Trace amount of snow fell over Tussey Mountain overnight. Strong WNW winds
peaking at 11:00 at 49kph. Visibility was excellent at 16 km with good
views of Stone Mountain. Bluebird skies for the entire count with only a
few clouds drifting over the ridge. Low temperature of -3C at 08:44 and a
high of 7C by 13:00.
Raptor Notes
TV 1 (78) BE 3 (29) GE 1 (71) Total 5 (256)
GE A 11:17
Virtually non-existent flight with only 5 raptors migrating along Tussey
Mountain. BE led the flight with 3 coming through. The one GE of the day
was sky high going cross ridge and then off to the west. There is a high
likelihood other GE’s were taking these sky high lines, but it was
difficult to spot them in the blue skies. In fact, the one that was
detected was due to scanning around the edges of the few clouds drifting
over the ridge during the afternoon.
While migrating raptors weren’t moving through in great numbers our
resident raptors were quite active along the ridge. At 09:41 while Deb
Rittelman and I were discussing some of the finer points of the use of
Trektellen our resident RTHA zipped into the forest behind the OP with
furry prey in its clutches. It looked to be some kind of rodent or squirrel
that it had secured. The RTHA’s by far were the most frequent raptor
detected today kiting in the stiff WNW winds, gliding south along the ridge
and occasionally soaring over Leading Ridge. Gabe and I got a good look at
an immature NOHA flying south along the ridge as well.
Non-raptor Notes
Mourning Dove 2
Black Vulture 3
Turkey Vulture 4
American Crow 8
Common Raven 2
Black-capped Chickadee 3
Eastern Bluebird 1
Visitors
Deb Rittelmann arrived with some healthy snacks and provided good company
on this sunny and blustery day. Gabe Imler the Program Director of Camp
Blue Diamond also joined us to help spot migrating raptors. Fortunately,
one distant GE was spotted taking the cross-ridge route high and out to the
west while they were here. Later on, Gabe got to see many of our resident
raptors including a lifer NOHA. Looking forward to his visit next Friday
and I hope we get some closer GE’s then.
Deb Rittelmann
Gabe Imler
3 hikers. 1 runner.
Next Day Forecast
Mostly sunny, with a high near 40. Northwest wind 9 to 14 mph, with gusts
as high as 28 mph.
Trail conditions are superb and I won’t update on them any longer unless
there is a reason to.
