MA - Northern Shoveler and more, Turner's Falls

We're bracing ourselves for a plunge of Arctic air and even had a little taste of it this afternoon. In between times, I had a quick check of the Turner's Falls area finding a few nice long stayers but no obvious new arrivals. The female Northern Shoveler continues at the power canal, neatly hidden among the Canada Geese. A male Merlin was soaring over the Turner's Falls bridge this afternoon and a slight improvement on the gull situation found a nice adult Lesser Black-backed Gull at Unity Park. A couple of Cedar Waxwings were feeding along the power canal, a species that was curiously absent during the same sector of the Greenfield CBC on December 28th.

 Northern Shoveler (right) - female continuing from late December, Turner's Falls power canal, Franklin Co., MA. January 5th, 2014. Skillfully hiding among 350 Canada Geese!

Canada Goose - abberant bird with unusual amounts of white flecking on the black neck.

Turner's Falls power canal, Franklin Co., MA. January 5th, 2014. The goose flocks at Turner's Falls often

hold two or three birds like this which seem to have increased over the last five years or so.

 Lesser Black-backed Gull - adult, Unity Park, Turner's Falls, Franklin Co., MA. January 5th, 2014.

 Cedar Waxwing -  Turner's Falls power canal, Franklin Co., MA. January 5t., 2014.

Nice to see after completely dipping on this species during the Greenfield CBC.

Yesterday evening I hung around for the goldeneye roost at the power canal. It was a fine show with about 85 birds coming in and a great deal of displaying. There was, however, no sign of the male Barrow's Goldeneye which I don't think has been recorded here since the beginning of the New Year. The Eastern Phoebe was also calling toward dusk, continuing from late December.