MA - another Hoary Redpoll

Hoary Redpoll - Whately, Franklin Co., MA. March 8th, 2021.

A contrasty image yes,  but it appeared every bit as striking in the field.

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. 

Hoary Redpoll - Whately, Franklin Co., MA. March 8th, 2021.

Three images of the same individual at various perching spots within the thickets. 

Common Redpoll (male) - Whately, Franklin Co., MA. March 8th, 2021.

Common Redpolls - Whately, Franklin Co., MA. March 8th, 2021.

MA - White-winged Crossbills and other 'winter finches' this week

White-winged Crossbill (male) - Montague Plains WMA, Franklin Co., MA. March 4th, 2021.

The White-winged Crossbills first noted on Feb 25th continued into the first week of March at the Montague Plains WMA . While it's possible there may have been some turnover, after spending a couple of hours each morning following crossbill flocks, I came away with the distinct impression that the numbers of both crossbill species were about the same as they were last week, roughly 70 Red Crossbills and 3 - 5 White-winged Crossbills. The latter included two males consorting together, a duo that I first noted back on Feb 25th, plus several single males with random flocks of Red Crossbills occasionally dropping down to the road for 'gritting'. Almost all the activity has been concentrated along Old Northfield Road in the southern portion of the WMA with crossbills occurring on both sides of Old Northfield Road and sometimes actually on the road itself. New (for me) in the plains this week were a single Common Redpoll and 3 Pine Siskins, the latter in song and particularly noteworthy since they haven't occurred on the same sort of scale locally as other wither finch species. 

White-winged Crossbill (males) - Montague Plains WMA, Franklin Co., MA. March 3rd - 4th, 2021. 

Looking at White-winged Crossbills, I don't mind admitting that I'm still smitten and wanted to make the most of them while they're here. In a couple of weeks they'll almost certainly be heading back to the boreal forests and long gone from the Montague Plains.  I'm hoping/expecting that at least some pairs of Red Crossbills will remain in the plains to breed but after hours of carefully watching them this week I've yet to see any actual breeding activity such as nest building.

 Red Crossbills - Montague Plains WMA, Franklin Co., MA. March 3rd - 4th, 2021. 

Another fantastic week for this species with up to 70 exceptionally vocal birds present mid-week.

 Common Redpoll - Montague Plains WMA, Franklin Co., MA. March 3rd, 2021. 

Pine Siskin - Montague Plains WMA, Franklin Co., MA. March 4th, 2021. 

 Common Redpoll (male) - Whately, Franklin Co., MA. March 5th, 2021. 

The 'Whately Redpolls' surprised me this week both in terms of numbers (85) and the volume of song/calls coming from the thickets alongside the fields.

Hoary Redpoll - Whately, Franklin Co., MA. March 5th, 2021. 

Red-breasted Nuthatch - Montague Plains WMA, Franklin Co., MA. March 4th, 2021. 

Migration Notes; small numbers of American Crows heading north through much of the day on the 3rd occurring in flocks of 5 - 8 birds over Montague Plains, Turner's Falls and Greenfield. Also the first 'hints' of Canada Geese moving north with 6 over Turner's Falls on the 3rd and 5 over Montague Plains on the 4th, both flocks of highflyers heading purposefully north. Two first-winter Iceland Gulls joined the small gull roost at Unity Park on March 3rd-6th with an adult Lesser Black-backed Gull (new) present on the 6th. Over 100 American Robins together along Meadow Road, Montague on March 5th, and Turkey Vultures over Sunderland on the 5th (Brian Kane) and Main Road, Gill and Turner's Falls (4) on the 6th. 

Lesser Black-backed Gull (center) - adult with Herring, Great Black-backed and Iceland Gulls, Unity Park, Turner's Falls, Franklin Co., MA. March 6th, 2021.

Lesser Black-backed Gull  - adult, Unity Park, Turner's Falls, Franklin Co., MA. March 6th, 2021.

 

MA - February notes on Redpolls 6 : exilipes

 

Hoary Redpoll (male?) - Whately, Franklin Co., MA. February 8th, 2021.

'Perfect' in many respects; minimal streaking on auricular and flank, and just a single 'pencil' streak on the longest undertail covert. 

Most of my luck with Hoary Redpolls last week actually came from the first morning with the Whately flock when I noted a 'promising' bird in the field but hadn't quite appreciated just how striking it was until I reviewed my photos at home. The bird featured here looks, to me at least, like a classic Hoary Redpoll, possibly a male A. e. exilipes.

Hoary Redpoll (male?) - Whately, Franklin Co., MA. February 8th, 2021.

Hoary Redpoll (male?) - Whately, Franklin Co., MA. February 8th, 2021.

I love the 'baggy trousers' effect and overall whiteness of the bird in this shot. 

Hoary Redpoll (center) - Whately, Franklin Co., MA. February 8th, 2021.

Taken at a different time in the morning but presumably the same male as in the three previous shots. 

The top right bird might also be a Hoary Redpoll (a female exilipes). 

MA - February notes on Redpolls 4 : flammea (more variation).

 

Common Redpoll Acanthis flammea flammea (male) - Whately, Franklin Co., MA. February 11th, 2021. 

No problems with well marked birds such as this. Bright crimson-red throat, fore-cheeks, breast and upper breast sides along with a fairly long pointed bill,

and heavily streaked flanks, that's as well as an overall brownish-gray cast to the upperparts - surely pointing to an adult male flammea? 

Common Redpoll Acanthis flammea flammea (male) - Whately, Franklin Co., MA. February 11th, 2021. 

Somewhat similar to the male featured above. 

Common Redpoll Acanthis flammea flammea  - Whately, Franklin Co., MA. February 9th, 2021. 

Quite cold gray-brown tones on this bird which has a small blackish bib and rather heavily streaked flanks. 

Common Redpoll Acanthis flammea flammea - Whately, Franklin Co., MA. February 10th, 2021. 

This bird looked Hoary-like in the field and was as gray and white as it appears in these two images (above and below). The rump was mostly white but with obvious streaking 'bleeding' from the lower back and the uppertail coverts. The images also show reasonably well marked flank streaking and multiple streaks on the undertail coverts. The bill length and shape also look more in keeping with flammea. This was a tricky bird in the field but I came away with features that better matched a pale, gray flammea rather than exilipes.

Common Redpoll Acanthis flammea flammea - Whately, Franklin Co., MA. February 10th, 2021. 

Common Redpoll Acanthis flammea flammea - Whately, Franklin Co., MA. February 8th, 2021. 

Probably the coldest, whitest-gray flammea that I noted during the whole week. It seemed to lack any brown, ochre or crimson tones. The rump was very white 

as were the undertail coverts (showing a small amount of black streaking) However, the fairly heavily streaked flanks, long pointed bill plus head shape appear to favor Common Redpoll A. fl. flammea. 

The larger, 'bull-necked' redpoll buried deeper into the tangle looks better for a Hoary Redpoll A. e. exlipes.

MA - Hoary Redpoll in Buckland

 

Hoary Redpoll (center) - with Common Redpolls, Buckland, Franklin Co., MA. January 31st, 2021. 

This bird showed a numbers of features that I associate with Hoary Redpoll including the largely white, unstreaked rump, white lower scapulars merging into the mantle, 

tiny 'pushed-in' bill, minimal flank streaking and minimal black about the face. All in all, looked a like hoar-frosted, gray and white puffball. 

The ongoing irruption of winter finches has certainly produced it's fair share of Common Redpolls in Franklin County and throughout January I've been trying hard to spend some quality time with the flocks that I've come across. Groups of 15 - 85 have turned up at spots like Caldwell Road and Pine Meadow Road in Northfield, North Cross Road in Gill, the Turner's Falls power canal, along the Deerfield River in Charlemont, Meadow Road in Montague and the former Pilgrim Airfield on the county line at Whately. With so much scope for viewing and seemingly plenty of flocks to work with, it's been genuinely surprising to find out just how skittish these birds have been. As a result, looking for and finding any potential Hoary Redpolls has been a slow, finger-numbing process! 

Hoary Redpoll (center-right) - with Common Redpolls, Buckland, Franklin Co., MA. January 31st, 2021. 

Hoary Redpoll (center) - with Common Redpolls, Buckland, Franklin Co., MA. January 31st, 2021. 

Dorsal view showing overall light gray cast with pure white rump. 

Yesterday (Jan 31st) my luck finally changed, hopefully a turning point in the winter that should result in a few more Hoary Redpolls being found during February. After a largely fruitless couple of hours scanning for raptors in Buckland and Charlemont I just happened to come across a large, busy flock of redpolls right by scenic Route 112 on the Buckland side of the Ashfield/Buckland town line. I only had ten minutes to spend with the flock which proved to be every bit as skittish as the others that I'd seen during the winter. But, I did manage to first spot and then photograph a decent candidate for a Hoary Redpoll as the images above hopefully show. 

Common Redpolls - Buckland, Franklin Co., MA. January 31st, 2021. 

A mere portion of the 120 birds present. 

Common Redpolls - Buckland, Franklin Co., MA. January 31st, 2021. 

Lots of drama with swirling, skittish redpolls buzzing around. 

MA - Honey Pot Redpolls - 12/20

This morning was so crisp and beautiful that I couldn't face spending it indoors. I headed back down to the Hadley Honey Pot, scene of our sector in last Sunday's Northampton CBC. My goal was to find redpolls and then spend some time with them. Perhaps I was a little arrogant in this thought process because finding a group of co-operative redpolls proved to be a much more difficult task than I imagined......but, ultimately, I found a nice flock of about 35 birds and had them feeding as close to me as three feet. Among them, Commons, Hoaries and a couple of birds that I wasn't comfortable calling either way. For the most part, these undetermined birds also looked like Hoaries to me. The image set below features a selection of these birds, but for the time being I've avoided adding captions to them. Each image is numbered, so please feel free to have a go at identifying them yourself! All the images  are digi-scoped and were taken with a Panasonic Lumix FZ7 on the morning of December 20th, 2012 in the Hadley Honey Pot, Hampshire Co., MA.

1) redpolls - Hadley Honey Pot,Hampshire Co., MA. December 20th, 2012.

 

 2) redpoll - Hadley Honey Pot,Hampshire Co., MA. December 20th, 2012.
 

 3) redpoll - Hadley Honey Pot,Hampshire Co., MA. December 20th, 2012.

 

 4) redpoll - Hadley Honey Pot,Hampshire Co., MA. December 20th, 2012. Same bird as in shot 3.

 



 5) redpoll - Hadley Honey Pot,Hampshire Co., MA. December 20th, 2012.

 6) redpoll - Hadley Honey Pot,Hampshire Co., MA. December 20th, 2012. Same bird as image #5. 

 7) redpoll - Hadley Honey Pot,Hampshire Co., MA. December 20th, 2012.

 

 8) redpolls - Hadley Honey Pot,Hampshire Co., MA. December 20th, 2012.

 

9) redpolls - Hadley Honey Pot,Hampshire Co., MA. December 20th, 2012.

10) redpoll - Hadley Honey Pot,Hampshire Co., MA. December 20th, 2012. Same bird as in images #3 and #4.




11) redpoll - Hadley Honey Pot,Hampshire Co., MA. December 20th, 2012.




12) redpolls - Hadley Honey Pot,Hampshire Co., MA. December 20th, 2012.





13) redpolls - Hadley Honey Pot,Hampshire Co., MA. December 20th, 2012.





14) redpolls - Hadley Honey Pot,Hampshire Co., MA. December 20th, 2012.





15) redpolls - Hadley Honey Pot,Hampshire Co., MA. December 20th, 2012.

16) redpolls - Hadley Honey Pot,Hampshire Co., MA. December 20th, 2012.





17) redpolls - Hadley Honey Pot,Hampshire Co., MA. December 20th, 2012.

18) redpolls - Hadley Honey Pot,Hampshire Co., MA. December 20th, 2012. Same birds as images #16 and #17.




19) redpoll - Hadley Honey Pot,Hampshire Co., MA. December 20th, 2012.

20) redpoll - Hadley Honey Pot,Hampshire Co., MA. December 20th, 2012.

 

21) redpoll - Hadley Honey Pot,Hampshire Co., MA. December 20th, 2012. Same bird as images #19 and #20.