Trip Highlights

We had a nice group today, 14 people and 35 species. Not a huge number of ducks, except at MudPond, of course. No surprises, but a nice day to be out. And everyone was happy!

Eleven participants saw 25 species.  First, let it be known that our 3-hour walk started at 8 a.m. and end-ed at 1:45 p.m.  Only Tim, Terrie and I were left at the end; ticks popped up at our last wooded stop and the birders fled.   Nice day, nice company and treats provided by Beth Spirito and Lisa kept us fed and happy.  

Scott Surner had 4 Scoters at the Visitor's Center and got the black dots in our scopes; I did not include them in my list.  Common Loon was close, as was a Red-necked Grebe, Hooded Merganser, and Wood Ducks.   Beth found us 4 Rusty Blackbirds which were within 50 feet, providing an excellent study in plumages.  Hermit Thrush, Ruby-crowned Kinglet and Killdeer were other highlights.  No warblers and no Chickadees in the old orchard to hand feed.  My mistake in making such a promise.  Sparrows were sparse and I was surprised at the large number of Ring-billed gulls on the water.  For sanitation reasons, DCR will try to control this problem.  All in all, I'll come again to Quabbin for this walk, but won't promise anything.

We started out on a sunny fall morning with 10 people and luck was with us as our 1st bird of the day was a Rusty Blackbird sitting on a dead tree in the first marsh area.  We were able to get great scope views, because he stayed in one spot the whole time.  As we headed in we had some Yellow-rumps and Wood Ducks.  We approached the Ponds and had our next surprise as a low flying Osprey flew by scanning the water for breakfast.  Along the next path we got a pair of White-throated Sparrows, more Yellow-rumps and some Palm Warblers, a pair of Pileated Woodpeckers, a Blue-headed Vireo and a Swainson's Thrush along with a number of other birds.  We then headed towards the back ponds, but first saw a pair of Savannah Sparrows and flushed a Killdeer that was feeding pondside.

The raptor show was next as we saw 5 Redtails, a Cooper's Hawk and a pair of Turkey Vultures along with who we assume was the same Osprey making numerous flights up and down the ponds.  When we got into the wooded area, we asked the warblers to come down a little lower and they obliged, giving us some great looks at Palms and Yellow-rumps along with scoping a number of Wood Ducks.  As we headed back, we got splendid looks at another Swainson's Thrush that was along the side of the road.  We then headed back to the parking lot thinking we were done, but instead saw a number of raptors climbing the thermals.  There were some Redtails, but also a Bald Eagle that was circling with a Raven.  A good day with good birds.  Our total species count was 41.

We started out on a cool but sunny morning with 11 people.  Our first interesting bird, and perhaps the best of the day, was a very low flying Pileated Woodpecker.  As he moved from tree to tree, he stayed mostly under 6 ft off the ground and occasionally was even on the ground.  We had a number of near ground woodpeckers that day mainly Hairy and Downy Woodpeckers.  The warblers however stayed mostly high in the trees and confounded our ability to ID the majority of them.  The other highlights included a Brown Creeper and Red-breasted Nuthatch.  We had a late Phoebe and a Red-eyed Vireo.  Our only sparrows were a trio of Songs and the water was bereft of fowl other than a few mallards accompanied by a pair of Double-crested Cormorants and a Great Blue Heron.  It was a nice day for a walk, but not a great number of birds.   Our total species count for the day was 23.

We had a beautiful sunny day to bird today, with 9 participants in total.  We started at the Northampton meadows driving along the runway and later through and around the fields.  The star bird of that area was the Peregrine Falcon.  We had a total of 16 bird species for that area. Then we headed over to Arcadia and had a total of 24 species there so then 40 species in total for the trip.  We saw many Palm and Yellow-rumped Warblers flitting around.  We had a nice view of a Coopers Hawk as well.