[Maine-birds] Fwd: Bradbury Mountain State Park (05 May 2018) 22 Raptors

Bradbury Mountain State Park

Pownal, Maine, USA

Daily Raptor Counts: May 05, 2018
Species	Day's Count	Month Total	Season Total
Black Vulture	0	0	0
Turkey Vulture	0	0	564
Osprey	1	37	312
Bald Eagle	0	1	76
Northern Harrier	0	4	82
Sharp-shinned Hawk	3	107	449
Cooper's Hawk	0	6	75
Northern Goshawk	1	2	8
Red-shouldered Hawk	0	2	78
Broad-winged Hawk	10	351	1579
Red-tailed Hawk	2	5	189
Rough-legged Hawk	0	0	0
Golden Eagle	0	0	0
American Kestrel	2	67	309
Merlin	1	9	45
Peregrine Falcon	1	1	3
Unknown Accipiter	1	1	8
Unknown Buteo	0	2	8
Unknown Falcon	0	0	1
Unknown Eagle	0	0	0
Unknown Raptor	0	9	24
Total:	22	604	3810

Observation start time:	07:00:00
Observation end time:	16:00:00
Total observation time:	9 hours
Official Counter	Zane Baker
Observers:	Dave Fensore

Visitors:
55 people and a whole lot of dogs, plus a few horses, stopped by today.

Weather:
Winds, from the W, were strong at the start of the day, but subsided rather quickly. The trees around the summit may have blocked some of the wind, changing our perception of what was happening locally, given the fact that some nearby weather stations continued to report winds in the teens, and gusting into the 20's. The sky was relatively clear for most of the day, making for tough spotting. In the afternoon a few more Cirrus moved in which seemed to aid in the detection of a couple birds. Temps were pleasant, in the low 70's.

Raptor Observations:
Early on, I was watching a local Cooper's Hawk doing a display flight right in front of the mountain. The bird approached the summit, vocalizing and making deep, stiff wing-beats before slipping into the trees. A second later, another Coop came in from over my shoulder, tucked it's wings and dropped into the tangle of swaying branches, and began to pursue the first bird. The chase was on, and both birds maneuvered at high speed through the branches, in and out of the trees around the top of the mountain. During the pursuit, an Eastern Phoebe left it's perch at an inopportune time, finding itself directly between two fast moving Acciptiters. The Phoebe let out what may have been bird profanity and hastily retreated to cover.

Non-raptor Observations:
The species list was very low today, but we did have a couple new arrivals for the season, a Ruby-throated Hummingbird, and a Nashville Warbler. 2 black flies were detected traveling south, down my gullet.

Predictions:
As long as the predicted rains hold off for a while, tomorrow could be okay. The chance of rain increases slightly as the day progresses, but accumulation estimates remain extremely low. Winds should be from the SW, which would be awesome. Temps may be a little cooler than today, in the 60's. There should be more clouds in the sky tomorrow which could help us spot some birds, I hope.

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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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