampshire Bird Club made the ten hour trek to Caribou, Maine for what would turn out to be a wonderful, although extremely soggy weekend in Aroostook County. We were greeted Early Friday morning (5am) by our exceptionally talented and enthusiastic leader-Bill Sheehan. Over the next three days, Bill led us through Aroostook N.W.R. ( old Loring A.F.B.), Lake Josephine in Easton area and to wilderness areas in the North Country. Despite the weather- we totaled over 118 species and we really were exposed too some really beautiful regions of Northern Maine. The list below may differ slightly from member to member, but it gives a pretty good idea of what we had. (Above photo-Bill Sheehan)

Moose!

Closer View

(Loring Airforce base-OLD) The old bunkers where Nuclear Warheads were stored.

Another Bunker

Wood Duck-female

Upland Sandpiper- Aroostook N.W.R. (Loring Base)

Upland sandpiper

Wetlands around Lake Josephine

Young Great Horned Owl- Nice spotting by David Peak-Jones!

Club Members- listening....

Val-Holding Jaw bone of a Moose .

Osprey

Common loon

Gray Jay- Juv & Adult

Gray Jay-Adult

Swainson's Thrush- Singing away

Western Tailed-Blue. Currently, only a handful of records for Maine.

American Bittern- The entire group watched this American bittern put on a roadside show like none of us has ever witnessed before. For over 25 minutes this bird preyed on Tadpoles, Dobsonfly larvae (nasty little things) and several adult Dragonflies!

Bay-breasted Warbler- Almost the last bird we had coming out of the North Woods.

Waterfowl-16 species.

Canada Goose

Wood Duck (5)

Gadwal (5)

Am.Wigeon (8)

Am. Black Duck (15)

Mallard (60+)

Blue-winged Teal (2)

Northern Shoveler (6)

Green-winged Teal (12+)

REDHEAD (1m)

Ring-necked Duck (20+)

Common Goldeneye (9)

Hooded Merganser (5)

Common Merganser (1)

Ruddy Duck (2)

Common Loons (8)

Pied-billed Grebe (1)

EARED GREBE (1-Sanford Sewer Plant-on way up to Caribou)

D.C.Cormorant (52+)

American Bittern (1- see photos)

Great Blue Heron (2)

Turkey Vulture

Osprey (4)

Bald Eagle (4)

Northern Harrier (3)

Broad-winged Hawk (2)

Red-tailed Hawk

Am.Kestrel (6)

Virginia Rail (2)

Common Moorhen (2)

Killdeer (4)

Spotted Sandpiper (8)

Upland Sandpiper (4)

Common Snipe (4)

Ring-billed Gull (57+)

Herring Gull (2)

Common Tern (35)

Rock Pigeon (10)

Mourning Dove

Great Horned Owl (2-1 young/1-adult)

Common Nighthawk (3)

Chimney Swift (4)

R.T. Hummingbird (3)

Belted Kingfisher (4)

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (5+)

Hairy Woodpecker (4)

No.Flicker (8)

Olive-sided Flycatcher (1)

Eastern-Wood-Pewee (6)

Yellow-bellied flycatcher (5)

Alder Flycatcher (7)

Least Flycatcher (6)

Eastern Phoebe (2)

Great-crested Flycatcher (1)

Eastern Kingbird (5)

Blue-headed Vireo (12+)

Warbling Vireo (1)

Red-eyed Vireo (37+)

Gray Jay (7)

Blue Jay (14)

American Crow (30+)

Common Raven (8)

Tree Swallow (many)

Cliff Swallow (20)

Barn Swallow (12+)

Black-capped Chickadee

Boreal Chickadee (2)

Red-breasted Nuthatch (1)
White-breasted Nuthatch

Brown Creeper (4)

Winter Wren (10)

Marsh Wren (1)

Golden-Cr. Kinglet (5)

Ruby-cr.Kinglet ((10)

Eastern bluebird (1)

Veery (4)

Swainson's Thrush (11)

Hermit Thrush (5)

Am.Robin

Gray Catbird (4)

Northern Mockingbird (1)

E.Starling

Cedar Waxwing (30+)

Warblers

Nashville (29)

Northern Parula (15)

Yellow (22)

Chestnut-sided ((7)

Magnolia (16)

Cape May (2)

Yellow-rumped (12)

B.T.G. (4)

Palm (3)

Bay-breasted (1)

Black & White (3)

Am.Redstart (7)

Ovebird (17+)

Northern Waterthrush (8)

Mourning (3)

Common Yellowthroat (19)

Canada (1)

Chipping sparrow (11)

Savannah Sparrow (25+)

Fox Sparrow (4)

Song Sparrow

Lincoln's Sparrow (4)

Swamp Sparrow (10)

White-throated sparrow (25+)

D.E.Junco (10+)

Boblink (2)

R.W.Blackbird

Common Grackle (100+)

Brown-head Cowbird (2)

Baltimore Oriole (1)

Purple Finch (6)

Pine Siskin (3)

Am.Goldfinch (25)

Evening grosbeak (3)

House sparrow

2009-06-07T21:03:00.002-04:00

A nice surprise on June 1st - While checking on the family homestead around noontime I heard this bird calling from the adjacent woods. As of this date the Kentucky is still calling consistently and as set up a territory, but the big question is...will he find a mate!

This bird has been very accommodating to most birders looking for him, in fact- he has been seen most of the time calling from a 25-35 ft perch.

Interestingly- This is the second Kentucky Warbler I've had on the family homestead, the first one was May 28th, 1983.

Kentucky Warbler- Amherst 6-7-09

Kentucky Warbler- Singing from high perch.

Kentucky Warbler- Nice close view, just missed the killer shot!

Hitchcock Center Trip- Quabbin Res. 5-10-09

2009-05-14T21:12:00.005-04:00

Hitchcock Birding Class- May 10th.

Met the group at the Hitchcock Center in Amherst around 7AM for our trip to the Quabbin Reservoir. Upon arrival, I immediately had a Great Blue Heron and Common Loon moving high overhead-heading northeast. I thought this was fairly interesting considering the wind was already blowing pretty well out of the northwest.

Before leaving the Center, I heard a Wilson's Warbler and a White-Cr. Sparrow singing from the thicket near the center. Unfortunately, the Warbler was not as cooperative as I would have liked, but most folks had an adequate view., but the White-crowned just disappeared.

We arrived at Windsor Dam around 7:45am and the wind was even stronger! A couple of Eastern Kingbirds in the parking lot put on a nice show, but we started seeing Common Loons moving north. At the end of the morning, we had 11 Common Loons and 10 Double-crested Cormorants migrating north. This perhaps doesn't seem like a lot, especially D.C. Cormorants, but for Common Loons migrating inland- this was the highest number I've encountered in years.

Despite the strong winds, the rest of the day proved to be pretty good. We finished the day with over 75 species and sixteen species of Warblers. Partial trip list below.....

Good birding,

Scott

Wilson's Warbler- Larch Hill, Amherst

Veery- Quabbin Park

Enfield Lookout -Quabbin

Black & White Warbler- Quabbin Park

Baltimore Oriole- Goodell Street Feeder

Location: Quabbin Park/H.Q.

Wild Turkey 1

Common Loon 10

Double-crested Cormorant 10

Turkey Vulture 4

Bald Eagle 1

Red-tailed Hawk 3

Spotted Sandpiper 4

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 1

Least Flycatcher 3

Eastern Phoebe 2

Great Crested Flycatcher 1

Eastern Kingbird 2

Yellow-throated Vireo 5

Red-eyed Vireo 6
Warbling Vireo 2

Barn Swallow 1

Brown Creeper 1

House Wren 2

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 2

Veery 2

Gray Catbird 8

Blue-winged Warbler 2

Northern Parula 3

Yellow Warbler 1

Chestnut-sided Warbler 12

Magnolia Warbler 1

Black-throated Blue Warbler 11

Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) 5

Black-throated Green Warbler 11

Blackburnian Warbler 3

Pine Warbler 3

Prairie Warbler 3

Black-and-white Warbler 7

American Redstart 6

Ovenbird 9

Common Yellowthroat 2

Scarlet Tanager 5

Eastern Towhee 7

Chipping Sparrow 8

Field Sparrow 2

Lincoln's Sparrow 1

Rose-breasted Grosbeak 1

Indigo Bunting 2

Baltimore Oriole 11

House Finch 1

American Goldfinch 12

LARCH HILL CONSERVATION AREA-AMHERST

Common Loon 1

Great Blue Heron 1

Turkey Vulture 1

Chimney Swift 2

Red-bellied Woodpecker 1

Eastern Phoebe 1

Carolina Wren 1

House Wren 2

Veery 1

Gray Catbird 5

Northern Mockingbird 2

Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) 5

Pine Warbler 2

American Redstart 2

Common Yellowthroat 2

Wilson's Warbler 1

Chipping Sparrow 2

White-crowned Sparrow (Eastern) 2

Baltimore Oriole 2

Pine Siskin 2

American Goldfinch 4