[Maine-birds] Fwd: Bradbury Mountain State Park (11 Apr 2018) 61 Raptors

Bradbury Mountain State Park

Pownal, Maine, USA

Daily Raptor Counts: Apr 11, 2018
Species	Day's Count	Month Total	Season Total
Black Vulture	0	0	0
Turkey Vulture	6	356	560
Osprey	24	43	43
Bald Eagle	3	15	70
Northern Harrier	3	17	20
Sharp-shinned Hawk	8	49	70
Cooper's Hawk	1	12	33
Northern Goshawk	0	1	4
Red-shouldered Hawk	0	16	62
Broad-winged Hawk	0	0	0
Red-tailed Hawk	5	54	157
Rough-legged Hawk	0	0	0
Golden Eagle	0	0	0
American Kestrel	5	9	18
Merlin	5	11	14
Peregrine Falcon	0	0	0
Unknown Accipiter	1	1	2
Unknown Buteo	0	0	1
Unknown Falcon	0	1	1
Unknown Eagle	0	0	0
Unknown Raptor	0	1	3
Total:	61	586	1058

Observation start time:	08:00:00
Observation end time:	16:00:00
Total observation time:	8 hours
Official Counter	Zane Baker
Observers:	Dave Gulick, Rick Hartzell

Visitors:
22 visitors today.

Weather:
It was a pleasant start to the day, with little to no breeze, and plentiful sunshine. At noon, as though someone flipped a switch, the wind abruptly started blowing from the SE at a steady 20-25 mph. For the rest of the day, the wind would die down briefly,and then pick back up again. The scattered, wind-swept clouds made for great spotting of birds, high overhead. Before accounting for windchill, the high temp for today was a whopping 46 degrees.

Raptor Observations:
Pretty good diversity today, but Osprey take the cake for bird of the day, not seeming to mind the high winds. Around midday I witnessed an odd behavior by a second year Bald Eagle. The bird was flipping over, directly backwards, and then rolling off to one side, almost doing a complete flip. Iv'e never seen an Eagle invert itself quite like that, even when performing courtship displays, or defending against an attacker.

Non-raptor Observations:
An unkindness of thirteen Ravens approached the summit, high above, swooping, rolling and chasing each other. One of the Ravens split from the pack to interrupt courting Eagles, who didn't seem amused. The trees around the summit still remain relatively quiet.

Predictions:
Tomorrow morning appears to have some potential. Low cloud cover and possibly some WSW winds for a brief period, before changing to SE. Wind speed should be a little lighter than today, and temps should climb a few degrees warmer. There is a chance of precipitation in the afternoon, which would most likely be rain, in this area, but it doesn't seem to pose much of a threat to the hawkwatch, at the moment.

---

Report submitted by Jeannette Lovitch (freeportwildbird@yahoo.com)
Bradbury Mountain State Park information may be found at: www.freeportwildbirdsupply.com/bradbury-mountain-hawkwatch
More information at hawkcount.org: [Site Profile] [Day Summary] [Month Summary]

---