Observation start time: 08:00:00 Observation end time: 13:00:00 Total observation time: 5 hours
Official Counter: Brian Rusnica
Observers: Visitors: None
Weather: Warm with moderate southerly winds throughout the day. Cirrus at the horizons, but only contrails overhead. Raptor Observations: An extremely sparse migration day, as expected in the face of the forecasted southerly winds. We happily passed 4,000 raptors for the season as we transitioned officially into Autumn. However, the watch was not in vain, as we recorded what is a new single day record for BLACK VULTURE, with a single flock of 7 individuals rising from the eastern ridges and moving together high above the mountain and fading into the southwest. Dating back to 2018, we've seen 1-2 Black Vultures sparingly in September, with last year's season total of 5 being a record. With today's flock, we've now hit 14 Black Vultures for the 2025 season, establishing a new mark. At the 2024 NorthEast Hawk Watch conference, Hawk Mountain Senior Research Biologist David Barber presented a compelling case that Black Vulture do not migrate in the conventional sense compared to that of the other raptors which we monitor; however he concluded that hawkwatches in the region should continue to track and count birds that show up at their sites. Since Black Vulture can be extremely local to food sources like dumps, dams and farms, we should exercise caution to avoid logging recurring local birds. In the recent weeks, I've been able to photograph some of the individual Black Vultures over Watatic and compared molt patterns to clearly show that many of these birds are unique and not repeat visitors. Today's appearance of the flock of 7 helps confirm that larger numbers than ever are using habitat north of Watatic, seemingly for the first time. It will be interesting to see what future developments bring for Black Vulture at Massachusetts hawkwatches. Otherwise, we had our typical parade of Bald Eagle (mostly locals) moving about and tail chasing each other and any other bird in the vicinity. A trio of local Red-shouldered Hawks (2 juvenile and 1 adult) made multiple appearances over the summit today; I was able to observe one juvenile hunting insects on the wing in the thermal. Just a handful Broad-winged Hawks popped up during the morning lift-off, only in singles or pairs. Non-migrant Raptors Turkey Vulture 23 Bald Eagle 9 Red-tailed Hawk 2 Red-shouldered Hawk 3
Non-raptor Observations: Common Raven 26
Notable Summit Birds: Blue Jay 19 Blue-headed Vireo 1 White-throated Sparrow 1 FOY Cape May Warbler 2 Golden-crowned Kinglet 2
Predictions: Humid and hot with SW winds. An arriving frontal boundary will likely bring showers to the region as early as 1pm EDT. I would expect an abbreviated watch tomorrow, with low chances for significant Broad-winged Hawk movement. ======================================================================== Report submitted by Brian Rusnica (<brian_rusnica...>) Mount Watatic information may be found at: http://www.massbird.org/emhw
