August 10th, 2005. Arcadia area, West Meadows,
Northampton, MA.
| Northern Pintail Anas acuta
| This
morning I headed down to the West Meadows in search of a Blue Grosbeak
reported the previous day. Alas, I couldn’t find it. During the hour
that I spent there the only thing that I could find was a pair of
Indigo Buntings, apparently nesting and probably feeding young.
However, on my way back to the car I noticed a large gull
gliding over
the trees towards to me. It was the first large gull of any kind that
I’d seen in Hampshire County since arriving here in early July, and
straight away it looked interesting. The underwings were near black,
contrasting with a very pale head and underbody. Intially, I felt that
the bird looked good for a Lesser Black-backed Gull so it would
be a record of
interest if it could be confirmed. However, some interesting feedback on the photo suggested otherwise.
From there I set off to explore the rest of the meadows along Old
Springfield road and found a nice overlook to view “The Oxbow”. No less
than three Belted Kingfishers sat on wires above the water but my
attention was drawn to a dabbling duck with a few female type Mallards.
It turned out to be a female Northern Pintail, hanging around
unobtrusively with a small group of Mallard. Again, a species that
wouldn’t normally be present in August and about a month earlier than
I’d expect for a migrant in fall.
With temperatures climbing well into the eighties I looked at a few
more fields and was impressed by the number of birds that I found.
Here's he highlights of my first visit to the Arcadia Meadows, mainly
along Old Springfield Road and Pynchon Meadow Road (08:45-13:00hrs);
Great Blue Heron -1
Mallard - 5
NORTHERN PINTAIL - 1 female on the Oxbow (Marina).
Red-tailed Hawk - 4
Killdeer - 2
Ring-billed Gull - 4
Larus sp. - 1 (1st year) moving east.
Chimney Swift - 6
Belted Kingfisher - 3
Ruby-throated Hummingbird - 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker - 3
Eastern Wood-Pewee - 1
Willow Flycatcher - 4
Eastern Kingbird - 20+ around the meadow by Pynchon Meadow Road.
Warbling Vireo - 1
Red-eyed Vireo - 1
Tree Swallow - 120
Bank Swallow - 50
Barn Swallow - 6
House Wren - 6
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher - 1
Brown Thrasher - 1
Cedar Waxwing - 12
Yellow Warbler - 1
Indigo Bunting - 9
Bobolink - 18
Also, a mid-afternoon visit to Gate 12 at the Quabbin was very quiet.
NO Golden-winged Warbler, and only singles of Wild Turkey, Ovenbird and
Purple Finch.
| Taken using Canon Powershot A-95, and Nikon Coolpix 995
through Swarovski HD telescope.
|
|
