[Maine-birds] Fwd: Bradbury Mountain State Park (15 May 2019) 1 Raptors

And the season is a wrap!

Bradbury Mountain State Park
Pownal, Maine, USA

Daily Raptor Counts: May 15, 2019
Species	Day's Count	Month Total	Season Total
Black Vulture	0	0	0
Turkey Vulture	0	0	573
Osprey	0	49	433
Bald Eagle	0	6	78
Northern Harrier	0	13	152
Sharp-shinned Hawk	1	103	621
Cooper's Hawk	0	8	70
Northern Goshawk	0	0	3
Red-shouldered Hawk	0	1	98
Broad-winged Hawk	0	157	3041
Red-tailed Hawk	0	7	192
Rough-legged Hawk	0	0	2
Golden Eagle	0	0	0
American Kestrel	0	56	494
Merlin	0	27	88
Peregrine Falcon	0	1	3
Unknown Accipiter	0	2	5
Unknown Buteo	0	3	9
Unknown Falcon	0	1	7
Unknown Eagle	0	0	0
Unknown Raptor	0	7	21
Total:	1	441	5890

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

Visitors:
Today marks the end of the 2019 Bradbury Mountain Hawkwatch and my third season as the official counter. I should start by thanking Jeannette and Derek Lovitch of Freeport Wild Bird Supply for providing me with much of the knowledge and the opportunity of becoming a hawkwatcher. It has become a sizable part of my life over the years and I am still amazed and entertained with my time spent on the summit of Bradbury during spring migration. Secondly I thank Bradbury Mountain State Park for hosting us and providing us access to the summit so we can conduct this research. Also, over the past couple years we have received some donations from anonymous donors. So, thank you to them. If you enjoy hawkwatching and would like to lend a hand in keeping the site up and running, head over to the store and pick up one of the Spring Hawkwatch T-shirts, although you may not get to show it off much during this chilly season. This season started off with a bang. Our first few days we were well into the double digits, which is almost unheard of for this sight. On day two alone we hit 83 birds. This certainly gave the impression we were on a trajectory for a good season. However, this season was one of the most bizarre and maybe unexplainable seasons yet. Since much of migration is such a weather driven process, the fact that our season started strong was likely a result of the fair weather we had around the outset, some sunny days with southerly or westerly flow and few days of north and or east which is more of a headwind for northbound birds. The first couple of weeks of April started out about as expected, and we slowly started to see some triple digit days. On April 19, which is right around what's considered peak of migration we had our first big day, I mean really big, for this sight anyway. It turned out to be a new site record for a high day-count, ending with 1550 birds. The day started out very foggy and I was prepared for a slow day, but at 11am the fog started to lift and the wind swung around, now coming from the SW. The instant that occurred birds took flight and didn't let up. A bit of a surprise was the fact that we didn't expect such a big flight, given some of the weather forecasts, which did not seem to be very accurate throughout this season. The forecasts were one of the first things this year that had us scratching our heads. The second was why we were seeing birds on days when the weather wasn't ideal and why we were not seeing birds when the weather looked good. Our second big day, on 4/24 with 1066 birds occurred on a partial day of counting due to fog and drizzle with variable and ENE winds. On paper, this day never should have produced many birds, let alone over one thousand. There seemed to be many days similar to this throughout the season albeit with lower counts. Typically we tell visitors to look for a day with a little sun and some SW winds in the forecast if you want to increase your chances of seeing birds, however, this season seemed like an anomaly and those recommendations didn't hold true. People would come up on days that, historically would have produced birds, but they would often leave empty handed. Another point of confusion for us was why certain species appear well above average in terms of numbers and why some are still at or below average. When it comes to analyzing the the numbers, it's hard to make any sense as to what is happening to population size, since a single season is a snapshot in time and mostly an indication as to the seasons weather. With good weather you tend to see more birds. But, there are a couple things we might expect to see, which was the case for Broadwings and Sharp-shinned Hawks. These two species generally move through at the same time. This year we had almost twice as many BW's as our 11 year average and we were a little shy of average for Sharpies. If the weather was good enough for Broadwing why wasn't it good enough for Sharpies? Or has something happened to the Sharpie population? There are lots of questions. Some of the other birds we wonder about are Eagles and Red-tails. Eagles, from this site, are notoriously difficult to determine whether they are migrants or local birds. There are a lot of them in the surrounding area and they tend to roam far and wide. We may have more Eagles moving through than what our numbers show, but in an attempt to keep our data collection methods standardized year to year we finished this season right about on par for our sites average. Red-tails are another bird we may be too conservative with. Our numbers over the past couple of years appear to be dwindling and maybe we have been hesitant to count some of these birds, thinking they are part of the local pairs that are a common occurrence around the mountain. There are other theories as to why some of these numbers look skewed in certain directions but that is for a much longer winded post, and honestly, for someone with more expertise. But keep in mind how weather dependent migration is and how analyzing a bigger data set would be more telling. I think there is much more to learn about birds and the environment and the factors that play into the migration process. Despite being an odd season, we did have some highlights, like the two dark morph Rough-legged Hawks, one of which was right over the summit. We tend not to see these birds as they are typically further to the north when we get started, so two in one season was pretty awesome. The other remarkable thing was the big jump in Sandhill Crane sightings. We often see about 10 or so each year, but this season we saw 19 of them. Is the number of breeding pairs increasing in the state? Before wrapping up, there area couple of honorable mentions to make. This year I had lots of help from other hawkwatchers, some new and some seasoned veterans, but on the people who was there with me even during the slow and inclement weather days was Dave Fensore who proved to be a valuable player this season. Many more birds were detected due to his presence and ability to stay focused, rarely pausing from scanning the skies. The other person who is has caught the birding bug is Matthew Gilbert. A young up and coming hawkwatcher who at some point could take over my position. Matthew has been joining me for a few seasons now and his ID skills are getting better with each passing year. He often comes up to help after school, if only for a brief period, and always seems to enjoy the challenge of trying to find birds, which he definitely does. I certainly haven't forgotten all of the others who helped me this season. It was a good team effort, and I was pleased to see some friends return for another year and to have made some new ones. Thank you all, and happy birding.

Weather:
The final day of the 2019 season has officially ended but in terms of the weather it felt like it was just beginning. Temperatures remained unseasonably cool all day, with highs just kissing 50 degrees for a few minutes. A light breeze, mostly from the north, and dense cloud cover, helped keep the summit feeling cooler than it was. I ended this season with about the same number of clothing layers as when I started two months ago. The best part of today's weather was the great visibility which persisted for most of the count period. Distant landmarks and birds which on most days would never be detected could be seen in great detail.

Raptor Observations:
1 bird, that's it, just 1 for the last day of the season, and it wasn't it even a good look at it. The skies were as empty as we ever see them from atop The Brad. This was a slower day than most starts to the count period. Not only were birds not migrating but the local birds who are already on territory weren't displaying much or hunting. There were times were we could go for an hour without seeing a raptor of any kind, migrant or local. The most activity we saw occurred right over the summit, involving a pair of Osprey putting on a bit of a display, but once they left it was back to searching the dark ominous sky for any signs of life.

Non-raptor Observations:
Raptors weren't the only things staying below canopy level today. Song birds also took today as a day of silence. The woods were very quiet, especially compared to this day in previous seasons. Typically the surrounding area is full of life and bird song, a sure sign of spring. This afternoon was more quiet than most of my days in March. I was not able to add any new species to the day-list. Birds weren't just being quiet but they also were not being seen. The day started and ended quite cool, without any sun ever reaching the ground directly. That may have kept insects from mobilizing, which in turn may have kept some of the passerines from moving around to forage. If there's no food to obtain there isn't much point in wasting energy flying around just so some hawkwatcher can ooh an aah. My own interaction with insects, mostly Black Flies today, was minimal compared to warmer days we've had recently.

Predictions:
The weather still isn't looking great for pushing rarities or young Broadwings our way, but it never hurts to keep an eye towards the sky. You never know what you might find. Thanks everybody, Zane Baker

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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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