Observation start time: 08:15:00 Observation end time: 14:00:00 Total observation time: 5.75 hours
Official Counter: Eric Mueller
Observers: Cindy Rost, Janet Kovner, Julie Roberts, Laura de la Flor, Mark Burns, Paul Roberts, Paul Vanderhoof
Visitors: Many hundreds of hikers and sightseers on this holiday weekend during leaf-peeping season. Even then, it would have been noticeably busier if the ski lift had been running. We got to talk about our mission here with many people.
Weather: A highly variable sky today that changed back and forth from almost completely clear to totally overcast and everything in between. Nice cumulus clouds passing overhead as the gates opened disappeared almost immediately, leaving an almost totally clear sky, and then 2 hours later changed to 70% coverage as a thick layer of cumulus clouds moved in from the west. After that, the sky opened up and closed down on an almost hourly basis, ending with a nearly complete overcast. The winds were a light 4-5 mph from the SW until the last two hours when they died down to almost nothing. The almost still air combined with the thick overcast in the last hour to pretty much end the day's flight. Temps rose from 50 to 71 F. The humidity was on the high side, and the haze made Greylock, the VT mountains and the mid-NH mountains quite fuzzy.
Raptor Observations: We had a small but experienced team today that worked very well together to locate and ID the birds. Thanks to all of the folks above for a very good job today.
We had the best count here in almost two weeks, mostly due to the large Turkey Vulture flight of 188 birds. The vultures came through in singles, small groups and larger flights of 17, 19, 16, 12, 30, 14, 13 and 11 birds. The largest hourly count was between noon and 1:00 pm EST when 89 birds passed through, including 84 TV's. The best single sighting was our first Golden Eagle of the season - a large, dark bird that appeared quite a ways up to our west. As it circled and glided off slowly, we (Eric, Paul R and Janet) called out characteristics that we were seeing - a bit of a dihedral (but not as much as a TV), a slow eagle-like circling-up motion, dark all over, and a short head with a dark long-ish tail. It all added up to an adult Golden. I'm only sorry that it wasn't close enough for us to get photos, and that we didn't catch Paul V's attention in time for him to get a look at it.
There were quite a few birds that we couldn't completely ID because of their distance and the haze.
The local raptor count took some judgement calls because of the repeated appearances of TV's and Red-tails both close to the mountain and farther out. The biggest puzzle of the day was the appearance of a kettle of 15 TV's, followed by 3 other birds at about 9:50 AM EST, that moved west along the the northern side of the mountain and then disappeared below the oaks and never reappeared in anywhere near the same numbers. They may have come up in smaller groups stretched out over the course of the next hour.
Non-migrating raptors: TV - 18 (see above) Bald Eagle - 2 (minimum number. 1 Ad & 1 Juv) Sharp-shinned Hawk - 2 (size difference - likely a M/F pair.) Cooper's Hawk - 1 Red-tail - 4 (1 Ad, 2 Juv, 1 not aged)
Non-raptor Observations: DC Cormorant - 1 Red-bellied WP - 1 Blue Jay - 2 (minimum number) Comm Raven - 8 (minimum number - very active in the distance and nearby) BC Chickadee - 2 T Titmouse - 1 RB Nuthatch - 1 (Paul V heard it) Cedar WW - 5 E Towhee - 1 (M) DE Junco - 6 (minimum number) Yellow-rumpped Warbler - 1
Predictions: We'll have to play Sunday by ear. Fog is predicted in the area between 5 am and 7 am EDT, and it often occurs a bit later and lingers longer at the summit. Then rain could start as soon as 10 am. We'll just have to keep an eye on the Wachusett ski area trail cams (https://www.wachusett.com/the-mountain/media-center/webcams/) to see if there are any openings in the morning that we can put to use. It would be a shame to waste all of those solid NE winds tomorrow. ======================================================================== Report submitted by ERIC MUELLER (<ericmueller1912...>) Wachusett Mountain information may be found at: http://www.massbird.org/emhw
