Great Pond, Randolph/Braintree - 11/10/2013

November is "prime time" for waterfowl diversity and this was our focus at Great Pond. The weather was a bit suspect; partly cloudy with a few showers and temps in the 40sF. Three people joined me as we trekked out onto the dike where hundreds of ducks were in view. Nothing rare, but a nice mix of the expected waterfowl were present. Ruddy and Ring-necked Ducks numbered in the hundreds and American Coots were also well represented. The first Common Goldeneyes and Common Mergansers of the season were here in smaller numbers. The highlight of the trip however was a flock of Dunlin. Approximately 20 were in a tight flock that were nervously alighting on rocks in the lower portion of the pond. The flock flushed off the rocks several times and eventually disappeared. Dunlin are rarely seen away from the immediate coast, but the timing makes sense because at least some must be migrating inland at this time and occasionally put down in places like this.

45 species (+1 other taxa)

Canada Goose 15

Mute Swan 7
American Black Duck 3
Mallard 13
Green-winged Teal (American) 1
Ring-necked Duck 405
Greater Scaup 40
Lesser Scaup 5
Bufflehead 8
Common Goldeneye 4
Hooded Merganser 20
Common Merganser 9
Ruddy Duck 335
Pied-billed Grebe 3
Double-crested Cormorant 4
Great Blue Heron 1
Cooper's Hawk 1
Red-tailed Hawk 2
American Coot 50

Dunlin 20
Ring-billed Gull 20
Herring Gull (American) 35
Great Black-backed Gull 3
Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon) 16
Belted Kingfisher 2
Downy Woodpecker 2
Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted) 1
Blue Jay 3
American Crow 18
Fish Crow 1
Black-capped Chickadee 8
Tufted Titmouse 3
White-breasted Nuthatch 2
Brown Creeper 1
Carolina Wren 3
Golden-crowned Kinglet 4
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 2
American Robin 40
European Starling 130
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) 1
American Tree Sparrow 1
Song Sparrow 8
Dark-eyed Junco (Slate-colored) 9
Northern Cardinal 1
American Goldfinch 4
House Sparrow 1

This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (http://ebird.org)

Vin Zollo