Yet another stellar day of winter birding along the Connecticut River Valley. After a fairly slow start I decided to swing by the Hinsdale Setbacks primarily motived by reports of a couple of two 'yellow-billed' female goldeneyes. While the report had been advanced as two Barrow's Goldeneyes the images appeared to show a bill and head shape more more consistent with Common Goldeneye. Female Common Goldeneyes with yellowish bills have been fairly routine at Turner's falls over the years, with two to three showing up most winters. But the Hinsdale birds looked particularly yellow billed and I was more than keen to get some good views. In the event, I could only find three Goldeneyes in poor light, none of which resembled the birds in question. I moved on and invested a bit of time optimistically trying to relocate the Sage Thrasher that had last been reported on January 1st. Remarkably the bird 'popped' into view when I stopped to check the first proper feeding flock that I came across. The bird's behavior was a little different to previous visits being especially shy, skulking and fast moving. Luckily two birders up the trail arrived just minutes after I'd found it and it wasn't too long before we all managed to get some decent views as it fed on its favored Winter Berry and Multi-flora Rose. After that the thrasher bolted down the snowmobile trail towards the parking lot and we didn't see it again. Still, I was thrilled to see that it seems to be doing 'just fine' in the New Hampshire winter. Other nice birds along the trail included a dozen or so American Tree Sparrows and a Rusty Blackbird. And, it was really nice to run into Donna Keller again after last seeing her at the Great Black Hawk in Portland, Maine two years prior!
In late afternoon, I couldn't resist yet another visit to the Millers River. A local Harlequin Duck isn't to be taken for granted and it could be decades before we see another in the Pioneer Valley. With that in mind I negotiated the icy trails finding the bird with relative ease in the rapids upriver. It seemed settled and even swam towards me while foraging but then, and for no obvious reason that I could detect, it suddenly flew down river and into the confluence with the Connecticut River. From there I watched it swim downstream hugging the Gill side of the river until it was lost to view. It was the only duck on the river at that point and I couldn't help but wonder if we'd see it back on the Millers River in future?
At Barton Cove, Gill, the modest gull roost continued to attract only small numbers but this evening did host my first Lesser Black-backed Gull of the winter, a nice dark sub-adult with quite a lot of head streaking. This particular individual looked strikingly small compared to the surrounding Herring Gulls and actually not too much bigger than the nearby Ring-billed Gulls.
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