Day 10 First New England Hoary Redpoll and lots of fun driving around an equipment lot

Distance .6 Temp in the 30s, wind calm building in the evening, clear skies clouding in 5he afternoon. We dipped on wwcb although the cone crop was heavy at Bohanan Farm. Pat’s target species was hoary redpoll, so tough to be sure on, but several had been reported at Pinnacle Lane, Walpole NH. Expecting a country lane we were surprised to find an equipment storage lot, but what a bonanza. A flock of 48 snow buntings was on the ground in front of us as we drove in, and later sat on the tops of the dirty snow banks and just made me smile. As we drove to the back of the lot, we found the redpolls feeding on the exposed turf. Flighty but we got very good looks. About 25. One was apparent to both os us, a little bigger, certainly paler, with clean under tail. After quite a bit of discussion and one usable photo, we felt confident calling it a hoary. There were several others that were possible candidates as well. 9 horned larks and a couple of juncos joined in. Everything scattered as a peregrine flew over and we moved on to Hadley MA. S80524204

At the honey pot we came upon the largest group of tree sparrows I can remember right along the river. A beautiful gray ghost noha, and good looks at horned lark. We also had horned lark at the airport. Dipped on the short eared owl. Waited until almost 5pm but got chilled and called it a day returning to Keene nh due to COVID restrictions. S80544508 EBird and S80531304

Posted on February 7, 2021 01:52 AM by