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NOVEMBER 4: (Saturday): Ashley Pond, Holyoke. Target Birds: Migrating Waterfowl, Pileated Woodpeckers, Red-Breasted Nuthatch. Meet 7AM, Super Stop And Shop on King St. This trip was cancelled for lack of attendence and a side trip was then suggested by Eric Labato to try for the Sandhill Crane in Gill. There were two factors conspiring against us which we did not know about. The fog and the hunters. We never found the Crane but did receive a nice tour of the area thanks to Zeke Jakub who has a list serve for sightings in the Greenfield area. We did manage to see a Northern Shrike and some Waxwings. From Reservoir Road: A Pied Bill Grebe and an adult Bald Eagle. NOVEMBER 5 (Sunday): Berkshire Lakes. Some of us are going to join this trip sponsored by Hampshire Bird Club "
NOVEMBER 19 (Sunday): Quabbin Trip, Meeting time: 7 am. Meet at Super Stop & Shop Plaza on King Street in Northampton. We will go to Gate 5 and then to the Headquarters area and back to the Route 9 Marsh. Hopefully we will see some Loons, Waterfowl, Snow buntings and some Bald Eagles. If you want to meet us at the Quabbin look around the Headquarters region around 9 am. This cold clear day brought good looks at the following highlights: Red-throated Loon (2), Common Loon (3), Horned grebes (5), Long-tailed Duck (1), Common Mergansers, Ring-necked Ducks (15), Common Goldeneye (15), Bald Eagle (1), Bluebirds (5), Kingfisher (1), Golden-crowned Kinglets (3), Brown Creeper (1), Fox Sparrow (1), Song Sparrow (1), Chickadees, White-breasted Nuthatches, Raven (2), Red-tailed Hawk (2). Also worth mentioning are the following birds which we saw, but did not get positive IDs of. A flock of about 10 gull-like birds. They were moving in a loose V formation. A group of flying Scoters. Also a few smaller flocks of flying unidentified ducks. Also seen a doe deer. We didn't see the following but were hoping to: Shrike, Snow Buntings, and Red-Breasted Nuthatch. Participants: Eric L., Marty E., Pete Y., Chris G., Heather M. NOVEMBER 26 (Sunday): Northampton Trip, Meeting time 7 am, Super Stop and Shop, King Street (Route 9). We will have a look around Northampton looking for waterfowl, shrikes, larks, longspurs, buntings, etc. The weather was not cooperative for this trip. Doug W., Chris G. and Heather M. had a quick look around the Oxbow for unfrozen water, but the roads were getting slippery and the trip was called. A few mallards and about 20 Common Mergansers were seen. December 18, 2000 Here's the results of the Christmas Bird Count: Observers: Jon Gottsche, Shelly Parker, Doug Wheat, Heather McQueen, Chris Gentes. Area 30: This included parts of Haydenville and Williamsburg. Species Seen: 20 Comments: This was my first
Christmas Bird Count. The weather was terrible from the outset. Fortunately
Jon, Shelly, Heather and I conducted a dry-run the day before to get a
sense of the best places to find feeder birds and to get an idea of the
location of various areas of special birding interest. We discovered a
variety of habitats and terrains. A few of which appeared to be the best
birding spots, including what seemed to be an open marsh near some old
corn fields. This pond was on private land, so we couldn't get an accurate
count of numbers or species of waterfowl, but a few mallards were seen
flying. Another factor inhibiting our count was the fact that in spite
of the rain and warm temperatures, the reservoir remained frozen. Also
due to the frequent rain and lightning we were unable to get up into some
of the hills and thus were unable to record Ruffed Grouse, Wild Turkey,
Pileated Woodpecker or any of the other species attributed to these areas.
Other hoped for species such as Pine Siskin, Common Redpoll, Evening Grosbeak,
and Pine Grosbeak were also not recorded due to the driving rain. A pair
of Golden-crowned Kinglets were observed the day before, but not during
the count. A great disapointment to us was not finding a Shrike or even
a Mockingbird. There were no Tufted Titmouse, Brown Creepers, or even
House Finches observed! There was also no chance for any productive owling
with the lightning storms and heavy winds. No gulls or other interesting
fly-bys were observed either. All in all a disappointment. On the count
day the weather got the best of us. Lightning, frequent and unpredictable
downpours, wind gusts up to 30 mph, heavy fog (in some areas), local flooding,
sideways rain, and fifteen degree temperature shifts. |