A little of this and that from here and there

Yesterday 10/20 my girlfriend and I took a 6mile walk along some back roads of Keene, NH toward the end I heard Evening Grosbeaks calling along with House Sparrows...which sort of kind sound alike. While similar, the Evening Grosbeaks is a brief "piercing" whistle like call and once acustom to this call is quite distinctive. There were at least 6 Evening Grosbeaks visiting a feeder and feeding in an Ash tree that was "loaded" with seeds. This winter is looking very promising from a winter finch stand point. Evening Grosbeaks have been report in small numbers from eastern Mass. and Cape Cod, ditto for Pine Siskin, a few White-winged Crossbills were seen on Pack Monadnock last week, and (while NOT a finch) Bohemian Waxwings have been report from New Hampshire(the Whitefield area) and Cape Cod, Ma.

Also, yesterday I stopped by Hinsdale, NH along the Conn. River ... 9 Pied-billed Grebes and about 2,000 Red-winged Blackbirds was nice. Resent counts, by local birders, of blackbirds coming into roost in the large freshwater marsh, have exceeded 10,000. I did not stay until dusk...choosing to move down stream to Turner's Falls Mass.

In Turner's Falls I "caught" the evening waterfowl roost, with bird congragating just upstrean from the anadromous fish station. Mixed in with approximately 2,000 Canada Geese was a single Cackling Goose. This minature Canada is now considered a separate species from the larger forms of Canada Goose, which may have something to do with the recent increased sightings. Two Northern Shovelers, 25 Common Mergansers along with 200+ Mallards was nice too....many, many puddle ducks continued to pour in after dark.

Today 10/21 I headed down to Concord, Ma. to try for a view of the Barnacle and Greater White-fronted Goose that have been present for about a week. I hit a few cut corn fields with no luck and finally bumped into Chris Floyd and Mark Lynch at Great Meadows and was told both those birds were about a 1/2 mile back, on a small pond (where they were "supposed to be":). I had nice looks at each of these before heading back home.

A poor quality digi-scoped photo (through my old swift scope)
Numbers of waterfowl at the Great Meadows impoundments....300+ Green Winged-teal, Pintails, Am. Wigeon, Wood Duck, 200+ Mallards , Black Ducks and 100's of Canada Geese was just as impressive as the rare birds.

Lastly, this evening at Crystal Lake, in Gardner, Ma. (just up the street from my house), I caught the evening gull roost which included an Adult Lesser Black-backed Gull. Perhaps this was the same bird I saw in Westminster last week? About 600 Herring, 100 Great Black-backed and 50 Ring-billed Gulls were also present. Last year gull numbers maxed out with nearly 3,000 coming into the lake in late November, I maybe the only person in town that thinks this is a good thing...as Crystal Lake is Gardner's water supply.