Our second (or maybe third) ever May Rough-legged Hawk!
Bradbury Mountain State ParkPownal, Maine, USA
| Daily Raptor Counts: May 04, 2017 |
| Species | Day's Count | Month Total | Season Total |
| Black Vulture | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Turkey Vulture | 0 | 0 | 511 |
| Osprey | 12 | 15 | 327 |
| Bald Eagle | 0 | 5 | 75 |
| Northern Harrier | 5 | 5 | 177 |
| Sharp-shinned Hawk | 45 | 71 | 570 |
| Cooper's Hawk | 1 | 4 | 64 |
| Northern Goshawk | 0 | 0 | 7 |
| Red-shouldered Hawk | 0 | 1 | 125 |
| Broad-winged Hawk | 21 | 39 | 1342 |
| Red-tailed Hawk | 3 | 6 | 167 |
| Rough-legged Hawk | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Golden Eagle | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| American Kestrel | 1 | 3 | 421 |
| Merlin | 1 | 5 | 49 |
| Peregrine Falcon | 1 | 1 | 7 |
| Unknown Accipiter | 1 | 1 | 6 |
| Unknown Buteo | 0 | 0 | 6 |
| Unknown Falcon | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Unknown Eagle | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Unknown Raptor | 0 | 4 | 32 |
| Total: | 92 | 161 | 3891 |
| Observation start time: | 07:00:00 |
| Observation end time: | 16:00:00 |
| Total observation time: | 9 hours |
| Official Counter | Zane Baker |
| Observers: | Dave Gulick, Derek Lovitch, Julie Krasne, Mathew Gilbert, Mike Chace, Sea Mckeon |
Visitors:49 people came to the hawkwatch today, 32 of whom were from Acadia Academy in Lewiston Maine. The kids were polite and asked some good questions. Thanks to everyone who came up today.
Weather:A pleasant start to today's count. Abundant sun and warm temps. Clouds progressively filled the sky as the hours ticked by but remained high and thin. Winds increased in strength and shifted from the north-northeast to east-southeast bringing with them some cool ocean air. Visibility was good throughout the day.
Raptor Observations:A good day with birds coming through steadily. Birds appeared to be on edge today. Accipiters were seen multiple times attacking one another as they traveled north. Local birds were active, serving many eviction notices. At 3:15pm (EST) I looked up from my notes to see a large Buteo directly overhead. My initial impression was that this was a large dark bird. Having so many Turkey Vultures around my first thought was; is this a TV? Nope, too steady, wings seem fairly long, Harrier?, no the tail is too short. The width of the wings seemed somewhere between the two, plus the relative length of the tail made me think Buteo. By this time the bird had made one circle and presented a very dense dark belly band. Wrist patches were visible as well, but poor lighting and possibly a dark morph bird wasn't making them super apparent. This immediately gave me a small dump of adrenaline as my mind said Rough-legged! Despite having learned about birds from the best around I broke one of the cardinal rules, look at the bird while the bird is present. Since we don't see very many Rough-legged Hawks, I thought I should try to get some form of documentation of the bird.I made a rookie mistake and reached for my phone camera in an attempt to, at the very least, document the overall shape. My camera never picked it up. With the phone put away I watched as the bird flew away to the north-northeast; like a bad break-up and with a sinking feeling in my heart, all I could do was watch it go, and wish for it to change its mind and come back to me.
Non-raptor Observations:Not many non Raptor species were moving during the day today. A FOY Great Crested Flycatcher could be heard for the first couple hours of the count. 36 Species were seen or heard today.
Predictions:It's not very encouraging when the local weatherman says he'll be hiding under his desk at the weather office. Rain is expected tomorrow becoming heaviest in the afternoon. High temps may just break 50. Winds should be light at the start of the day from the southeast but could become strong later. There is a chance the count will be underway for a couple hours in the morning. I hope so.
Report submitted by Jeannette Lovitch (
freeportwildbird@yahoo.com)
Bradbury Mountain State Park information may be found at:
www.freeportwildbirdsupply.com/hawkwatch.asp
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