[Maine-birds] Fwd: Bradbury Mountain State Park (03 May 2018) 81 Raptors

Bradbury Mountain State Park
Pownal, Maine, USA

Daily Raptor Counts: May 03, 2018
Species	Day's Count	Month Total	Season Total
Black Vulture	0	0	0
Turkey Vulture	0	0	564
Osprey	2	27	302
Bald Eagle	0	1	76
Northern Harrier	1	2	80
Sharp-shinned Hawk	27	79	421
Cooper's Hawk	0	6	75
Northern Goshawk	0	1	7
Red-shouldered Hawk	1	2	78
Broad-winged Hawk	31	313	1541
Red-tailed Hawk	0	3	187
Rough-legged Hawk	0	0	0
Golden Eagle	0	0	0
American Kestrel	16	55	297
Merlin	2	7	43
Peregrine Falcon	0	0	2
Unknown Accipiter	0	0	7
Unknown Buteo	0	2	8
Unknown Falcon	0	0	1
Unknown Eagle	0	0	0
Unknown Raptor	1	9	24
Total:	81	507	3713

Observation start time:	08:00:00
Observation end time:	16:00:00
Total observation time:	5.25 hours
Official Counter	Zane Baker
Observers:	Derek Lovitch

Visitors:
6 Visitors

Weather:
Another warm and muggy day. An evenly distributed layer of clouds covered the region for the morning hours, blocking some of the sun's strength. Winds remained calm, and barely detectable. Temps climbed to about 80 degrees. Visibility remained clear, with a slight haze. At 12:45 EST rain moved in and shut down the watch for a couple of hours. I returned to the mountain for the final 90 minutes of the count period after the rain cleared the area. The air was thick with moisture, and visibility had been reduced to a few miles. Temperatures had dropped by about 10 degrees. Winds remained calm.

Raptor Observations:
Not a bad day of counting, considering the weather we experienced. With more cloud cover and likely fewer thermals today, birds were traveling at a more moderate height, which made spotting and identification a little easier. Local birds continue to display and vocalize around there respected territories. About one dozen Turkey Vultures provided entertainment in the afternoon hours, circle around the summit at eye level, pumping their massive wings to stay aloft.

Non-raptor Observations:
There was a pretty decent movement of passerines this morning. Quite a few small, likely warblers, were continuing to shift around in the morning hours. As we progress into the early part of May, we continue to see or hear new species for the season. Today those new arrivals were: Eastern Kingbird Cliff Swallow Blackburnian Warbler Other species deemed migrating include: 73 Double-crested Cormorants 47 Tree Swallows 17 Warbler Spp. 14 Yellow-rumped Warblers 9 Blackbird Spp. 9 Barn Swallows 3 Brown-headed Cowbirds 3 Common Loons 2 Great Blue Herons 1 Palm Warbler 1 American Goldfinch 1 Eastern Kingbird

Predictions:
Winds tomorrow should be relatively light, out of the W and SW, but there is a decent chance of rain throughout the day, with possible thunder storms in the afternoon. Temperatures will drop back down to around 60 degrees for a high.

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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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