Trip Highlights

Only six came to the scrumptious breakfast at Sylvester’s, and the first birding idea was to check out the Wilson’s Snipe behind one of the malls in Hadley.  We parked and walked along a wet gully until the birds jumped and flew farther along one at a time, with five seen.  Also there was a Killdeer.  A run through the Honeypot on the way to Rte. 91 north got us only a singing Brown Thrasher.  We met up with two more people at Riverview Road, where the sun off the water at Barton Cove was blinding.  We still managed to note three Double-crested Cormorants and a few Mute Swans.  A small group of Tree and Rough-winged Swallows circled low over our heads.  From Barton Cove we spotted a pair of Ring-necked Ducks, more swans, and better looks at the eagle on its nest.  We drove to the Rod and Gun Club to find more swans and some circling Turkey Vultures.  The airport had two Kestrels, a Bluebird, and 2 singing Field Sparrows.  On the Power Canal there was only a female Bufflehead diving constantly, and in the trees overhead a singing Pine Warbler.

Ten participants were treated to watching evening American Woodcock courtship display!.  There were a grand total of six woodcocks.  Other birds of note were a Hermit Thrush, five American Robins, and one Great Horned Owl.

There were 15 participants on the trip to Longmeadow and Agawam.  Pynchon Point had pair of Wood Ducks going to a nesting hole in a big tree where they had nested many years ago.  Bondi’s Island had a few Ring-billed Gulls.  Mute Swans were nesting on Emerson Pond near the road and another single was at Pondside.  Also there was a pair of Ring-necked Ducks and a few Tree Swallows.  A bluebird was seen and heard singing from Tina Lane.  We walked into Bark Haul and found two adult Red-headed Woodpeckers and a pair of Bluebirds together.  On the way some of us glimpsed a Pied-billed Grebe in the pond along the road.

Seven students and a new family of four joined eight members for the trip to Turners Falls.  A third Bald Eagle joined the nesting pair as almost constant companions during our stay at Barton Cove.  On the water from three viewpoints we found 12 Ring-necked Duck, 4 Mute Swan, 3 Hooded Merganser, 85 Tree Swallows.  Two flocks of Cedar Waxwings numbered more than 200, one group mostly seen on the ground beneath a fruiting tree at close range.  The Conte Power Canal had only a few Mallards, but a Turkey flushed from a pine tree overlooking the main river.  Upriver, the Rod and Gun Club had 2 male Bufflehead, 12 Common Mergansers, 3 Hooded Mergansers, 2 Mute Swans, and 3 Wood Ducks.  The nearby airport had a Kestrel fly overhead and a Killdeer that posed near the parking lot.  A luncheon at the China Gourmet in Greenfield followed the morning’s birding.

It was a day of daring, as six birders ventured out on the long drive and two-mile walk to this wild beach at the edge of civilization.  We took the inland route, walking through a pitch pine forest, across the dike through the Hatches Harbor marshes and over the dunes to the edge of the Atlantic.  There were a few Horned Larks on the sand among the sparse grasses.  One vehicle was there and a small group of watchers, all seeking the rare seabirds.  With their help, it was not long before the Yellow-billed Loon came into view for us in the heaving waves close to shore.  The bill was dull but huge and so was the body.  The water surface was strewn with Red-throated Loons and a few Common Loons.  The scoters, Eiders and Razorbills were mostly flying by, but some were on the water.  The most abundant bird was the Red-breasted Merganser.  A flock of gulls went up and down just off the beach, swarming at the water’s surface above schools of fish and shrimp.  

Other birders had seen the Common (Mew) Gull on the beach earlier with other gulls, but it was some time, before we picked it out in the swarm that moved back and forth along the beach.  A dozen or more Iceland Gulls were haunting the area along with a few Herring Gulls, one or two Glaucous Gulls, and Great Black-backed Gulls, and many Ring-billed Gulls.  Farther out many alcids were flying past in flocks, almost all Razorbills.  The reported Common Murres eluded our efforts to find them.  One Oldsquaw and one Horned Grebe were noted and three Gannets sailed past.  Two Right Whales were noticed working their way back and forth, most often beneath the surface, but occasionally rising above for a moment or two.  In the search and discovery for the rarer species, we were helped by the birders that were there when we arrived, and we in turn helped those who arrived after us.