Observation start time: 11:45:00 Observation end time: 15:15:00 Total observation time: 3.5 hours
Official Counter: Eric Mueller
Observers: Lisa Burwell, Marty McNamara
Visitors: Barely more hikers than raptors today - about 10 overall.
Thanks to Marty McNamara and Lisa Burwell for helping out in the last hour.
Weather: Clear skies, very good visibility with just a touch of haze in the air, temps in the high 40s, and moderate NW winds with some higher gusts. Once the sun moved behind the trees, it felt mighty cold at the overlook.
Raptor Observations: We observed from the North Rd overlook again today. Today's weather should have been a recipe for a good flight, but I had a late start today (11:45 am) and we only counted 5 migrating birds. We might have doubled that if I had been able to start an hour or two earlier.
The most interesting bird of the day was a heavily mottled immature Bald Eagle that held it left leg down the entire time that I watched it. Nothing was in its balled up talons, so I fear that it was injured. It never soared while it was in sight - just flapped its wings like a Harrier from time to time, and glided the rest of the time.
Non-migrating raptors: Bald Eagle - 1 (Adult) Red-tailed Hawk - 3 (minimum number. All 3 were seen flying near each other. 1 Ad, 1 Juv, 1 not aged)
Non-raptor Observations: A very slow day for non-raptors, again with the acknowledgement that we missed the first 2 hours of our ususal coverage. We didn't see any groups of crows or skeins of geese.
Blue Jay - 1 Amer Crow - 3 Comm Raven - 2 BC Chickadee - 2 WB Nuthatch - 1 Amer Robin - 1
Predictions: Saturday's temps should be about 5 to 10 degrees warmer with highs in the mid 50s, but the NW winds are expected to be 10 to 20 mph, which is going to be uncomfortable both at the summit and lower down at the NOrth Rd overlook. Call me a wimp, but with the low counts recently, it's not worth the hike up just to get windburned.
Sunday might be a tiny bit warmer with a litle less wind, so we'll see how that goes. ======================================================================== 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
