Massachusetts 7/2-7/4

We spent the weekend with our friends in the Berkshires and casually birded the area. The most interesting place we went was the Quabbin Reservoir which is part of the Boston water supply. A huge area was flooded to create the reservoir--4 towns were, in my favorite euphemism of the month--"discontinued." The way you discontinue a town is to move all the people, raze all the buildings, clear cut the trees, then burn everything, leaving the business district of one town 90 feet under water.

It was at the Quabbin that we saw the best bird of the weekend, a 2nd or 3rd year Bald Eagle sitting in a tree.

Other interesting birds were Eastern Bluebirds along the Norwottuck Rail Trail and a hen Wild Turkey crossing the road in Chester.

I birded Cross Place Road one early morning and found a Northern Waterthrush, a Yellow-rumped Warbler and lots of waxwings and swallows. I had forgotten that juncos are common up there in the summer, so the first one I saw slightly puzzled me--it was out of context and I couldn't quite place it at first.

Upper Valley RR Tracks

We also like to bird the railroad track right of way nearby--it runs through a swamp and along Muddy Pond. A nice Warbling Vireo was there, a couple of kingfishers were swooping around on the pond, and I wish I could be sure of the 2 raptors we saw fly quickly overhead--probably kestrels but I can't be sure.

35 species for the weekend.

Species	First Sighting
Wild Turkey	Bromley Rd, Chester
Great Blue Heron	Quabbin Reservoir
Turkey Vulture	Upper Valley Road RR Tracks
Bald Eagle	Quabbin Reservoir
Mourning Dove	Norwottuck Rail Trail
Belted Kingfisher	Upper Valley Road RR Tracks
Hairy Woodpecker	Norwottuck Rail Trail
Northern Flicker	Upper Valley Road RR Tracks
Eastern Wood-Pewee	Cross Place Road
Eastern Phoebe	Quabbin Reservoir
Eastern Kingbird	Cross Place Road
Warbling Vireo	Upper Valley Road RR Tracks
Blue Jay	Cross Place Road
American Crow	Quabbin Reservoir
Northern Rough-winged Swallow	Cross Place Road
Barn Swallow	Quabbin Reservoir
Black-capped Chickadee	Coles Brook Farm
Eastern Bluebird	Norwottuck Rail Trail
Veery	Norwottuck Rail Trail
Wood Thrush	Coles Brook Farm
American Robin	Coles Brook Farm
Gray Catbird	Cross Place Road
European Starling	Quabbin Reservoir
Cedar Waxwing	Cross Place Road
Yellow Warbler	Cross Place Road
Yellow-rumped Warbler	Cross Place Road
Northern Waterthrush	Cross Place Road
Common Yellowthroat	Cross Place Road
Chipping Sparrow	Quabbin Reservoir
Song Sparrow	Quabbin Reservoir
Dark-eyed Junco	Coles Brook Farm
Northern Cardinal	Norwottuck Rail Trail
Red-winged Blackbird	Cross Place Road
Brown-headed Cowbird	Quabbin Reservoir
American Goldfinch	Cross Place Road