[MASSBIRD] Wachusett Mountain (28 Oct 2023) 53 Migrating Raptors

[Barbara M Volkle]

Attchmnt:

Date: Sun, 29 Oct 2023 00:44:58 +0000
From: rep...@hawkcount.org
Subject: Wachusett Mountain (28 Oct 2023) 53 Migrating Raptors


Wachusett Mountain
Princeton, Massachusetts, USA
Daily Raptor Counts: Oct 28, 2023
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Species Day's Count Month Total Season Total
------------------ ----------- -------------- --------------
Black Vulture 0 1 3
Turkey Vulture 37 645 679
Osprey 0 24 155
Bald Eagle 8 93 233
Northern Harrier 0 17 36
Sharp-shinned Hawk 2 147 321
Cooper's Hawk 0 76 130
American Goshawk 0 0 1
Red-shouldered Hawk 0 21 34
Broad-winged Hawk 0 2 15073
Red-tailed Hawk 1 38 47
Rough-legged Hawk 0 0 0
Golden Eagle 0 0 0
American Kestrel 0 35 96
Merlin 0 18 35
Peregrine Falcon 0 10 17
Unknown Accipiter 1 13 33
Unknown Buteo 1 9 19
Unknown Falcon 1 8 9
Unknown Eagle 0 1 1
Unknown Raptor 2 66 148

Total: 53 1224 17070
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Observation start time: 08:00:00 Observation end time: 16:00:00 Total
observation time: 8 hours

Official Counter: Eric Mueller

Observers: Bill Rasku, Chris Eddy, Cindy Rost, Melissa Aldridge,
Paul Vanderhoof, Susan Moses, Tom Gottschang

Visitors:
Well over 1,000 people who hiked, biked, drove, or took the ski lift up
from below. The ranger said that this was their busiest day of the year
as
people came up on the last day that the auto road would be open for the
season, or attended the festival down at the ski area.

In addition to the observers listed above, Dan Rossman stopped by late
in
the day to lend a hand.


Weather:
A blustery day with strong West winds all day. It was sunny all morning,
but a moderate to strong haze kept a lot of the more distant landmarks
invisible to us and made it difficult to ID some of the birds passing
nearby. Temps rose from 57 F to a maximum of 73 - very warm for this
time
of year. Cumulus clouds began to form around 11 am EST and became very
widespread and thick after 12:30. Masses of clouds passed in waves with
bright periods in betweeen. Even denser formations passed along southern
NH
and blocked our view of Mt Monadnock entirely with what appeared to be
rain. Then around 3:00 pm, the clouds parted and left us with a sunny
end
to the day.

Raptor Observations:
The majority of the flight came between 8:45 and 9:00 am EST (18 TVs
that
were likely the birds that Chris saw fly down to roost last night) and
between 10:28 and 10:38 (14 more TVs.) The rest of the day consisted of
single birds passing by sporadically. Many of the other birds were Bald
Eagles that could deal with the gusty headwinds.

Non-migrating raptors:
Turkey Vulture - 7
Bald Eagle - 2 (1 adult, 1 imm)
Red-tailed Hawk - 3 (1 adult, 2 juv)


Non-raptor Observations:
Comm Loon - 1 (fly-by, heading south)
Blue Jay - 3
DE Junco - 2
Snow Bunting - 1 (the continuing, normally people-tolerant bird could
only
deal with the crowds for about 20 minutes today)
GC Kinglet - 1 (heard calling)
Flying Monkeys - 2 (from BOO-Fest down at the ski area)

Our lone Katydid was calling from the trees near the top of the ski
lift.

Predictions:
The auto road has now closed until next Memorial Day, so we will hike up
only on very promising days. Rain is supposed to start at 11 am on
Sunday
which doesn't make it worthwhile to hike up. Rain is also expected all
day
on Monday. Tuesday 10/31 is currently our next planned outing - classic
mid-Fall migration weather with temps in the 40's, mostly sunny skies
and
NW winds around 6 mph. This should get many of the remaining birds
moving.
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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