Observation start time: 08:15:00 Observation end time: 16:00:00 Total observation time: 7.75 hours
Official Counter: Bill Rasku, Eric Mueller
Observers: Bill Rasku, Don Singleman, Liam Singleman, Paul Vanderhoof
Visitors: Hundreds of hikers and sightseers enjoying some of the best visibility up here in weeks. We spent much of our spare time identifying the visible hills and mountains to the visitors, or correcting misidentifications: "Oh wow! That's Mt Washington." "But look. The sign says that it's not visible" "But it's so big. Excuse me, is that Mt Washington?" (me) "No, that's Mt Monadnock" "Are you sure?" (me) "Yes, I'm sure." "Oh." (disappointed)
Weather: A seasonably cool day (43-55 F), with clear blue skies, low humidity and SSW to SW winds at 4-7 mph. Visibility was close to excellent with just a hint of haze in the air, but still clear enought to make out Mt. Washington to the north.
Raptor Observations: Many thanks to the few observers who helped out today - Paul V, Don and Liam, and Bill who came up later in the afternoon and then took over from me at 3 pm EST.
Thank heavens for Turkey Vultures. The hawks and eagles that we counted today were few and far between, so the small groups of migrating TV's (3, 3, 4, 5, 6 & 8) helped make the day's count respectable. Even then, the day started slowly with the first birds only showing up around 9:30 EST, and we had long stretches with no birds to look at. Even the usually active local juvenile Red-tails only made a token apearance.
Non-migrating raptors: TV - 8 Bald Eagle - 3 (1 Ad, 2 Juv/Imm) Red-tailed Hawk - 4
Non-raptor Observations: Passerines were flitting around the summit, but never long enough to ID them. No migrating geese today. Blue Jay - 4 Comm Raven - 6 T. Titmouse - 2 passerine - 16
Predictions: More 4-7 mph SSW/SW winds, but with somewhat warmer temperatures (50-60 F) and finally some cloud cover (partly cloudy to cloudy). We're expecting the TV migration to continue ramping up, and hoping that the cloud cover will make it easier to see the hawks and falcons push through the reasonably light headwinds. ======================================================================== Report submitted by ERIC MUELLER (<ericmueller1912...>) Wachusett Mountain information may be found at: http://www.massbird.org/emhw
