[MASSBIRD] Wachusett Mountain (26 Oct 2023) 14 Migrating Raptors

[Barbara M Volkle]

Date: Thu, 26 Oct 2023 22:35:46 +0000
From: rep...@hawkcount.org
Subject: Wachusett Mountain (26 Oct 2023) 14 Migrating Raptors


Wachusett Mountain
Princeton, Massachusetts, USA
Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 26, 2023
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Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total
------------------ ----------- -------------- --------------
Black Vulture 0 1 3
Turkey Vulture 3 513 547
Osprey 0 24 155
Bald Eagle 1 82 222
Northern Harrier 2 16 35
Sharp-shinned Hawk 4 142 316
Cooper's Hawk 1 74 128
American Goshawk 0 0 1
Red-shouldered Hawk 0 21 34
Broad-winged Hawk 0 2 15073
Red-tailed Hawk 1 37 46
Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0
Golden Eagle 0 0 0
American Kestrel 0 35 96
Merlin 1 17 34
Peregrine Falcon 1 10 17
Unknown Accipiter 0 12 32
Unknown Buteo 0 8 18
Unknown Falcon 0 6 7
Unknown Eagle 0 1 1
Unknown Raptor 0 64 146

Total: 14 1065 16911
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Observation start time: 08:00:00 Observation end time: 14:00:00 Total
observation time: 6 hours

Official Counter: Eric Mueller

Observers: Bill Rasku, Dave Brown, Greg McGuane, Marty McNamara,
Ted Mara, Tom Gottschang

Visitors:
Lots of sightseers enjoying the warm and generally sunny conditions,
although many complained about the haze. Students from the Fenn School
in
Concord hiked up the mountain.

We had a nice turnout of observers today.


Weather:
An unusually warm day for late October with a high temp of 74 F at the
summit and 80 F at lower levels. The day started with stratus clouds
covering 90% of the sky and rain cells dotting the area, particularly NE
of
us. We got intermittent sprinkles of rain for the first 75 minutes. The
skies cleared to 40% coverage by 10 am and we had a good deal of
sunlight
for the rest of the day. There was a light-to-moderate haze all day that
masked Mt Greylock and the VT mountains. Winds started from the W at 4-7
mph with occasional gusts at 10 mph, and increased to 8-10 mph as they
shifted to WSW.

Raptor Observations:
We finally got some birds passing through today, but the rain and dark
skies to our NE seem to have delayed the flight somewhat - our first
migrating bird came through at 10:47 am EST and our next one appeared an
hour later. Local TVs and Red-tails began to appear during that hour. As
the day progressed and more sun shined down, it appeared that thermal
activity improved. We had a good selection of species (8) for only 14
birds
counted in total. The best bird of the day was another Gray Ghost male
harrier. The flight wasn't very energetic though, and we called it a day
at
2:00 pm.
Non-migrating raptors:
Turkey Vulture - 6
Bald Eagle - 1
Red-tailed Hawk - 5

Non-raptor Observations:
Blue Jay - 2
Comm Raven - 5
BC Chickadee - 1
DE Junco - 4

Predictions:
More warm weather for the next two days with highs of 73 F expected at
the
summit. Sunny to mostly sunny skies, with W to WSW winds again at 6-9
mph
on Friday, and 7-13 mph on Saturday. The warm weather doesn't seem to be
inspiring the birds to migrate (lots of prey still available?) so we'll
just have to see how it goes. Friday and Saturday are the last 2 days
that
the auto road to the summit will be open, so if you're not a hiker,
these
will be your last chances to participate in the hawk watch until next
season. We'll post notices when we plan on hiking up after this weekend
and
through November.
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Report submitted by ERIC MUELLER (ericmue...@gmail.com)
Wachusett Mountain information may be found at:
http://www.massbird.org/emhw


More site information at hawkcount.org:
https://hawkcount.org/siteinfo.php?rsite=228