Observation start time: 08:15:00 Observation end time: 15:30:00 Total observation time: 7.25 hours
Official Counter: Eric Mueller
Observers: Christine Restell, Cindy Rost, David Brown, David Goodine, Deb Gustafson, Gail Cormier, Jack Miano, Janet Kovner, Jay Cormier, Joanne Hart, John Edmondson, Julie Roberts, Katie Durham, Lisa Burwell, Mark Milnamow, Mark Morris, Nancy Given, Paul Roberts, Tom Gottschang, Ursula Goodine
Visitors: Hundreds of visitors and their dogs, but it wasn't too crazy on the summit since the ski lift wasn't running from the ski area festival below. A ham radio operator who was participating in a contest set up multiple antennas by himself yesterday, slept in his van on the summit overnight, and then made CQ requests all day long.
Weather: The day started with a still air mass, including fog down below us to the west, and a cloud shield over us that filtered the sun. Winds were from the WNW at 4-7 mph for the first few hours, but without much in the way of thermals, the air wasn't conducive to migration movement. The cloud shield dissipated around 10 am EST, but the wind died down and didn't have much of a specific direction after that. As the ground warmed up, thermals and cumulus clouds began to form, and many birds were able to soar to great heights. The humidity was high to moderate, and visibility was limited to about a 40 km radius, which let us see a fuzzy Mt Monadnock and Mt Grace, but not Boston until the end of the day.
Raptor Observations: We had a great turnout of observers today - thanks to you all! Additional thanks to Janet, Nancy, Christine, Lisa, Jack, Ursula and David who all stayed for the extra hour+ beyond our normal ending time to look for additional birds. We tallied an extra 16 birds during that time, which brought us up to exactly 100 birds for the day. In addition to the people listed above, we were helped by Pete Sperber, Jocelyn Kundzicz, Jim Kundzicz, Denise Martineau, Mitch Heidt, Lisa Milnamow, Bobby Corcoran, Arianna Montville, Pam Landry, Nick Wisniewski and Richard Thomas who normally helps out at the Mt Peter hawk watch in Warwick NY. Broad-wings finally asserted themselves as the most abundant migrating specie, but still only managed 3 kettles of 5, 5 & 6 birds each. Still, with the help of 21 Sharpies passing by, we reached the century mark in the count for the first time this season.
The local birds again provided interesting viewing for us, with lots of interaction and good side-by-side comparisons. One juvenile Red-tail flew around with one leg hanging down, which we assume was broken (as were our hearts for it.) Non-migrating raptors: TV - 10 Bald Eagle - 6 (2 Ad, 1 Imm, 1 Imm/Juv, 2 Juv) Sharp-shinned Hawk - 1 (possible another) Cooper's Hawk - 1 Broad-wing - 3 (1 Ad, 2 Juv - maybe more) Red-shoulder - 1 Red-tail - 4 (1 Ad, 3 Juv) Amer Kestrel - 1
Non-raptor Observations: Non-raptors: DC Cormorant- 1 Grt Blue Heron - 1 E Phoebe - 1 Comm Raven - 16 BC Chickadee- 2 E Towhee - 1 BT Green Warbler - 1
Predictions: On Monday, the skies should be mostly to partly sunny, with temps from the low 60's to low 70's, and 5-6 mph NNE winds swinging around to E by early afternoon. Conditions will be very pleasant for observing, although I expect some haziness in the air. After overestimating the effects of the wind over the past week, I'm taking a hiatus from trying to predict how the birds will react. They're certainly moving - I'm just not sure where. Come on up and help find them! ======================================================================== Report submitted by ERIC MUELLER (<ericmueller1912...>) Wachusett Mountain information may be found at: http://www.massbird.org/emhw
