[Maine-birds] Fwd: Bradbury Mountain State Park (18 Apr 2019) 121 Raptors

Bradbury Mountain State Park
Pownal, Maine, USA

Daily Raptor Counts: Apr 18, 2019
Species	Day's Count	Month Total	Season Total
Black Vulture	0	0	0
Turkey Vulture	0	233	573
Osprey	10	197	198
Bald Eagle	0	22	67
Northern Harrier	3	84	90
Sharp-shinned Hawk	22	190	205
Cooper's Hawk	0	26	45
Northern Goshawk	0	2	3
Red-shouldered Hawk	3	36	89
Broad-winged Hawk	68	133	133
Red-tailed Hawk	2	65	159
Rough-legged Hawk	0	0	2
Golden Eagle	0	0	0
American Kestrel	10	161	187
Merlin	3	19	24
Peregrine Falcon	0	1	2
Unknown Accipiter	0	2	3
Unknown Buteo	0	2	4
Unknown Falcon	0	2	4
Unknown Eagle	0	0	0
Unknown Raptor	0	7	8
Total:	121	1182	1796

Observation start time:	08:00:00
Observation end time:	16:00:00
Total observation time:	8 hours
Official Counter	Zane Baker
Observers:	Dave Fensore, Derek Lovitch, Michael Boardman

Visitors:
Bradbury mountain seems like the place to be during this years school vacation week. Despite the cool and cloudy weather many people continued to venture by the watch site, including many curious kids with some darn good questions. 40 people in total stopped by.

Weather:
Subjectively, and relatively speaking, today was one of the coldest and uncomfortable days Iv'e had all season. The air was damp, the sky overcast, and by the afternoon a steady and strong SSE wind was blowing in off the ocean. Occasional pop-up showers threw a few drops my way as well but nothing of significance. The winter gear was pardoned from the moth balls for at least another day. The clouds, having prevented the sun from warming the ground and obscuring our view due to rising heat, provided us with excellent visibility today. Objects appeared closer and in super fine detail. A striking contrast to the viewing on days with clear skies.

Raptor Observations:
Due to the exceptional clarity today, many of the birds we identified probably wouldn't have even been seen on most days with any amount of sunshine. We were picking out Sharpies and Kestrels maybe a few miles away. Ospreys and Turkey Vultures we were looking at may have been out over the Harpswell/Brunswinck area or further. More Broadwings continue to trickle in. We still haven't seen any kettles yet but the conditions certainly haven't been conducive to riding the thermals. Many of the Broadwings were in powered flight today. A couple of times today we had a nice but quick look at a couple Merlins as they buzzed the tower, like small, feathered fighter jets.

Non-raptor Observations:
29 Species were seen or heard from the summit today. A couple first of year Yellow-rumped Warblers were first heard and later seen flying by. Late morning I spotted a dark mass moving slowly through a field in Pownal. It looked very large and dark with the naked eye, and it was. It was a displaying Wild Turkey showing off his attire, another first for the season. Before his departure in the afternoon Derek spotted another first for the season, a group of six shorebirds moving southwest. They were a group of Wilson's Snipe.

Predictions:
Tomorrow should be warmer than today, with temps climbing into the 60s. It's currently looking like a mostly cloudy day with a chance of some precipitation. Winds however, look good, from the SW in the low to mid teens. It should be interesting, it's mid April, there is rain in the forecast but the wind direction is ideal.

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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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