[Maine-birds] Fwd: Bradbury Mountain State Park (09 May 2018) 31 Raptors

Bradbury Mountain State Park
Pownal, Maine, USA

Daily Raptor Counts: May 09, 2018
Species	Day's Count	Month Total	Season Total
Black Vulture	0	0	0
Turkey Vulture	0	0	564
Osprey	5	52	327
Bald Eagle	0	1	76
Northern Harrier	1	5	83
Sharp-shinned Hawk	1	122	464
Cooper's Hawk	1	7	76
Northern Goshawk	0	2	8
Red-shouldered Hawk	0	2	78
Broad-winged Hawk	14	385	1613
Red-tailed Hawk	1	6	190
Rough-legged Hawk	0	0	0
Golden Eagle	0	0	0
American Kestrel	3	75	317
Merlin	3	17	53
Peregrine Falcon	2	3	5
Unknown Accipiter	0	1	8
Unknown Buteo	0	2	8
Unknown Falcon	0	0	1
Unknown Eagle	0	0	0
Unknown Raptor	0	10	25
Total:	31	690	3896

Observation start time:	08:00:00
Observation end time:	16:00:00
Total observation time:	7.83 hours
Official Counter	Zane Baker
Observers:	Dave Fensore

Visitors:
26 people stopped by the hawkwatch today, including 7 people from Portland's Adult Education, English for Speakers of Other Languages program. A few people from the program we're able to witness two Eagles soaring together, with the help of my scope, which really seemed to make their day, which helped make my day.

Weather:
Another blue sky day atop the mountain. The sun was shinning bright for the entire day. The only clouds in sight were holding steady offshore, along with a pretty dense bank of fog, which began to eat up parts of Yarmouth, Freeport, and Harpswell by the end of the day. Wind in the morning was from the E, but quickly switched to more SE and SSE. Wind speeds increased significantly by early afternoon before taming down again for the last hour. Heat shimmer was at it's worst today. Temps were comfortable, in the 60's.

Raptor Observations:
The day started out on the right foot. Just before the first hour closed out, I spotted a backlit Falcon, cruising low over Little Bradbury ridge. It took me a second to realize I was staring at a Peregrine, the first bird of the day. The bird moved off to the east, circled a few times, before disappearing behind the trees to the north. Not the greatest look at this time of day but a Peregrine nonetheless. In the past, I've partially joked about SE winds blowing Peregrines further inland for us to see, and today, the SE wind may have been a contributing factor, considering we tallied greater than 50% of our site's ten year average for the birds, during today's count. Later in the day I was watching, through my scope, what appeared to be a small falcon. Something seemed different about it however. The bird dove on another bird, which was a Broad-wing, and the two birds together, appeared to be of similar size. There went my small Falcon theory. The bird dropped below the horizon line, making it difficult to track. I lost sight a few times before picking it up again to the east. The bird came back up above horizon to soar in a thermal, showing it's distinctive candlestick wing shape. The bird appeared mottled brown, or two-toned above, making me think this was a younger bird. In the final hour and a half of the day, Dave Fensore picked out a bird coming towards us from the WSW, this time backlit by the afternoon sun. I spent a few seconds trying to find the bird against the blue sky backdrop. Once I found the silhouette I admittedly tried to turn it into a Kestrel, then a Merlin, before realizing it was our third Peregrine of the day. The bird eventually passed directly overhead and circled relatively low over the pine trees to the east, now beautifully lit up by the afternoon sun. Thanks to Dave for the assist. There are now more immature Broad-wings coming through, finally. Just after finishing my lunch, a small cluster of 3 immature Broad-wings and an immature Coop all zipped by in single file, directly over the summit. Another nice moment was having an adult Eagle and a Merlin soaring together over the summit. This particular Merlin kept to itself, not seeming to mind sharing the airspace with another bird. Today was a good day.

Non-raptor Observations:
No new arrivals to speak of today. There were 41 species seen or heard from the summit. It wasn't a bad day for Common Loons moving inland, as we saw 7 passing by the mountain. I was hoping for them to hit double digits. So close.

Predictions:
Tomorrow may start out with more dense fog, similar to today. Fog should burn off rather quickly, giving way to partly cloudy skies, with temps around 60 degrees. Wind may be stiff, from the SSE at around 10-12 mph, bringing with it some cooler ocean air.

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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]

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