MA - Scoters come to Gill - 11/03

Sunday (11/03) brought the first real taste of late fall with a blast of northern winds, some overnight rain and a cold, almost frigid start to the day. The result was a small but significant 'fall-out' of diving ducks at Barton Cove including a number of seasonal firsts. These included my first scoters of the fall, oddly enough, each and every one was a female - 6 Surf Scoters, and 14 Black Scoters. Six Lesser Scaup showed up with a drake Common Goldeneye in tow, and there was another drake Common Goldeneye on the Turner's Falls power canal. The fall-out was reflected state wide with many interior water bodies reporting scoters, Long-tailed Ducks and other diving ducks, sometimes in large concentrations. Other nice totals for Barton Cove on Sunday included 18 Buffleheads, 17 Hooded Mergansers and 3 Common Mergansers.

 

Surf and Black Scoters - females, Barton Cove, Gill, Franklin Co., MA

November 3rd, 2013. All my digiscopes were poor  today due mostly to glare and distance.

Lesser Scaups and Common Goldeneye (right) - Barton Cove, Gill, Franklin Co., MA

November 3rd, 2013.

Hooded Mergansers - Barton Cove, Gill, Franklin Co., MA

November 3rd, 2013.

At home we had a (getting-late) Gray Catbird in the yard all day, and a Fox Sparrow appeared at the feeders in late afternoon, possibly a different bird to that present on Oct 30th and 31st.