Observation start time: 08:15:00 Observation end time: 16:00:00 Total observation time: 7.75 hours
Official Counter: Phil Brown, Tom Delaney
Observers: Chuck Carlson, Nikko Gagnon, Tom Delaney, Tom Momeyer
Visitors: 48. Bob Alex from CT helped spot birds and located our Golden. Thanks for adding your eyes to our team today! Nikko from the Harris Center greeted several groups of visitors this morning and answered their questions.
Weather: Cold and windy with mainly overcast skies. Temps rose from 2-8 C (36-46 F), and wind remained strong (13-31 mph) from the northwest, increasing later in the day. Ceiling increasing from low clouds over Monadnock to views of the White Mountains later in the day.
Raptor Observations: The season's third Golden Eagle, an adult with a glowing golden head, passed briefly below the summit to the west at 10:15 am. A flurry of raptors shot by the watch, most passing quickly to the southwest without much flapping, guided by a NW wind. Nice diversity of raptor species throughout the day, especially during the earliest hours.
Non-raptor Observations: Canada Goose (40) migrating in two flocks. Common Ravens (25) spent much of the day playing in the wind on the west slope of North Pack, sometimes drifting by the watch. Yellow-rumped Warblers (~30) blew past all morning in small numbers during their morning flight.
Predictions: More of the same, but with more sun and slightly warmer. A good recipe for more migration and maybe a Golden. Come join Caroline and help find some birds!
On this day in Pack's history... 2015: A record day for raptor diversity. Katrina Fenton: "Raptors began to fly within a half-hour of sunrise, shaking the chill of the evening and yesterday's rain out of their wings and taking to the sky to search for breakfast or get an early start on the day. A Red-tailed Hawk rose overhead with a Sharp-shinned Hawk and Cooper's Hawk in tow like the earlier planets trailing the moon. Hawks flying below the count site glowed like golden meteors caught in the light while the world below remained in darkness. 10 migrants were counted before the "official" 9:00am start, including 3 of the 4 Northern Harriers for the day, two of them "grey ghosts" catching updrafts off the mountain side. There were migrants counted every hour for 11 straight hours; falcons, accipiters, buteos, vultures, and Osprey were all accounted for by 2:00pm. The only one of Pack's annually occurring raptor species missing was a Golden Eagle. At 2:15pm, an eagle came into view, white on a dark-tipped tail and dark throughout, but not giving much away on it's proportions. As it soared across the maple swamp, it was joined by a second eagle with a tail that matched which circled once, showing off a buteo-shaped coppery head and a trace of white mid-wing before the two chased each other back to the north. A few minutes later, the first eagle came back southward and rose in front of the hawk watch, this time showing itself to be a bald as it flashed a little white next to its body and it's heavy-billed, long headed profile, a golden doppelganger save for a couple of details. The true golden put in a cameo at 4:55, soaring off the side of North Pack before gliding off to the northeast, perhaps to find a place to hunt and spend the night. The raptor sweep accomplished for the first time in the history of the project."
2010: Pack's famous soup contest was held for the very first time ======================================================================== Report submitted by Phil Brown (<brown...>) Pack Monadnock Raptor Migration Observatory information may be found at: www.harriscenter.org
