Observation start time: 08:15:00 Observation end time: 16:00:00 Total observation time: 7.75 hours
Official Counter: Bill Rasku, Eric Mueller
Observers: Bill Rasku, Christine Restell, Eric Mueller, Jean Hampel, Ted Purcell, Tom Gottschang
Visitors: Thanks to our hard-working teammates at the summit and at North Rd, and to Michael from Leominster who helped Bill out at the North Rd.
Hundreds of hikers and sightseers and their dogs on the mountain today.
Weather: Clear blue sky most of the day (sigh...) Temps ranged from 41 to 56 F. The 4-7 mph winds that were forecasted didn't show up until mid-afternoon, leaving the birds with little to work with above summit level. Humidity was low. There was a light haze but all landmarks were visible, including a shadowy Mt Washington. We noticed some heat shimmer in the afternoon.
Raptor Observations: Bill Rasku observed from the North Rd overlook, while the rest of us were at the summit. Bill outcounted us by 4-to-1 margin, with duplicate sighting counts evenly assigned. A lot of birds just weren't getting the lift they needed to get into the summit team's sightlines. TV's predominated. There were quite a few distant birds that had to be put in the Unidentified categories.
The bird of the day was the light-morph Rough-legged Hawk that Bill saw fly up out of a tree down below and head west. The Rough-leg was the first of the season for us and completed our season's tick list of the 16 species that we expect to see at our site during the Fall migration.
Non-raptor Observations: Non-raptors: Canada Goose - 193 (20, 32, 38, 60, 15 & 28) seabird sp - 2 (large buff-colored birds with M-shaped wings while gliding) MODO - 4 Hairy WP - 1 RB WP - 1 N Flicker - 1 Blue Jay - 5 Amer Crow - 312 (2, 20, 24, 8, 9, 23, 8, 30, 13, 32, 45, 100+ & 28) - all but 2 seen from North Rd Comm Raven - 16 BC Chickadee - 4 T Titmouse - 4 WB Nuthatch - 4 Yellow-rump Warb - 2 DE Junco - 8 WhtThr Sparr - 2 Br Creeper - 1 Am Goldfinch - 1 GC Kinglet - 2 Carolina Wren - 1
Predictions: Saturday's forecast is for mostly sunny skies, temps in the mid to upper 50s, and strong (10 to 20 mph) WNW winds. These will be challenging, but hopefully rewarding, conditions.
Saturday may be the last day that you can drive up to the summit this season (there's a rumor of a Sunday opening that I'll check on), so come up while you can! ======================================================================== Report submitted by ERIC MUELLER (<ericmueller1912...>) Wachusett Mountain information may be found at: http://www.massbird.org/emhw
More site information at hawkcount.org:https://hawkcount.org/siteinfo.php?rsite=228
