[Maine-birds] Fwd: Bradbury Mountain State Park (01 May 2019) 68 Raptors

Bradbury Mountain State Park
Pownal, Maine, USA

Daily Raptor Counts: May 01, 2019
Species	Day's Count	Month Total	Season Total
Black Vulture	0	0	0
Turkey Vulture	0	0	573
Osprey	3	3	387
Bald Eagle	3	3	75
Northern Harrier	2	2	141
Sharp-shinned Hawk	11	11	529
Cooper's Hawk	2	2	64
Northern Goshawk	0	0	3
Red-shouldered Hawk	0	0	97
Broad-winged Hawk	38	38	2922
Red-tailed Hawk	2	2	187
Rough-legged Hawk	0	0	2
Golden Eagle	0	0	0
American Kestrel	3	3	441
Merlin	2	2	63
Peregrine Falcon	0	0	2
Unknown Accipiter	1	1	4
Unknown Buteo	0	0	6
Unknown Falcon	0	0	6
Unknown Eagle	0	0	0
Unknown Raptor	1	1	15
Total:	68	68	5517

Observation start time:	08:00:00
Observation end time:	16:00:00
Total observation time:	8 hours
Official Counter	Zane Baker
Observers:	Dave Fensore, Don Thompson

Visitors:
23 people came by today. Good questions from some genuinely interested people. It was a pleasure speaking with everyone.

Weather:
The day started off with blue skies and warm sun. By mid to late morning clouds started to roll in, but only temporarily, as there were some breaks, allowing more sun to hit the summit for longer than expected. The sky eventually filled in completely around midday and remained that way for the rest of the day. Winds were light and mostly from the W until about 2pm EST when it switched to a cold breeze from the S, dropping temps from about 55 back to 50 in a short time. Visibility was better in the afternoon with the cloud cover, as the morning sun created some heat distortion for us to contend with.

Raptor Observations:
Birds were scattered around the sky today, many of them out in front of us. A few birds were taking a different flightline than we typically see, starting out to the ESE and traveling towards the mountain heading NNW. Thermal production must have been good today since we were spotting birds in our binoculars appearing as specs well over our heads. Three of those spec birds were Eagles, and with the help of my scope I was able to determine they were immature birds. Each one came through separately on a similar line high above, moving from south to north without pause.

Non-raptor Observations:
31 species were seen or heard from the summit today. This morning saw the first noticeable migration of Blue Jays, a nice little cluster of 18 birds. Shortly after the start of the day Don Thompson spotted our first Blackburnian Warbler of the season flitting around in the Oak trees which surround the summit. Later in the day the bird became more vocal with a few more appearances.

Predictions:
The morning hours look wet which might delay the start of the count. Rain is predicted for the overnight and to continue through the morning, tapering of by midday. Temps will be on the cool side for this time of the season, with highs in the mid 40s locally. Winds look kind of nasty, from the ENE at about 10mph. Let's hope this prediction is totally wrong and we are able to get in some good hawkwatching.

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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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