Observation start time: 07:00:00 Observation end time: 17:00:00 Total observation time: 9.25 hours
Official Counter: Brian Rusnica
Observers: John Flagg, Jon Skinner, Tom Murray
Visitors: A terrific crew of observers and visitors today. Thanks to returning friends of the watch Jon Skinner, Kim Hewitt, John Flagg, Tom Murray, Syd Cash, Ann Kao, Meyer and Cindy Franklin, Billy Hickey, and Alex Hickey.
We also welcomed some tremendous newcomers to Watatic: Katie David, Ed Bogle, and Will Dziuban. Everyone did a great job getting us on birds and spotting raptors both near and far. Thank you to all!
Weather: A very muggy hike up, but a lovely NW breeze at the summit held throughout the day, moderate with some stronger gusts approaching 20mph. Beautiful partly cloudy skies, with big cumulus puffs: a hawkwatcher's delight.
Raptor Observations: Our biggest Broad-winged Hawk flight of the year was a welcome development. We had a busy mid-morning with small groups getting together, but saved the biggest movement for mid-day. We had three big bursts of hawks, mostly in the form of high streams with brief kettling: 105 Broad-wings at 11:30am, 115 Broad-wings at 1:00pm, and 125 Broad-wings at 1:45pm. Everyone on our hawkwatching crew contributed birds to our count - it was a great team effort to catch these birds often high overhead.
A strong count of Sharp-shinned Hawk and our first double-digit American Kestrel flight of the year added to our totals. We had two BLACK VULTURE sightings for a total of 4 birds: one brief single bird diving behind the mountain early, and a trio of high birds exploring the upper atmosphere later in the afternoon.
Another Merlin made a fiercely exciting pass on the decoy owl in the late part of the day. A massive kettle of 13 (!) local Bald Eagles made an appearance far off to the Northeast. Another wildly impressive group getting together, but doing nothing more than exchanging pleasantries and tail chasing. Non-migrant Raptors: Turkey Vulture 15 Bald Eagle 14 Red-tailed Hawk 4 Red-shouldered Hawk 1
Non-raptor Observations: Red Crossbills! We had three separate sightings, a single bird as soon as we summited, followed by a flock of five together, jipping away to the East. Then at the end of the day, two more alighted on the spruce slope. The last hour of the watch brought a couple unusual sightings: first - two individual Common Nighthawks danced across the sky. Right after that, I caught sight of a large flock on some 20 birds, in a very unfamiliar formation over the Wapack Ridge. They were not in a long skein like Geese or Cormorants, but rather soaring in a ball-like group. I saw them only briefly, and could not identify them immediately as anything I had seen previously at the watch. Seconds later, something spooked them, and the entire flock turned on a dime and dove towards the surface, showing off a flash of pale color on the underside of each bird. They were larger than songbirds, but smaller than cormorants to my eye. The best I could come up with would be a flock of Yellowlegs- or Killdeer-sized shorebirds, so my checklists reads "shorebird sp. 20." Very unusual.
RED CROSSBILL 8 COMMON NIGHTHAWK 2 Common Raven 32 Double-crested Cormorant 17 (Flock of 16) Ruby-throated Hummingbird 1 shorebird sp. 20
Predictions: The good Broad-winged Hawk flight should continue, with light NE winds making a turn to SE by afternoon. Cooler with increasing cloud cover and lower humidity. ======================================================================== Report submitted by Brian Rusnica (<brian_rusnica...>) Mount Watatic information may be found at: http://www.massbird.org/emhw
