Observation start time: 08:00:00 Observation end time: 15:00:00 Total observation time: 7 hours
Official Counter: Brian Rusnica
Observers: Dan Lounsbury, Jon Skinner, Michael Veit
Visitors: Great crew today. Thank you Jon Skinner, Michael Veit, Dave Armstrong, Dan Lounsbury, Caitlin Callahan, Flavio Sutti, Scott McCue. And welcome to our visitors The Buckley family, John Pratt, Devon Berry and Megan Silvestri.
Weather: Fogged in until mid-morning, and then cooler, mostly cloudy throughout. Winds started mild out of the SW and then fizzled and became light and variable through the afternoon. Dark clouds threatened at times but never more than a few isolated drops on the summit.
Raptor Observations: Today has to be considered a win. With SW winds on the forecast, it's tough to expect much out of birds that want to be migrating in that direction. However, a few bands of intrepid Broad-winged Hawks delighted us with their presence, and our largest kettles of the year (a couple different groups of around 30 birds) formed up over the summit in the 1pm EDT hour. We had distant looks and one closer look at Northern Harriers today. Once again there were lots of Sharpies on the move, including 4 together in the last hour of our count to push us over 200 for the day. Several distant Osprey were picked out by our sharp observers today. Our most exciting few minutes came when a juvenile Cooper's Hawk engaged in a vicious pursuit of a Common Raven that spilled out right amongst the treetops of the summit. It ended with the Raven, apparently bloodied, croaking and bill-clapping in the flat-top spruce on the other side of our rocky outcrop, seemingly calling for mercy (or backup?) It seemed as though this clever corvid had been bested by the hawk. Fortunately, both birds flew off and lived to tell the tale. Non-migrant Raptors: Turkey Vulture 30 Red-tailed Hawk 3 Bald Eagle 4 Broad-winged Hawk 1 Red-shouldered Hawk 2 Cooper's Hawk 1 Non-raptor Observations: Common Raven 25
Notable Summit Birds: Chimney Swift 6 Bobolink 1 Barred Owl 1 (heard only) Cape May Warbler 4 Black-throated Blue Warbler 2 Black-throated Green Warbler 1 Magnolia Warbler 1 Northern Parula 1 Blackburnian Warbler 1
Predictions: Warmer, more humid with light winds trending towards the NW, and an increased chance of brief isolated showers in the afternoon (best chance is 1-5pm). If we can get lucky to avoid that precipitation, a good Broad-winged Hawk flight is absolutely possible. ======================================================================== Report submitted by Brian Rusnica (<brian_rusnica...>) Mount Watatic information may be found at: http://www.massbird.org/emhw
