Flocks of redpolls are still with us for the time being though I imagine with increasingly spring-like conditions we'll see them departing quite soon. Today I came across two flocks, 65 in Whately and about 28 at the Turner's Falls power canal. The Whately birds again surprised me by perching unobtrusively in the sumac thickets while the Turner's Falls flock gave no indication of their presence until I saw them disappearing in flight. On the plus side, the Whately flock contained an absolute spanking Hoary Redpoll and, despite the Common Redpolls within the flock appearing increasingly pale and worn, the Hoary jumped out like the proverbial sore thumb! After admittedly grumbling about how few Hoaries appeared to be involved in the current incursion, I do feel that discovery of this bird in Buckland on January 31st marked a personal turning point in the winter with some really classic individuals showing up after that bird. Overall I've been pretty satisfied with appearance of birds like the one featured here and I'm quite happy to leave the more ambiguous individuals for another day.
No comments:
Post a Comment