Incredible day in Western NC Wednesday
* Community One (Lenoir NC) 3827
* Grandfather Mountain NC 9737
* Pilot Mountain NC 2718
Grandfather reported
Most of the day, the birds were flying southwest, traveling mostly over Beech Mountain and Sugar Mountain to the west of the count site. Birds were flying often times below the horizon then rising above the surrounding peaks. Broadwings streamed in many small kettles between 2:00-5:00. Largest kettles of broadwings 2-600,1400,500; 3-1200, 4-4500. In the 4:00 hour, 4800 broadwings passed over in less than 30 minutes in one continuous stream of hawks. At one point the stream that formed over Beech Mountain stretched for 3/4 of a mile. Today was by far the best day ever recorded at Grandfather Mountain.
Pressure gradually began to drop around 2:00pm, about the same time major kettles began to appear.
