Date: 10/2/25 7:36 pm
From: Barbara Volkle <barb620...>
Subject: [MASSBIRD] Wachusett Mountain (02 Oct 2025) 29 Migrating Raptors
Date: Fri, 3 Oct 2025 00:57:15 +0000
From: <reports...>
Subject: Wachusett Mountain (02 Oct 2025) 29 Migrating Raptors


Wachusett Mountain
Princeton, Massachusetts, USA
Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 02, 2025
-------------------------------------------------------------------

Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total
------------------ ----------- -------------- --------------
Black Vulture 0 0 0
Turkey Vulture 0 0 6
Osprey 1 2 149
Bald Eagle 4 10 99
Northern Harrier 2 2 24
Sharp-shinned Hawk 13 20 218
Cooper's Hawk 2 11 64
American Goshawk 0 0 1
Red-shouldered Hawk 1 1 10
Broad-winged Hawk 2 10 2020
Red-tailed Hawk 0 5 21
Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0
Golden Eagle 0 0 0
American Kestrel 1 6 87
Merlin 1 2 22
Peregrine Falcon 1 3 8
Unknown Accipitrine 0 3 17
Unknown Buteo 0 0 15
Unknown Falcon 0 0 3
Unknown Eagle 0 0 0
Unknown Raptor 1 6 77

Total: 29 81 2841
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Observation start time: 08:00:00 Observation end time: 14:00:00 Total
observation time: 6 hours

Official Counter: Mark Morris

Observers: Christine Restell, David Brown, Don Singleman, Greg McGuane,
Judy McGuane, Lisa Burwell, Paul McPartland, Ted Purcell,
Tom Gottschang

Visitors:
Fewer sightseers than usual, probably due to the crisp temps.


Weather:
Yet another clear, dry day with no clouds for the most part and low
humidity. We had great visibility. A high pressure system is sitting over
us, and the morning reading of 30.50 inches was the highest air pressure
reading of the season. That was was matched by the lowest temperature that
we've seen all season so far (46 F), but rose to 62 F at the end. Light to
moderate winds blew out of the NE and N most of the session, but shifted
over to SE in the last hour and faded in speed. Even the light winds felt
pretty brisk today.

Raptor Observations:
Mark Morris led the team today, and was aided by the folks listed above. We
enjoyed having Paul McPartland join us for the first time. Thanks to
everyone for dealing with the cold and the "blue screen of death" sky.

The flight count was on the light side as the Broad-wing migration is on
its last legs, and the TV's and other later raptors haven't started moving
here in great numbers yet. Despite the low overall number, we did manage to
get a nice spread of birds today - 10 species represented out of only 29
birds counted. Sharpies ruled the early going as the moderate North winds
triggered some birds to get going. We recorded all three Falcons migrating,
including a close view of a nice adult Peregrine! We also had good views of
an imm. Peregrine earlier in the morning. Good news from the Clarry Hill
(ME) hawk watch which reported 157 migrating
birds today, including 97 TV's, 15 Red-tails, 8 Red-shoulders and their
first Golden Eagle of the season (an adult) so the pipeline is filling up.

Non-migrating raptors:
TV-5
Bald Eagle-5
Red-tail-4
Red-shoulder-1
Peregrine Falcon-1 (imm.)

Non-raptor Observations:
C.Goose- 66 (flocks of 18,16,18, and 14 migrating)
C.Raven-27 (one group of 24)
Blue Jay-7
warbler sp.-3
E.Towhee-1
D.E.Junco-5
White Throated Sparrow-1

Predictions:
A bit warmer than today with temps starting in the low 50's and getting
into the upper 60's. Lowish humidity should keep the visibility good, and
we're expecting a bit of cloud cover which will hopefully make spotting the
birds easier than today. However, winds will be 8-12 mph out of the WSW -
certainly less than optimal, but that direction extends all the way into
northern New England which might just keep the birds up north from leaking
too far to the west before they can get down this far. Hopefully a good
number of the Clarry Hill birds will reach us.
========================================================================
Report submitted by ERIC MUELLER (<ericmueller1912...>)
Wachusett Mountain information may be found at:
http://www.massbird.org/emhw


More site information at hawkcount.org:
https://hawkcount.org/siteinfo.php?rsite=228

 
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