Observation start time: 09:15:00 Observation end time: 15:15:00 Total observation time: 6 hours
Official Counter: Rob Woodward
Observers:
Visitors: 55 visitors, a busy day at the hilltop. The best group was what I am certain could only be the Belknap Mothers & Infants Hiking Club. There were 6 or 8 of them, all the children were about 4 months old in packs on their mother's back. Did the mothers meet at the hospital 4 months ago and form a group?
Weather: What a fine day for a hawk watch! Clear skies followed by thin high cirrus by 10:00 am, allowing for better spotting conditions. Winds were mostly southerly and light, varying from the east to SE to South to SW, but mostly South, at times dead calm. Warm, 50 to 64 F.
Raptor Observations: Welcome to the 3rd spring hawk count at Alton Bay Hawk Watch. Not a huge flight considering the ideal conditions. All Broad-wings were in ones, twos, or threes, some flying very high at the limit of perception; do some fly even higher? Alton Bay Hawk Watch is the only systematic spring hawk watch in the state, who knows how many in the region. Many questions surround spring migration since there is so little data because nobody is watching. I'm watching. My first goal is to determine the peak of Broad-wing migration. We know it to the day for the fall migration but do we know it for spring? Over the next 3-5 years we should have an answer. The "eagle spuh" I'm almost sure was a Golden Eagle. But this would be a first record for Alton Bay and an important milestone for my county list so I'm leaving it off for lack of certainty. Maybe I'll see one tomorrow.
Non-raptor Observations: My first Mourning Cloak for the year and a probable Brown Elfin.
Predictions: Tomorrow's forecast calls for favorable SW winds, but possibly some AM showers but otherwise there should be a good flight. ======================================================================== Report submitted by Rob Woodward (<toucanrob...>)
