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