Observation start time: 09:00:00 Observation end time: 13:00:00 Total observation time: 4 hours
Official Counter: Levi Burford
Observers:
Visitors: Many folks weren't interested in what I was doing. A kid and his Grandpa asked what I was doing and so did another father who mentioned that they had missed their opportunity to visit Pack Monadnock last Fall.
There were several shifty-eyed, young twenty-somethings who seemed to be up to no good (as usual for Pitcher Mountain, a nice unsupervised area). But then I found out the reason for the shity-eyedness was that they were waiting to do some surprise documenting of a friend's marriage proposal. I guess I can support that type of shifty-eyeness. She said "yes" (amongst a lot of four-letter words).
Weather: It was a bit chillier than I expected with a bit of a breeze and blue skies turning cloudy by noon.
Raptor Observations: At the Northeast Hawk Watch Conference in March Trudy Battaly issued us the challenge to get out on April 20th and 21st as much as we could to get some data. She highlighted Pitcher as one of the sites that fell off the face of the earth in 2023. Well, I was able to make the long drive south for the weekend and put in some time at Pitcher on Sunday.
While the flight was not as strong as I had hoped, we did have some Broad-winged Hawks to view. I think that if it had remained sunnier the numbers would have picked up. Nevertheless, there seemed to be a steady stream coming with about 7 an hour. I think we should just extrapolate and consider that 7 will come per hour for the rest of the migration season...
Also observed were 4 Bald Eagles of varying ages, 2 territorial Broad-winged Hawks on either side of the mountain, and about 10 Turkey Vultures. All as non-migrants.
Non-raptor Observations: The usual suspects today, but I did hear a Common Loon calling from some water body down below. The Raven crew totaled 19 at most. Not a bad show.
Predictions: Meh, who knows? Probably famine, floods, droughts, insect invasions, bad guys doing naughty things, extinctions, etc.
I'm out for the year. Peace! ======================================================================== Report submitted by Levi Burford (<lbburford...>)
