[Maine-birds] Fwd: Bradbury Mountain State Park (03 Apr 2019) 47 Raptors

Bradbury Mountain State Park
Pownal, Maine, USA

Daily Raptor Counts: Apr 03, 2019
Species	Day's Count	Month Total	Season Total
Black Vulture	0	0	0
Turkey Vulture	32	65	405
Osprey	2	3	4
Bald Eagle	2	4	49
Northern Harrier	2	5	11
Sharp-shinned Hawk	2	5	20
Cooper's Hawk	2	2	21
Northern Goshawk	0	0	1
Red-shouldered Hawk	1	2	55
Broad-winged Hawk	0	0	0
Red-tailed Hawk	0	10	104
Rough-legged Hawk	0	0	2
Golden Eagle	0	0	0
American Kestrel	3	8	34
Merlin	0	0	5
Peregrine Falcon	0	0	1
Unknown Accipiter	0	0	1
Unknown Buteo	0	0	2
Unknown Falcon	0	0	2
Unknown Eagle	0	0	0
Unknown Raptor	1	1	2
Total:	47	105	719

Observation start time:	09:00:00
Observation end time:	16:00:00
Total observation time:	6.92 hours
Official Counter	Zane Baker
Observers:	Dave Fensore

Visitors:
Only 4 visitors made it to the watch today.

Weather:
Today turned out quite differently than predicted. I didn't expect to be on the mountain for more than a couple of hours, if at all. A winter mix of snow which turned to rain postponed the start by about an hour, at which point I thought there could be a couple hours of counting before the wind advisory came into affect. The wind advisory started at noon but the wind never showed up. Technically, the count is stopped during advisory conditions but leaving when it's calm and sunny seemed inappropriate. The strong winds finally arrived with ten minutes left in the day. As it turns out, today was arguably the nicest day yet. Plenty of sun with temps in the mid 40s. Visibility was good until the final hour when heat distortion became extremely bad.

Raptor Observations:
Birds didn't start to move until the start of the fourth hour. Turkey Vultures made another good push today. Birds were pretty spread out around the mountain, some high, some low, some fast, some slow.

Non-raptor Observations:
Another quiet day at the summit. Only a few species were seen moving north which included: 165 Common Grackles 11 American Robins 2 Blackbird Spp. 1 Red-winged Blackbird 1 Killdeer 1 Canada Goose

Predictions:
Tomorrow is again, predicted to be very windy but not quite as bad as what we'll experience during this evening or the overnight. Gusts may reach into the mid 30mph range. 18-20mph winds from the NW are predicted for most of the day. High pressure should bring plenty of sun and mild temps in the low 40s.

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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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