Observation start time: 08:15:00 Observation end time: 15:00:00 Total observation time: 6.75 hours
Official Counter: Eric Mueller
Observers: Lisa Burwell, Paul Roberts, Paul Vanderhoof
Visitors: A small but effective group of observers today. My thanks to Paul R, Paul V and Lisa for joining me on the platform and for doing a bang-up job. It helped immensely to have the two Pauls available to make the IDs of the two Golden Eagles. Lisa stayed another hour by herself and spotted the kettle of 9 TVs.
Many hundreds (thousands?) of sightseers on the summit today to take in the Fall colors, many traveling up on the ski lift from AppleFest down at the ski area.
Weather: A cloudless sky all day, with very low humidity, and very little wind except from 11 am to 1 pm EST when we got breezes as high as 6-7 mph. The wind came from various westerly directions all day. Temps ranged from 52 to 66 F. Visibility was very good to excellent, with just a touch of haze in the air that made Mt Washington hard to see at times. All other landmarks were easily visible.
Raptor Observations: A much quieter day than yesterday due to the lack of wind plus warmer air temperatures which made the air mass quite stable and tamped down much of the thermal activity in the afternoon. We saw no birds in the first two hours. The two hours of increased wind from 11 am to 1 pm coincided with the most flight activity. Altogether, we counted 59 migrating birds today. We had 3 kettles of TVs - 16, 5 and a last-minute group of 9 that Lisa spotted just before 3 pm EST.
The big thrills were the separate sightings of two Golden Eagles, one a juvenile and the other an adult (which is an extra-rare occurence here.) Paul Roberts made the first solid calls on both birds, and Paul Vanderhoof and I chimed in with what we saw on each to help lock down the IDs. Neither bird was close enough for useful photos. Non-migrating raptors: TV - 6 Bald Eagle - 3 (2 Ad, 1 Imm) Red-tailed Hawk - 3 (2 Ad, 1 not aged) - one of the adult birds was the same one that I saw yesterday that constantly carried its tail at a 45 degree angle from lower left to upper right when viewed from the rear. It also didn't carry its wings at the same angles. I'm guessing that it survived a serious accident or attack.
Non-raptor Observations: Non-raptors: Blue Jay - 6 Comm Raven - 28 (all in one group) BC Chickadee - 2 passerines - approx 200 (most were in a distant tight ball that swirled around, likely Starlings. We didn't see any nearby raptors that would have prompted them to go airborne in such a tight ball.)
We also had two C-130 military cargo planes zoom past us to the east below summit height as they practiced low level flying. I wouldn't have wanted to have been a rock climber on the Crow Hills rock walls down below at that moment.
Predictions: Sunday's weather will hopefully be more amenable to the migrating birds. The forecast calls for sunny skies changing to partly sunny in the afternoon (yay clouds!), temps reaching the upper 60s, low humidity and W to WNW winds from 5 to 10 mph all day. At least the winds will give the birds something to work with. ======================================================================== Report submitted by ERIC MUELLER (<ericmueller1912...>) Wachusett Mountain information may be found at: http://www.massbird.org/emhw
