Observation start time: 07:00:00 Observation end time: 16:00:00 Total observation time: 9 hours
Official Counter: Brian Rusnica
Observers: Jon Skinner, Michael Veit
Visitors: Jon Skinner, Kim Hewitt, Michael Veit, Dave Armstrong, Ellie Maguire, Alex Simon, Sid Cash, Ann Kao, Randy M, Billy Hickey, Will Freedberg, Natalie Wright
Weather: The predicted NW winds showed up as forecasted, blowing steady throughout the day. Started and ended with clear blue skies, with periods of partial cloudiness in between. Warm but extremely comfortable with low humidity. Raptor Observations: Today we had a great team and spent nearly the entire watch chasing small streams and short kettles of Broad-wings around the sky. We hit paydirt a few times with groups as large as 30, but mostly it was a consistent flight of small groups that did not stick around in the brisk conditions. It ended up being our best flight of the year so far - hopefully only temporarily. Good numbers of Sharp-shinned Hawk as we've seen throughout the month. Otherwise it was a fairly standard flight from our non-Broad-wing raptors. A couple of Peregrine Falcons and a single Northern Harrier made their way south. Non-migrant Raptors: Turkey Vulture 22 Bald Eagle 8 Red-tailed Hawk 2
Non-raptor Observations: Common Raven 17 Canada Goose 9
Predictions: Colder - forecasts top out only at 70°F and start in the 40s. More importantly, the wind direction remains in our favor with light N winds with some predicted waffling between NE and NW. Looking forward to this weather with optimism for a nice flight. ======================================================================== Report submitted by Brian Rusnica (<brian_rusnica...>) Mount Watatic information may be found at: http://www.massbird.org/emhw
