Observation start time: 08:00:00 Observation end time: 17:00:00 Total observation time: 8.43 hours
Official Counter: Brian Rusnica
Observers: Visitors: Tim Eddy; day hikers from Ashburnham, Jaffrey, and New York.
Weather: The NE wind was fresh this morning, and as forecasted, turned more eastward and eventually fading out to a light SE whisper by the end of count. Partly cloudy, with huge, beautiful cumulus puffs for the midday hours. Another nearly perfect late summer New England day out there!
Raptor Observations: A flurry of activity got started as soon as I began looking for birds this morning. Common Ravens were again the target of a local Cooper's Hawk, who was joined by juvenile Red-tailed Hawks and Turkey Vultures in a playful series of tail chases and sky surfing routines in the updrafts off the NE corner of the mountain. Broad-winged Hawks began to rise in small numbers off to the eastern side of Watatic. While we looked for forming kettles, a flash of blue grabbed our attention, as a male American Kestrel landed for a moment on the summit's rocky outcrop (a first for me!) before teeing up in the flat-top spruce. The Kestrel bobbed his head, seemingly waiting for the perfect moment to pounce on a locust, when a second flash, this one darker, buzzed over. A Merlin flushed the Kestrel and pursued him without mercy, until both disappeared to the south. A thrilling few minutes!
The bulk of the day was spent searching the dreamy cloud puffs for kettles and streams of Broad-wings. A few decent-sized groups emerged, but none larger than 50. Mostly it was streams of six or seven birds getting great lift but not necessarily the most productive wind. We had our first-of-season BLACK VULTURE in the morning, a sky-high solo bird drifting south, while later a pair appeared, seemingly following a band of Turkey Vulture for a short trip and eventually dispersing. Bald Eagles were especially prominent in the 10am EDT hour of the flight; we had a group of 4 and a group of 3 make their way past in quick succession, checking all the boxes for migratory behavior. In the later afternoon, we had 5 different Eagles in high glides back to the northeast, so 5 were subtracted from the migrant count. Another good showing for Sharp-shinned Hawk and Northern Harrier. The first Red-tailed Hawks making a case for migration were seen today, getting outrageous altitude and following some of the migrant Broad-wing streams. A Sharpie and Merlin made fiery passes on the decoy owl. Non-migrant Raptors: Turkey Vulture 24 Bald Eagle 10 Red-tailed Hawk 4 Red-shouldered Hawk 2
Non-raptor Observations: 3 Common Nighthawks zipped by over Blood Hill in the last few minutes of the count. Common Raven 12 Common Nighthawk 3 Herring Gull 1 Ruby-throated Hummingbird 2 Barred Owl 1 (Heard only)
Predictions: The forecast looks like a carbon copy of today; dry with light NE winds to start, turning E and eventually SE. Not many migrants were impeded today with the conditions. I would expect at least another triple digit flight tomorrow. ======================================================================== Report submitted by Brian Rusnica (<brian_rusnica...>) Mount Watatic information may be found at: http://www.massbird.org/emhw
