Observation start time: 09:45:00 Observation end time: 14:00:00 Total observation time: 4.25 hours
Official Counter: Eric Mueller
Observers: Cindy Rost, Paul Vanderhoof, Tom Gottschang
Visitors: Thanks to Tom Gottschang (who showed up before Eric arrived, and decided to hike up to the summit and back just for the exercise), Paul Vanderhoof and Cindy Rost who hiked up to join Eric at the overlook.
About 20 hikers walked by with about 10 large dogs. A few stopped to enjoy the view and ask what we were doing.
Weather: Quite windy with W to NW winds at 8-15 mph average and gusts above 30 mph. Partly cloudy to partly sunny skies, predominately cumulus clouds. Temps varied only from 59 to 62 F. Visibility was good to very good with a light haze in the air. The cloud base stayed around 5,000 ft most of the time.
Raptor Observations: Because of the heavy winds, we observed from the North Rd overlook instead of the summit. 30 mph wind gusts are no fun.
Eric started 45 minutes later than planned (furnace repairs take precedence!) Not very busy raptor-wise. The birds really had to fight against the strong gusts early in the day, and we only saw 1 migrating bird before 11:30 am. The bird of the day was the juvenile or sub-adult Golden Eagle that Paul spotted heading off to the west. We spotted a few local TVs, and the local Red-tails made multiple appearances throughout the day.
Non-raptor Observations: Non-raptors: Snow Bunting - 8 (seen by Tom when he hiked up to the summit before coming back to North Rd) Canada Goose - 13 (1 skein) Blue Jay - 2 Amer Crow - 148 (most headed west) Comm Raven - 2 BC Chickadee - 4 T Titmouse - 6 Red-bellied WP - 2
Predictions: No watch is planned for Friday due to strong SW to W winds.
Saturday should have solid NW winds and sunny skies, so we'll probably go up then despite temps just into the 40s. ======================================================================== 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
