MA - bittern, rough-winged swallow and Bald Eagles aplenty!

American Robin - partially leucistic individual, Turner's Falls, Franklin Co., MA. April 6th, 2018.

Cold air persisted during 6th - 10th April with frequent snow showers and dawn temperatures often at freezing or below. Franklin County seemingly saw few new arrivals and indeed, the scene at Barton Cove was one of gradually reduced numbers of geese and gulls, though diving ducks continued to show in good numbers and included a fine male Red-breasted Merganser on the 10th.

Buffleheads - Barton Cove, Gill, Franklin Co., MA. April 8th, 2018. 

 Common Mergansers - Barton Cove, Gill, Franklin Co., MA. April 9th, 2018. 

Red-breasted Merganser - male with female Common Merganser, Barton Cove, Gill, Franklin Co., MA. April 10th, 2018. 

But there have been a few highlights, the most significant of which was an American Bittern which totally caught me off-guard as I ran along North Cross Road, Gill early on the morning of the 6th. The bittern was already in flight when I saw it and had likely flushed from a small cattail marsh near the roadside before departing north below the tree line never to be seen again. Interestingly enough, that particular spot on North Cross Road has no history of herons of any kind which only added to my surprise in seeing a mid-size brown heron in flight over the cattails! Eric Huston and Marshall Iliff were kind enough to send me some ebird information on the status of the species in Franklin County as I felt sure that I hadn't seen an American Bittern any closer to home the than Keene, New Hamsphire. It turns out that American Bittern reports numbered only 1 - 6 per year between 2012-2017, and some of those involved the same bird reported by several different observers with most of the records concentrated around the north Quabbin region. I hadn't quite appreciated it was quite that rare (and difficult to see) in Franklin County.


Two Black Vultures showed among 20 or so Turkey Vultures in Shelbourne on the 9th, and the Bald Eagles at Barton Cove/Turner's Falls have been nothing short of spectacular with up to three adults and seven immatures in the air together at times, the immatures sparring a lot over the cove sometimes pursuing the flocks of waterfowl.

Bald Eagles - Barton Cove, Gill, Franklin Co., MA. April 9th, 2018. 

The cold air understandably subdued passerine activity but Pine Warblers began to arrive in Gill in small numbers around the 8th and 9th, along with a few Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers, and a couple of Winter Wrens began to sing from traditional territories along North Cross Road, Gill. An American Pipit migrated north-west over Gill School on the 9th. Brown-headed Cowbirds arrived numbers around the 9th/10th with several large foraging flocks including 175 at Four Star Farms in Northfield with tens of American Robins and Cedar Waxwings ground feeding on fallen crab apples at the same location. 

American Robins and Cedar Waxwings, Northfield, Franklin Co., MA. April 10th, 2018. 

Red Crossbill - male, Montague Plains, Franklin Co., MA. April 6th, 2018. 

Up to five continuing to show well, though sometimes aloof.

MA - Thanksgiving birds

American Robin - Benardston, Franklin Co., MA. November 23rd, 2016.

The days around the Thanksgiving holiday might best be described as 'steady'......at least in the Gill/Turner's Falls area. The morning of the 23rd had a few new birds in Gill especially along North Cross Road with a surprise Peregrine, several Pine Siskins and a Red-breasted Nuthatch. On the other hand, I only saw one Evening Grosbeak and their numbers seem to be tapering in Gill after peaking at over 30 on Nov 18th. American Robins have been abundant in the greater Gill/Bernardston area over the last week with easily 3000 birds foraging in loose flocks in the fields and hedgerows. 

At Turner's Falls new arrivals included four Gadwall at dusk on the 23rd when an impressive 165 Common Mergansers came into roost. The adult Lesser Black-backed Gull was again present at Unity Park and a late or wintering Yellow-bellied Sapsucker was present at the power canal. Thanksgiving morning saw the return of the long staying Cackling Goose first noted on Nov 5th. It's appearances have certainly been erratic and very much in keeping with the daily fluctuations of enormous numbers of Canada Geese currently present in our area (c.1450 coming into roost on the 23rd for example). 

Cackling Goose  - Turner's Falls, Franklin Co., MA. November 24th, 2016. 

Gadwall  - Turner's Falls, Franklin Co., MA. November 23rd, 2016. Three of the four present at dusk. 

Great Blue Heron  - Turner's Falls, Franklin Co., MA. November 23rd, 2016. 

Lesser Black-backed Gull  - Turner's Falls, Franklin Co., MA. November 23rd, 2016. 

MA - Snow Goose and other obs

Snow Goose - immature, with Canada Geese, Turner's Falls power canal, Franklin Co., MA. January 3rd, 2016.

This evening an immature Snow Goose flew into to the Turner's Falls power canal with a small flock of Canada Geese. Almost certainly, it was the same immature that I noted in Gill on January 1st. Other than the continuing Lesser and Greater Scaups, the power canal was rather quiet with very few gulls and no other geese of interest. 

Snow Goose - immature, with Canada Geese, Turner's Falls power canal, Franklin Co., MA. January 3rd, 2016.

Earlier in the day, I found the roadsides in Gill to be full of birds, especially Dark-eyed Juncos (c.250) and American Robins (c.120). Also of note in Gill, a Northern Flicker, a Purple Finch and at least two Pine Siskins. Indeed, good numbers of American Robins seemed to be present at several locations today including c.150 on Federal Street in Greenfield and around 250 at the Turner's Falls power canal. One or two Cedar Waxwings were with them. 

Northern Flicker - Gill, Franklin Co., MA. January 3rd, 2016.

American Robins - Federal Street, Greenfield, Franklin Co., MA. January 3rd, 2016.

Cedar Waxwing - Federal Street, Greenfield, Franklin Co., MA. January 3rd, 2016.

MA - spring arrivals slowing down a bit

In my most recent local post I may have been a bit hasty in describing new spring arrivals in Gill as occurring "everyday". The impetus of migration certainly seems to have slowed down since making that comment, especially over the last couple of days. Aside from a couple of notables such as an Ovenbird heard from our yard on the 2nd, and a Ruby-crowned Kinglet in the yard on the 3rd, I haven't noted any new species for the year in the last two days. It has to be said that the weather has been glorious this week (nearly windless with comfortably warm, sunny days and cool nights). Perhaps it's been a little too nice with no obvious weather pattern to affect or disrupt bird migration ans stir things up a little. So, at the moment, things remain pretty stable in Gill though I do expect some new migrants to appear any day now, namely Baltimore Orioles and Indigo Buntings.

In the mean time, I had ten minutes playing with the camera (Canon Powershot G10) in the yard this morning between 10:45 and 10:55hrs. Here's a selection of images from those ten minutes, all taken on May 3rd, 2013;

American Goldfinch - male

 

American Robin

 

Blue Jay

 

Chipping Sparrow

 

Eastern Bluebird - male

 

Eastern Chipmunk

 

Chipping Sparrow (left) and House Finches

 

Mourning Dove

 

Northern Flicker

Red-winged Blackbird

 

 

 Tree Swallow



MA - nigrideus on the move 04/03/13

This morning I decided to look no further than the rolling fields around Gill. Seemingly each field of rough pasture, and many local yards, have been full of American Robins in the last few days. Among the typical grey-mantled robins (Turdus migratorius migratorius) were several birds of the blackish-mantled form T. m. nigrideus which breeds in the Canadian Atlantic. Despite looking for them in most flocks of Robins that I come across, I think these could be the first that I've seen locally in Gill, or at least the first that I've had the chance to view and digiscope. The birds were part of a larger movement of American Robins today and I made a crude estimate of about 1200 birds in loose flocks along Main Road between Mountain Road (north end) and Munn's Ferry Road. Within the feeding flocks I also found Killdeer, Common Grackle, Red-winged Blackbird and Brown-headed Cowbird. Eastern Phoebes seem to be pretty widespread already with males singing from the most of the properties along Main Road and North Cross Road in Gill.

*All the images below were taken in Gill, Franklin Co., on April 3rd 2013 and digiscoped using a Panasonic Lumix FZ7 and Swarovski HD scope.

 American Robins - North Cross Road. Typical scene from the first few days of April.

Many fields in Gill currently host such flocks.

Male American Robins - notice the 'sooty', blackish appearance and overall color of the bird above (T.m. nigrideus). This bird shows no contrast between the nape and the rest of the upperparts except for the rump which is contrastingly gray. The bird below (T.m. migratorious) it shows a fairly neat contrast between the black rear crown and gray mantle feathers, the mantle being only slightly darker than the rump. The blacker-mantled birds are distinctive and stand out in a loose feeding flock of robins.

 

T.m. nigrideus - All three images above refer to the same male on Munn's Ferry Road, April 3rd, 2013.

 



T.m. migratorious

T.m. nigrideus - (male) right of shot with unidentified female at left and possibly another male nigrideus at the rear.

T.m. nigrideus - head, nape and mantle all relatively uniform blackish.

 

 

T.m. nigrideus - same bird as above. Most of the throat is blackish with only a small amount of white below the bill.

Compare with the bird below (T.m.migratorious or intergrade) which has a much more extensive white chin and throat.

 

 

T.m. migratorious or intergrade - two images of this male certainly show some blackish centered feathers in the mantle but the overall tone is still quite gray, not anywhere near as dark as the clearest examples of nigrideus. Assumed to be an intergrade between the two forms. Birds like this seem to be at least as frequent as the better examples of nigrideus in the flocks around Gill.





MA - Christmas Day Robins - 12/25

During a family visit to Groff Park in Amherst on Christmas Day, the open grassy areas were littered with good numbers of American Robins. Perhaps 300 were present in all and, as usual, I patiently went through them optimistically hoping for an Old World thrush of some kind - maybe a Fieldfare or Redwing. Needless to say I didn't get lucky with mega rarities but I did find a good looking example of the blacker-backed form of American Robin T. m. nigrideus (Newfoundland, Labrador and Quebec). Typically I see a few of these each winter and in early spring, sometimes in small flocks. This winter, however, they seem to have been decidedly scarce in the Pioneer Valley so I was especially pleased with this handsome dark-backed male.

American Robin - Adult male showing characteristics of 'black-backed' form T.m. nigrideus. Groff Park, Amherst, Hamsphire County, MA.

Also in Groff Park today, four species of woodpecker including a Northern Flicker inspecting a cavity (!), plus a Golden-crowned Kinglet in our yard on North Whitney Street, Amherst.