MA - Common Yellowthroats, Lapland Longspur and more

Lapland Longspur - Montague, Franklin Co., MA. December 13th, 2018.

Passerines continued to capture most of my personal interest through to mid-December. To date (Dec 16th), Common Yellowthroats (1 - 2) are still present in the Northfield Meadows, seemingly happily foraging around a completely frozen cattail pond. How these birds will fair during the remainder of the month remains to be seen but for now it certainly looks like an attempt at over-wintering.

Common Yellowthroat (first-winter male) - Northfield Meadows, Franklin Co., MA. December 12th, 2018.

The excellent sequence of Franklin County Lapland Longspurs continued on Dec 13th with another found in a smallish flock of Horned Larks in Montague. Just outside of Franklin County, there was a super Northern Shrike at Whitingham, Vermont on Dec 16th just a few miles north-west of Colrain, Mass.

Lapland Longspur -  with Horned Larks, Montague, Franklin Co., MA. December 13th, 2018.

 Northern Shrike - Whitingham, Windham Co., VT. December 16th, 2018.

Otherwise, a steady series of flyover Common Redpolls ( 1 - 5) and Evening Grosbeaks (1 -3) over several sites in Northfield, Gill and Turner's Falls during Dec 9th - 12th. 

Cackling Goose - Turner's Falls, Franklin Co., MA. December 12th, 2018.

Cackling Goose - Northfield Meadows, Franklin Co., MA. December 10th, 2018.

(Greater) Snow Goose - adult, Turner's Falls, Franklin Co., MA. December 12th, 2018.

Water birding around Turner's Falls has been 'steady' with a Cackling Goose, quite possibly the same individual adult, being recorded at multiple sites from Northfield through to Turner's Falls between Dec 1st - 16th (multiple observers). A Greater Snow Goose spent all day loafing with Canada Geese off Unity Park before suddenly departing at dusk with the very first flock that decided it was time head south. Also of note, a Long-tailed Duck at Turner's Falls Rod and Gun club on Dec 4th, and a very late Double-crested Cormorant on Nov 29th. 

Long-tailed Duck - autumn male, Turner's Falls, Franklin Co., MA. December 4th, 2018.

Double-crested Cormorant - Barton Cove, Gill, Franklin Co., MA. November 29th, 2018.

Gull watching at Turner's Falls was quite promising in early December with up 9 individual Iceland Gulls identified including three adults, and up to four Lesser Black-backed Gulls though numbers of both species had tapered towards the middle of the month.

Barred Owl - Gill, Franklin Co., MA. December 2nd, 2018.

Barred Owl - Montague, Franklin Co., MA. December 12th, 2018.
Image appears courtesy of Brian Kane.

Finally, Barred Owls continue to be heard and seen around much of Franklin County and it seems pretty clear that we have an incursion of birds from further north supplementing our resident population. Sadly, as with other incursion years, this has included a lot of road-killed Barred Owls.

MA - first Northern Shrike of the fall and plenty of irruptive finches

Northern Shrike - Montague, Franklin Co., MA. November 5th, 2018. 

Distant dig-scoped shot - bird was quite mobile and difficult to get close to. 

A cold, clammy morning with complete cloud cover and light winds from the northern quarter. As pretty as crisp, sunny autumnal days can be I usually find the birding is better when it's completely overcast. Early morning was busy with Snow Bunting (1), Pine Siskin (15), Evening Grosbeak (10) and Belted Kingfisher (1) all on North Cross Road, Gill - the latter being unusual in rural Gill at this time of year away from the Connecticut River.


Barton Cove, Gill looked pretty quiet from what I could tell but the Turner's Fall Rod and Gun club was more productive with Common and Hooded Mergansers, Common Goldeneye (1), Ring-necked Duck (1) and Lesser Scaup (1) all present though the highlight had to be a close encounter with an American Pipit on the grass by the parking area.

American Pipit - Turner's Falls, Franklin County, MA. November 5th, 2018. 

American Pipit - Turner's Falls, Franklin County, MA. November 5th, 2018. 

Northern Shrike - Montague, Franklin Co., MA. November 5th, 2018. 

Snow Bunting - Montague, Franklin Co., MA. November 5th, 2018. 

Snow Bunting - Montague, Franklin Co., MA. November 5th, 2018. 

From Turner's Falls I headed south for what I thought would be a short visit to Wills Ferry and South Ferry Roads in Montague. Though initially quiet, this relatively peaceful spot captivated my interest for a good 75 minutes highlighted by a very showy and vocal Northern Shrike closely followed by a ridiculously tame Snow Bunting at my feet - quite literally! Moreover, a Red Crossbill flew over heading east toward Montague Plains and giving the classic, repeated 'gyp-gyp' flight calls.  Small numbers of Purple Finches and Pine Siskins also flew over mostly heading west, with three Snow Buntings eventually lifting up from the fields and ultimately heading west rounding off a terrific morning. 

MA - Northern Shrike in Gill

Northern Shrike - immature, Gill, Franklin Co., MA. November 22nd, 2016. 

November just keeps on producing good birds in Gill/Turner's Falls. This morning, after dropping Matan at school, I found a fast moving Northern Shrike heading south along the banks of the Connecticut River. Initially, I picked it up in flight some distance to the north but it worked its way toward me and thankfully teed up in front of me, albeit briefly. It was another brownish immature, similar to last week's bird in Rockingham, Vermont. Otherwise, a scatter of Evening Grosbeaks, all singles in flight, though the previous day I did see a party of twelve or so shortly after first light.

 Northern Shrike - immature, Gill, Franklin Co., MA. November 22nd, 2016. 

Evening Grosbeaks - Gill, Franklin Co., MA. November 21st, 2016.  Six birds from a party on twelve.

Eastern Bluebird - male, Gill, Franklin Co., MA. November 22nd, 2016.  

American Tree Sparrow - Gill, Franklin Co., MA. November 22nd, 2016. 

Good numbers along the fields and hedgerows of Gill at the moment. 

At Turner's Falls an American Wigeon (female) and a Lesser Black-backed Gull were new arrivals, the latter being my first of the fall/winter season and probably one of the returning wintering adults.

Lesser Black-backed Gull (rear) - adult, Turner's Falls, Franklin Co., MA. November 22nd, 2016. 

MA/VT - Evening Grosbeaks keep coming

Seemingly a big day for Evening Grosbeaks on November 18th, beginning at dawn with 30 (11, 19) leaving a roost in Gill along with 2,500 American Robins! The Robins departed north-east while the grosbeaks headed south-west. Later in the morning, whilst scouting for the Saxtons River CBC with Laura Gaudette and JoAnne Russo in southern Vermont, two more single Evening Grosbeaks and then finally a single over the Turner's Falls power canal towards the end of the day. The previous day, Nov 17th, I stumbled across three Evening Grosbeaks including two males near Gill Center. Without doubt, this's the best autumn that I've had for this species locally since we moved to Franklin County in 2010. 

Evening Grosbeak - fem/imm Rockingham, Windham Co., VT. November 18th, 2016.

Southern Vermont also yielded my first Northern Shrike of the fall, again with Laura Gaudette and JoAnne Russo, this bird being a lovely brown, and very vocal, immature. There was also a smart, unusually marked male American Robin with white wing coverts (creating a white wing panel) which stood out from the rest of the foraging group of 20 or so birds.  

Northern Shrike - first-winter, Rockingham, Windham Co., VT. November 18th, 2016.

American Robin - male, Rockingham, Windham Co., VT. November 18th, 2016.

Predators in Gill this week included several Barred Owls and a nice, late, American Kestrel. 

American Kestrel - Gill, Franklin Co., MA. November 17th, 2016. 

The middle of the week saw the departure of the well watched Mountain Bluebird at Turner's Falls airport. This highly attractive western passerine brought so much pleasure to its admirers and was a 'life bird' for some. 

Mountain Bluebird - first-winter male, Turner's Falls, Franklin Co., MA. November 16th, 2016. 

The first for Franklin County and the Pioneer Valley, and about the tenth state record overall.

MA - shrike!

 Northern Shrike - Moran WMA, Windsor, Berkshire Co., MA. February 21, 2016.

Nice views as pulled up in the parking lot. Put on quite a quite a show today.

MA - Rough-legged Hawk

Rough-legged Hawk - dark-morph, Moran WMA, Windsor, Berkshire Co., MA. January 12th, 2015.

Yesterday (01/12) I decided to take advantage of a calm morning before the forecast snow storms kicked in in late afternoon. ebird had been sporting images of a dark-morph Rough-legged Hawk in the uplands of Eastern Berkshire County for several days and, seeing as Rough-legged Hawks are like 'hens teeth' in Franklin County I thought it would be fun to try and see it. Two other species had the potential to enliven a morning's birding there; Northern Goshawk and Northern Shrike, the latter being reported almost daily from Moran WMA in Windsor.

 Rough-legged Hawk - dark-morph, Moran WMA, Windsor, Berkshire Co., MA. January 12th, 2015.

The drive up through western Franklin County into Berkshire County had a rugged beauty all of its own. On the other hand, being mid-winter, it was exceedingly quiet bird-wise with a flock of 35 Wild Turkeys in Buckland being the only observation of note. Arrival at Moran WMA was virtually birdless aside from a couple of Common Ravens but I ran into a birder who'd just seen a Northern Shrike giving me some room for optimism. The walk into the WMA was icy and bleak with a flyover Red-winged Blackbird (FOY) being of interest but it wasn't until I reached the forested area that things picked up with nice views of Red-breasted Nuthatch and Brown Creeper within a couple of rather large chickadee flocks.

Red-breasted Nuthatch -  Moran WMA, Windsor, Berkshire Co., MA. January 12th, 2015.

About six of these perky little passerines in the spruce woods. Otherwise seemingly scarce in Western MA this winter.

But the raptors proved aloof...very aloof in fact and I was almost back at the parking area before I spotted a dark buteo hovering above a hillside. It looked promising and must surely have been the Rough-legged Hawk but it was just too distant to be sure. Then I decided to stay put in the parking lot and let the beast come to me. Within a few minutes a beautiful dark-morph Rough-leg cruised by and began hunting high over Moran WMA. It was the in the air for about an hour and even passed directly overhead at one point. In between times, I watched up to seven Common Ravens together just playing and sparring on the wind and saw a sub-adult Bald Eagle pass through southbound. The most frustrating bird of the day was a Northern Shrike that 'teed-up' all too briefly beside the lower parking lot, whilst I was in the upper parking lot! I only managed a couple of atrociously distant shots but any day with a Northern Shrike is a good one IMHO.

Northern Shrike - Moran WMA, Windsor, Berkshire Co., MA. January 12th, 2015.

Teed-up for just a few seconds before I lost touch with it. 

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed my visit to Eugene Moran WMA. With just 11 species over three hours of effort, it's relatively low on diversity in mid-winter but the quality is there. I'm ashamed to say it's about ten years since I last visited Moran but I'll certainly be back for another winter visit soon.

MA - first Northern Shrike

Inspired by thoughts of recent Townsend's Solitaires, I had a spin around some areas of Bernardston, MA and Guilford/Vernon, VT hoping to find some suitable areas to check. The end result was desperately quiet but the drive home had a nice treat in store as I spotted a Northern Shrike 'teed' up on a low bush between farm buildings in Northfield. It didn't stay long and soon got flushed by the farmer as he drove close to the shrike in his truck.

I wasn't expecting a shrike to be perched quite so low, or quite so close to habitation and I very nearly passed it off as a Northern Mockingbird but there was a warmness to the breast tones that forced me to stop the car and take a look......I was glad I did!

Northern Shrikes are partially irruptive winter visitors to Massachusetts but this fall/winter does not seem to be especially good for them and I've seen very few reports in the state so far. Northfield and Gill however, seem to be pretty consistent areas to look for them and I usually discover one or more each winter.