Chasing the Gray Ghost..Gyrfalcon

Well, Western Mass doesn't usually see large concentrations of birder's, but every once in a while a bird changes that. On Dec 13th a couple found and photographed a GYRFALCON! in the Honey Pot, Hadley, Mass. However the Gyr was not seen again until late afternoon on New Years Day, and that sighting set in motion a wave of scope carrying birder's that came from as far away as Virginia. 

The next day the Arctic Falcon put on a show in the Honey Pot for most of the day. Birder's were not only able to view the bird but got some amazing shots. However....I found myself unable to escape from work and was left to provide updates on Western Mass Birder's-facebook Page & Massbird.

The Falcon wasn't the only story going on in Hadley....with the recent snowstorm, a lot of birds found themselves looking for food! Most of the time birder's have to walk through the many weedy fields of the Honey Pot looking for Larks, Longspurs,Buntings and Sparrows. This time many of the birds were right by the road eating grass seeds that the local snowplows had unearthed. 50+ Savannah Sparrows, 2 Clay-colored Sparrows, 1 Vesper Sparrow, many Horned Larks, Snow Buntings and even a few Lapland Longspurs made an appearance. Besides the sparrows, good numbers of Common Redpolls remained along with 1-2 Hoary Redpolls, and then the raptor show got even better.....

During this week...a Long-eared and Short-eared Owls were seen and photographed, Northern Harriers, Peregrine Falcons, Merlin, American Kestrel, Cooper's Hawk, Red-tailed & Rough-legged Hawk and a Bald Eagle or two. An AMAZING WEEK is clearly an understatement. I was able to get some photos of the birds reported out there this past week, but missed the Gyrfalcon & Long-eared Owl/Short-eared Owl.

American Pipit- one of three birds I found on New Years day on South Maple Street/Hadley.

Horned Lark- hundreds in the Hadley area. 

Horned Lark- Aqua Vitae Rd

Lapland Longspur- So.Maple Street/Hadley.

Rough-legged Hawk (Light Morph) So.Maple Street.

Rough-legged Hawk- So.Maple Street

Snow Buntings- So.Maple Street/Aqua Vitae Rd & the Honey Pot. Some reported a flock of 200

Snow Buntings

Vesper Sparrow-honey Pot. A good find in winter.

Savannah Sparrow- as many as 60 reported.

Common Redpoll- Honey Pot. 

Cooper's Hawk- My feeding station.

Clay-colored Sparrow. one of two in Hadley.

Quabbin C.B.C. Twenty-fives years and counting

The twenty-fifth Quabbin Christmas Bird Count took place on December 29, 2012. When Jim Lafley and I set this count into motion twenty-five years ago,  we knew that this count would become one of Massachusetts most remote/rural of the Christmas bird counts in the state. While some of the areas at Quabbin seem to be a bird-less,  frozen wilderness. Participants get to travel into areas behind the locked gates and encounter areas that once played host to thriving communities, before they were removed in favor of a water supply for Boston and other Eastern Mass communities. However, the count has a few claims to fame for the first twenty-five years- We hold the North American record for the most Northern Saw-whet Owls..(61) and we usually have State high counts for things like Bald Eagles,  Pileated Woodpeckers, Common Ravens, and some years for Red-breasted Nuthatch- our all time high is (1886). 

We've also experienced some interesting weather over the years. Everything from sunny near 50 degrees (not many of those days) to light rain/fog...light snow to an all out BLIZZARD that cut the count short that year, but we got the count into the books. Another cool thing about the Quabbin count is the mammals, it seems each area gets an interesting mammal sighting during the day. We tallied up an impressive list over the years.

This years count was fairly uneventful, but we did get a new high count for Hairy Woodpecker. The weather probably kept birds down a bit...Overcast with a late afternoon snowstorm approaching. Everyone made it home safe, but it kept the tally at Headquarters rather subdued with just a handful of observers. 

Complete list below. 

Area 43/Horseshoe Dam. Most water frozen, limited road access because of recent snowstorm.

Certainly of one the days highlights was this 25th Anniversary cake presents to Myself and Jim Lafley by David Spector......Thanks David! 

A few of the survivors 

Saying good-bye to David Peake-Jones at the visitor's center- Storm gaining steam at this point.

                                                                  Quabbin C.B.C. (Dec 29, 2012)

Happy New Year,

Despite the impending Nor'easter, we managed to get the Quabbin  Christmas Count into the books.  Generally overall numbers were down, but we ended the day with 67 species, along with two new highs.  Road access inside of the reservoir wasn't too bad considering a snowstorm a few days earlier. Temperature ranged from 16-30 degrees with overcast skies. The snow didn't really get going until 3pm, by that time most areas had started to call it a day. Complete list below…

Canada Goose 18

Wood Duck 1-3^rd record.

American Black Duck 131

Mallard 66

Ring-necked Duck 5

Common Goldeneye 57

Hooded Merganser 85

Common Merganser 26

Ruffed Grouse 5

Wild Turkey 154

Common Loon 15

Horned Grebe 10

Red-necked Grebe 1

Great Blue Heron 1

Bald Eagle 11 (3 Imm/8 Ad)

Sharp-shinned Hawk 3

Cooper’s Hawk 3

Red-tailed Hawk 22

Ring-billed Gull 49

Herring Gull 13

Rock Pigeon 87

Mourning Dove 188

Eastern Screech-Owl 1

Great Horned Owl 12

Barred Owl 9

Northern Saw-whet Owl 6

Belted Kingfisher 3

Red-bellied Woodpecker 27

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 1-3^rd record.

Downy Woodpecker 156

Hairy Woodpecker 62-new high

Northern Flicker 3

Pileated Woodpecker 23

Northern Shrike 1

Blue Jay 141

American Crow 146

Common Raven 27

Black-capped Chickadee 1026

Tufted Titmouse 292

Red-breasted Nuthatch 376- 2^nd highest count/ Most inside of Quabbin.

White-breasted Nuthatch 210

Brown Creeper 39

Carolina Wren 3

Winter Wren 3

Golden-crowned Kinglet 97

Eastern Bluebird 45- New High.

Hermit Thrush 1

American Robin 160

Northern Mockingbird 6

E.Starling 221

American Tree Sparrow 173

Song Sparrow 22

White-throated Sparrow 52

Dark-eyed Junco 714

Snow Bunting 49

Northern Cardinal 100

Red-winged Blackbird 3

Brown-headed Cowbird 2

Pine Grosbeak 19-( 8) still feeding on crabapples at Quabbin HQ.

Purple Finch 1

House Finch 58

Red Crossbill 6-( Gate 40)

White-winged Crossbill 9-(Gate 40)

Common Redpoll 302

American Goldfinch 124

Evening Grosbeak 27 (Hardwick/Petersham/North Dana)

House Sparrow 250

67 species

Mammals

River Otter 3

Red Squirrel 21

Gray Squirrel 35

Flying Squirrel 1

Beaver 1

White-tailed Deer 9

Eastern Chipmunk 1

Island Pond, VT

Headed north the other day to Island Pond, Vermont to do a little scouting for a trip later in 2013.
Priscilla Moor and I left around 5:30am and headed up 91 North towards Vermont. Considering the time of year, the weather and roadways were pretty good. We made a quick stop at Exit 17 for breakfast at the P&H Truck Stop. After breakfast we continue north until we got to Newport, Vermont, from there we headed east on rte 105 to Island Pond and onto our main target.... Moose Bog. This region plays host to such boreal specialties like Spruce Grouse, Gray Jay, Boreal Chickadee and Black-backed Woodpecker.

Although we arrived late, we were able to locate a couple of Boreal Chickadees amongest  a flock of Black-capped Chickadees. The area also had a recent light snow fall, which made it a winter wonderland. No big surprise, we didn't break 20 species for the day...besides the Boreal Chickadees, the other highlights were several large flocks of Wild Turkeys and a 1st winter Iceland Gull in Newport.

Below are a few photos of Island Pond region and recent Redpolls in the Honey Pot area in Hadley.

Main Road to Moose Bog

Bulletin board at Moose Bog 

Winter Wonderland...we only had to drive 220 miles to experience it. 

Priscilla on Moose Bog Trail.....

Iceland Gull-Newport, VT (Sleeping in center)

Red-breasted Nuthatch- Moose Bog

Black-capped Chickadee

Common Redpolls- A large flock has been hanging out in the Honey Pot for the last couple of weeks. There also have been 1-3 Hoary Redpolls mixed in with the flock.

Common Redpoll

Common Redpoll

Common Redpoll

Bobcat! Sunning at Hampshire Fittness in Amherst.

Scott

Pine Grosbeaks-increasing.

Headed into Amherst the other day to pick up a couple of Holiday items when I came across four Pine Grosbeaks in the center of town. The Grosbeaks were feeding on a Crabapple Tree across from the Police Station on Main Street. The center of Amherst has several pockets of Crabapple Trees in the downtown area. Pine Grosbeaks are still being found around the Umass Campus, Quabbin HQ in Belchertown and the flock in Turners Falls is has increased to over forty birds. Again, most if not all the birds being reported are Imm/Females.

Pine Grosbeak- Amherst

Angry Pine Grosbeak?

Thanksgiving leftovers?

|Headed to Falmouth for the Thanksgiving Holiday......Valerie and I departed Wednesday hoping we wouldn't run into the 35 mile back ups we heard about from the day before. As it turns out the traffic was just fine and we made a side trip to  Bridgewater hoping to catch up with the Northern Lapwing that has been lingering in a cornfield. We arrived around 11:00am and within 10 minutes had the bird in the scope.

After we arrived in Falmouth and unloaded the car, I headed out to see what I could find on the local waterways. I didn't find anything out of the ordinary, but had a nice time, and the weather was fantastic for November.

After the Holiday, I finally caught up with the Pine Grosbeaks at the Quabbin Headquarters and had another 15 up in Turners Falls on Sunday. That's it for now....Christmas Bird Counts are coming up....If you haven't done one before, do it...there a lot of fun.

Scott

Northern Lapwing- Bridgewater, Mass. One of three birds currently on display in Massachusetts.

Red-breasted Nuthatch- Falmouth

Ruby-crowned Kinglet- Falmouth bike trail.

Hooded Mergansers- Salt Pond, Falmouth

Pine Grosbeak- Quabbin HQ, Belchertown. One of six birds, all female/Imm.

Pine Grosbeak- Quabbin HQ

Eastern Bluebird-female. Standing guard

Nantucket Lapwings

BACK TO NANTUCKET…..for the second time in three weeks I found myself back on this quint New England Island. The first trip was for the Gray-tailed Tattler that had been found during the Nantucket Bird Festival. There are just a handful of records for the lower forty eight, and to my knowledge none on the east coast. So with Alan Richards and Ian Davies we headed down to Hyannis to make the trip across the sound to Nantucket. There were over seventy birders looking for the Tattler, but to everyone’s disappointed the bird never made an appearance.

Fast forward…..Hurricane Sandy hits the East Coast and three Northern Lapwings show up along the Massachusetts Coast. One of the Lapwings was found in Eastham and the other two on Nantucket. The Eastham bird was only seen one day, but the Nantucket Lapwings were lingering!

James Smith emailed me late in the week and expressed serious interest in making the trip out to the Island; of course my arm really didn’t need a whole lot of twisting. So after several emails to James and Vernon Laux out on Nantucket (Lapwing updates) - we departed at 4:45am for the Fast Ferry out of Hyannis. If you’ve never taken the Fast Ferry to Nantucket, it’s quite nice and yes…It’s “FAST”. (One hour)  We arrived around 9:00am and were met by Vern Laux and Trish  Pastuszak. They took James, myself and a couple of other birders who had also contacted Vern the night before out to Hummock Pond where the Lapwings awaited.

After we got the Lapwings, we were the guests for Vern and Trish for the rest of our stay. They took us around the Island along with others in tow and we really had a great diversity from birds for November 3^rd in New England.

Photos and checklist below.

Nantucket, Nantucket, US-MA
Nov 3, 2012 9:15 AM - 3:15 PM

73 species

Brant 42
Canada Goose 200
Mute Swan 62
Eurasian Wigeon 2 2-females
American Wigeon 48
American Black Duck 12
Mallard X
Blue-winged Teal 2
Northern Pintail 2
Green-winged Teal 1
Bufflehead 10
Hooded Merganser 2
Red-breasted Merganser 4
Ruddy Duck 4
Common Loon 1
Pied-billed Grebe 2
Double-crested Cormorant 150
Brown Pelican 2 1-at the Nantucket Landfill. Capture and brought to rehab center on the Cape. #2- Seen over Nantucket Harbor while waiting to board ferry. Photos of both.
American Bittern 1
Great Blue Heron 4
Turkey Vulture 3
Northern Harrier 4
Sharp-shinned Hawk 5
Red-tailed Hawk 3
Common Gallinule 2 Hummock Pond
American Coot 40
Northern Lapwing 2 Mega- continuing at Hummock Pond.
Black-bellied Plover 3
American Oystercatcher 3
Greater Yellowlegs 15
Ruddy Turnstone 20
Dunlin 15
Laughing Gull 2
Ring-billed Gull 4
Herring Gull 300
Lesser Black-backed Gull 5
Great Black-backed Gull 25
Rock Pigeon 190
Mourning Dove 5
Chimney Swift 1 Very late - seen from the ferry just before docking. Clearly a Chaetura Swift and most likely a Chimney, but all we could get distant views.
Belted Kingfisher 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker 2
Northern Flicker 2
Western Kingbird 1 Seen at Pat's Puddle-photos.
Blue Jay 4
American Crow 8
Tree Swallow 250 Largest group around Hummock Pond
Black-capped Chickadee 2
Red-breasted Nuthatch 12
Brown Creeper 1
Carolina Wren 1
Golden-crowned Kinglet 6
American Robin 45
Gray Catbird 1
European Starling X
American Pipit 8
Cedar Waxwing 12
Lapland Longspur 1
Northern Parula 2 Photos
Black-throated Blue Warbler 1 female
Yellow-rumped Warbler 30
Savannah Sparrow 1
Song Sparrow 4
White-throated Sparrow 2
White-crowned Sparrow 1
Dark-eyed Junco 4
Northern Cardinal 1
Red-winged Blackbird 2
House Finch 12
White-winged Crossbill 12 Seen and heard around Jackson Pt.
Pine Siskin 18
American Goldfinch 2
House Sparrow X

One of two Northern Lapwings at Hummock Pond, Nantucket. Distance made  photography tough-as one can see by these photos.

Northern Lapwings- In flight over Hummock Pond. Striking birds when in flight!

Brown Pelican-Imm. Prior to our visit, there had been four Brown Pelicans reported on the Island,  undoubtedly  from Hurricane Sandy. While watching the Lapwings, Vern gets a call about a Pelican hanging out at the Nantucket Ladfill!  It was obvious that this bird was in trouble and plans were in the making to capture it?

The plan was to offer the Pelican a fish, Red Snapper to be precise. Then grab the bird and  bring it to a rehab center on the mainland.

The bird takes the bait......

We observed the Pelican having trouble swallowing the fish, which I don't think it ever did.

You can see the snapper in the birds pouch. The pelican was captured and brought to a rehab center on the Cape.  Early reports the Pelican will be ok......but I'd like to know where the bird was banded? 

Northern Parula- A nice November bird.

Lesser Black-backed Gull- one of six birds along the beach. This area of Nantucket can sometimes  muster up close to one hundred individuals at the right time of year. 

Western Kingbird -  A nice surprise at an area known as Pat's Puddle. The  underparts on this bird were pretty bright.

A Selasphorus Hummingbird (Rufous/Allens) coming to a private residence on the Island. It's been  a pretty decent fall for hummers....There are at least 4 Rufous and 1 Allen's in New England.

Brown Pelican- 2nd pelican of the day! Seen coming into the harbor as we waited to board the ferry.

Brown Pelican-settled in at the dock as we departed Nantucket Harbor.

White-winged Scoters - The trip to and from the Island was filled with all three species of Scoters.

Black Scoters

Surf Scoters - Thousands can be seen from the ferry this time of year.