[Maine-birds] Fwd: Bradbury Mountain State Park (25 Apr 2019) 486 Raptors

Bradbury Mountain State Park

Pownal, Maine, USA

Daily Raptor Counts: Apr 25, 2019
Species	Day's Count	Month Total	Season Total
Black Vulture	0	0	0
Turkey Vulture	0	233	573
Osprey	18	363	364
Bald Eagle	2	27	72
Northern Harrier	11	131	137
Sharp-shinned Hawk	128	469	484
Cooper's Hawk	5	36	55
Northern Goshawk	0	2	3
Red-shouldered Hawk	2	42	95
Broad-winged Hawk	227	2677	2677
Red-tailed Hawk	12	87	181
Rough-legged Hawk	0	0	2
Golden Eagle	0	0	0
American Kestrel	61	403	429
Merlin	17	52	57
Peregrine Falcon	0	1	2
Unknown Accipiter	0	2	3
Unknown Buteo	0	3	5
Unknown Falcon	1	4	6
Unknown Eagle	0	0	0
Unknown Raptor	2	11	12
Total:	486	4543	5157

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, Don Thompson, Jessica Costa

Visitors:
We had a few more visitors to the summit today including a group of 11 people, eight of whom were students from the Chewonki's Junior Master Naturalist program. They came prepared with notebooks and binoculars writing down many of their observations. Derek spent a good deal of time talking to them about the hawkwatch project, bird migration and how we go about identifying these birds, fielding questions being asked along the way. A total of 34 people stopped by today.

Weather:
Today started out in the mid 40s with overcast skies and a very light breeze from the ENE. Cloud cover increased throughout the day until about 2:30 pm when skies became mostly clear with lots of very welcome sunshine. Temps climbed until the final hour, reaching a high of about 54. Today's winds were pretty light and shifted in there origin of direction. At the summit we experienced ESE to begin the day, a little time with some NW and W, until early afternoon when wind speed started to increase and settled in from the ESE and SSE. Visibility was very good except for heat distortion at greater distances.

Raptor Observations:
These birds are determined to move north even if conditions aren't ideal. We had another spectacular day of counting with a great mix of species. Yesterday was for the Broadwings and today was for everything else who didn't get their chance to shine. Without a consistent wind direction birds were scattered around, with only some minor flight-lines developing. A lot of birds we strained to see, and I lost a couple in the heat distortion. A couple of small kettles formed from time to time but didn't have many more than five or six occupants at most. Late in the day an Eagle was spotted harassing an Osprey, presumably trying to get it to drop its hard earned catch, a nice sized fish (species unknown). The Osprey came in over the summit vocalizing and flapping frantically, gaining a little lift. The Eagle was in hot pursuit, pushing the red-line as it tried desperately to gain altitude towards the Os'. The Eagle just couldn't gain lift fast enough and the Osprey made a clean getaway.

Non-raptor Observations:
More Cormorants continue to move through, with a a few more than one hundred being counted today. Many of the southbound Tree Swallows we had been seeing heading back south over the previous week were now making a return, this time in the company of a few Barn Swallows. Throughout the day there appeared to be a nice migration of American Goldfinches, which were often seen or heard as they passed by the summit.

Predictions:
Tomorrow may feel chilly, with temps just breaking into the 40s and probably not much if any sun. Clouds are likely to cover the sky as some more rain approaches. Precipitation potential increases throughout the morning with a likely chance of rain by noon and showers from there on out. Winds look to be consistent but from the SE at around 10mph possibly increasing by the end of the count period. Considering the good days we've had with less than ideal conditions, I guess I wouldn't be too surprised if we see a good push of birds out in front of the rain, quartering into the SE wind.

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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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