Observation start time: 07:30:00 Observation end time: 16:00:00 Total observation time: 8.5 hours
Official Counter: Caroline Fegley
Observers: Chuck Carlson, Mark Timmerman
Visitors: 73 including Mike Dugas, a returning raptor enthusiast and photographer
Weather: Mostly clear skies with cirrostratus and cumulostratus clouds over the W horizon being pushed east through the morning. Thick haze all day. Fog low in valleys for the first few hours. Dramatic heat shimmer in the morning, obscuring birds. Strong SW winds. 13-18 C (55-65 F)
Raptor Observations: Only several migrants today. An early sharp-shinned hawk diving on the owl and being pushed around by the wind was foreshadowing the difficulty for raptors to move today. The real highlight of the day was a dark-morph rough-legged hawk! The raptor came over North Pack, displaying a modified dihedral head on. Being pushed to the east side of the ridge, I searched for any field mark to conclude it was something else. By the time it disappeared, I was 110% confident we were tied with Pack's seasonal record for roughies! To make it better, it migrated on the 12 year anniversary of Pack's first roughie - also a dark-morph.
Non-raptor Observations: Not much songbird activity. Highlights include 1 pine siskin, 1 fox sparrow, 1 downy woodpecker, and 1 hairy woodpecker
Predictions: Clear skies and strong NW winds
On this day in Pack history... "2012: The first Rough-legged Hawk recorded at PMRO is counted. Katrina Fenton: ""3:00pm. continues to be the Golden Eagle hour. A juvenile rose from the camel humps at 3:30, drawn due south over North Pack to circle overhead, splashes of cream running down the wings and pooling in the tail. It was followed twenty minutes later by a dark-phased, lanky-winged, buteo from the far north, the first Rough-legged Hawk to be recorded traveling past Pack in the history of the count. It rose from the right side of Crotched, wings held in a soft dihedral, flight feathers slightly paler than the coverts, with dark wing tips. A bird of mystery, misidentified then mulled over, captured in a snapshot of time as fleeting as the Arctic autumn."" ======================================================================== Report submitted by Caroline Fegley (<cgfegley...>) Pack Monadnock Raptor Migration Observatory information may be found at: www.harriscenter.org
