Observation start time: 09:00:00 Observation end time: 14:15:00 Total observation time: 5.25 hours
Official Counter: Bill Rasku, Eric Mueller
Observers: Bill Rasku, John Edmondson, Tom Gottschang
Visitors: Thanks to our team today - Tom and John who both hiked to the summit to join Eric, and Bill who hiked up to the North Rd overlook. Bill froze in the shade, while the rest of us "basked" in the sunlight. A good job by all, and a reasonably fun time for most.
Hundreds of hikers, bikers and dogs took advantage of the great visibility to come to the summit on a sunny Sunday. It would have been more crowded up top except that the ski area wasn't letting people from the Food Truck Festival get off the ski lift at the top. That worked for us!
Weather: Nearly cloudless skies with 4-7 mph NNW to N winds, and temps from 31 to 42 F. The sunshine and light winds made dealing with the low temperatures tolerable at the summit. Bill felt the chill of direct winds and little sunlight at the North Rd overlook. Visibility was very good. There was a slight haze in the air that kept us from identifying Mt Washington with any degree of confidence, but it had no effect on ID'ing the birds. The humidity was very low and the barometric pressure was very high.
Raptor Observations: Another very good count for early November here. Eric, Tom and John watched from the summit, while Bill took up his regular spot at the North Rd overlook from 11 am to 2:15 pm. After resolving a few duplicate sightings, we counted a total of 85 migrating raptors today, 42 from the summit and 43 from North Rd. There were no special sightings, just birds that we expected.
Non-migrating raptors: TV - 2 Bald Eagle - 3 (Adult) Red-tailed Hawk - 4 Unident. buteo - 1
Non-raptor Observations: Non-raptors: A fair number of apparently migrating crows, but only 1 skein of geese today. We didn't see any Snow Buntings.
goose sp - 70 Comm Loon - 1 Blue Jay - 3 Amer Crow - 263 moving E to W in 9 groups. 4 non-migrating birds. Comm Raven - 4 BC Chickadee - 2 Y-B Sapsucker - 1 GC Kinglet - 1
Predictions: No watch is currently planned for the next two days. Monday's forecast calls for temps in the low 40s, SSE winds and almost no sun. Tuesday's calls for strong SW winds. Neither day sounds like good enough weather to justify the hike up.
Just a reminder that the auto road is closed to vehicles until next Memorial Day. If you happen to go up on your own, please send your sightings and time of sightings to Eric <atericmueller1912...> Thanks! ======================================================================== 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
