Observation start time: 08:15:00 Observation end time: 13:00:00 Total observation time: 4.75 hours
Official Counter: Eric Mueller
Observers: Jack Miano, Jim Kirchhoffer
Visitors: Our favorite visitors of the day were a young birder from Rhode Island named Owen and his mom. Jack and I talked with this intelligent young man about birds and other wildlife for over an hour. He impressed us with his knowledge of raptors and with his curiosity about birds in general (yes, we'd like to see a Great Gray Owl too!) We gave him a pamphlet about our group and information about the hawkcount and eBird websites. He and his parents are welcome to come back here any time.
In addition to the usual number of hikers, runners and sightseers, about 200 "enthusiastic" students from The Winchendon School and a smaller, quieter contingent of St John's (Shrewsbury) students covered the summit for about an hour.
Weather: A cloud covered the summit to begin the day, but finally rose enough around 9 am EST to let us see the surrounding landscape. However the air was very humid and hazy, and stayed that way the rest of the session. Monadnock was barely an outline at best, and neither Boston nor Mt Grace ever appeared. Clouds covered us for most of the session, which gave us relatively little light. Winds were a solid 8-12 mph from the SW all day. A very dark layer of clouds moved through to our north around 12 and looked like it was going to shut down any possible flight through the area.
Raptor Observations: My thanks to both Jack Miano and Jim Kirchhoffer for coming up to help on this hazy, windy and cloudy day. 3 birds somehow decided to move through the solid headwinds and funky air - a Kestrel, a Broad-wing and an unknown buteo that was likely another Broad-wing. A Merlin, two young Bald Eagles, two Red-tails and at least 5 TVs made up the contingent of local birds that made appearances today.
Non-migrating raptors: TV- 5 (minimum number) Bald Eagle - 2 (1 Juv, 1 Imm that looked like the 1-year old bird that we've been seeing here lately) Red-tailed Hawk - 2 (Juv) Merlin - 1
Non-raptor Observations: The ravens put on the best show today. One picked up a branch tip from a mountain ash tree that still had some leaves and orange berries on it, flew up and released it, and then grabbed it again in its talons. We spotted it still carrying the branch tip a few minutes later.
DC Cormorant - 1 RT Hummingbird - 1 Blue Jay - 2 Comm Raven - 4 BC Chickadee - 2 DE Junco - 7 Wht-thr Sparrow - 1 (foraging near the juncos) E Towhee - 1
Predictions: There is a moderate to high probability of rain both Wednesday and Thursday, so we aren't planning on conducting watches either day. It will be interesting to see if the remaining Broad-wings hold off moving until after that, or if they push through the bad weather while we're not there to watch. ======================================================================== Report submitted by ERIC MUELLER (<ericmueller1912...>) Wachusett Mountain information may be found at: http://www.massbird.org/emhw
