Observation start time: 08:15:00 Observation end time: 16:00:00 Total observation time: 7.75 hours
Official Counter: Eric Mueller
Observers: Chris Eddy, Jack Miano, Joanne Hart, Joe Luongo, Julie Roberts, Lena Ficco, Lillie Luongo, Lisa Burwell, Paul Roberts, Tom Gottschang
Visitors: Many thanks to our regular crew members listed above who managed to communicate well in a platform often filled with sightseers, and to promote our work to many of those same sightseers. We also got valuable and much appreciated help from Olivier David, JR from Westwood, and Melissa and Will MacDonald. Friend-of-the-Watch Carl Platt came up for a while to help out, and Tim Eddy brought up Maggie to spread some Golden Retriever happiness. The summit was filled with at least 1,000 sightseers and festival goers from the Oktoberfest down at the ski area. We did see some women in dirndl dresses, but no guys in lederhosen or Tyrolean hats - what's up with that?
Weather: As has been the case lately, the winds were a bit lighter than forecasted, peaking today at about 6 mph, but often only 2-4 mph. All were from the expected N to NE direction. Temps were cooler than yesterday, ranging from 53-65 F. Light haze in the morning gave way to very clear air after the humidity dropped below the mid-50% mark in the late morning, and at the same time, cumulus clouds began to form despite the forecast of sunny skies.
Raptor Observations: It looks like the Broad-wing migration may be over for the season here - the only one that we spotted today was a juvenile that popped up twice around the mountain and was likely the rehabbed bird that was released here yesterday. However, the TV migration kept moving along, and we had our highest number of different species of migrants this season - 12. The only expected species missing was the Broad-wing, although we're still hoping to see Golden Eagles soon. We might have missed a BW among the many distant URs today. The flight ebbed and flowed today with 37 migrating birds counted in the 2nd hour, then 3 hours with just single-digit counts, and then back to double-digit counts again in the 1-2 pm and 2-3 pm EST hours. The 3 Black Vultures flew up together and headed south. One of the last birds of the day was a really nice Gray Ghost male harrier.
Non-migrating raptors: TV-8, Bald Eagle-7 (mostly juv/imm), Broad-wing-1, Red-shoulder-1, Red-tail-2. In celebration of our 50th anniversary year on Wachusett, here's a look back at events on this date in previous years: In 2014, the 2nd largest Peregrine Falcon daily count (7) in Wachusett Mt history
In 2017, Rod Chase wrote: "So three guys, each 'playing with half a deck', go out to count hawks. After several hours they had tallied 26 - which is equal to half a deck. Great.(No jokers, please.)" Other observers - Bill Rasku and Charlie Roche
In 2018, Rod Chase wrote (from Ted Mara�s notes): "Mountain socked in until 11:30. Then only clear view was to the West, rest was thick fog and no visibility. The adult BE and the BV disappeared into the low clouds while migrating. Dave and I figured we missed a lot of raptors traveling low around the mountain." "Hiking around waiting for the fog to lift, the was an eerie absence of avian sounds. Maybe the accipitors downed by the fog were draining the local population of dickey birds" Official counter: Ted Mara, Crack observer: Dave Brown In 2019, Rod Chase wrote: "The day started with a treat! A Gray Ghost (male NH) popped up on the north updraft to eye-level and then cruised above the near oaks on N and W sides. Two minutes later up came the female NH who took the same route. I watched them cruise SW and she closed the gap a little ...perhaps it was her plan to stay back." "I did count hikers until noon (only 13) when I exited for doctor's appointment. Glad I missed 'a very loud school group with Boomboxes' while I was out :-)" Non-raptor Observations: Non-raptors: Canada Goose-39 D-C Cormorant-1 Blue Jay-8 Comm Raven-8 (up and down all day)
Predictions: For Sunday, the forecast calls for partly cloudy to mostly cloudy skies with high to moderate humidity, temps in the 50's, and 6-8 mph winds beginning the day from the NE and moving around to ESE by the early afternoon. This should be fine for Ospreys and TVs, and OK for other birds. ======================================================================== Report submitted by ERIC MUELLER (<ericmueller1912...>) Wachusett Mountain information may be found at: http://www.massbird.org/emhw
